By Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
May 8, 2001

(AgapePress) - A Christian attorney says the position taken by the nation's largest city regarding the Bible does not bode well for the future of religious liberty.

In a case pending in federal court in New York, a pastor is arguing for the right to display a billboard that carries a Bible verse. Pastor Kristopher Okwedy of Keyword Ministries paid for the billboard in Staten Island, New York. It carried a single verse: Leviticus 18:22 -- Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind ... it is abomination. Critics called it "hate speech," arguing that New York City's anti-bias policy prohibits any public expression of intolerance toward homosexuality. Other cities that have similar policies include San Francisco and Atlanta.

A reproduction of Pastor Okwedy's billboard in New York

The pastor's attorney, Michael DePrimo of the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (CLP), says the message in New York and other cities is clear: keep the Bible out.

"In the past few years, major cities have increasingly enacted legislation that bans all public expressions of perceived intolerance toward homosexuality," DePrimo says. "Because the Bible characterizes homosexual conduct as sinful, it too is unwelcome."

Okwedy's church was even the subject of a police investigation regarding its doctrine. According to the CLP, police questioned Okwedy's wife about the church's doctrine regarding homosexuality. Okwedy was not present at the time.

"But most alarming is the police investigation into the church's religious doctrine," DePrimo says. "It appeared designed to intimidate the church from speaking out against homosexuality in the future."

Attorneys for the billboard company called the Bible verse "confrontational" and "offensive" during oral arguments in the case.

© 2001 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines