We live in interesting times.
Back in 2021, ideologically motivated onlookers in Leeds,
West Yorkshire reported a forty-two year old street preacher to the Joint Counter
Terrorism Team, resulting in his arrest. The
Daily Mail did not specify the offenses with which David McConnell was
charged and for which he was eventually convicted, but made reference to “harassment”
and “illegally espousing an extreme point of view”. I missed the story at
the time, but McConnell appealed his conviction last week, putting him back on
the front pages for a moment.
What did this Christian “extremist” do? According to
witnesses, McConnell quoted 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 in the presence of a
man dressed up as a woman, and repeatedly referred to him as “this gentleman”
and “a man in woman’s clothing”, which the gentleman in question
apparently found distressing.
In short, McConnell stood up for objective reality. That
shouldn’t be such a hard sell, should it?