September 16, 2001
Steve Mashburn
5 gentle Christians arrested for praising Jesus too loud
Friday evening, 160 Christians gathered for our Friday rally to pray and worship the Lord Jesus Christ on Bleckley Street where Tiller's abortion mill sits. It was a beautiful peaceful evening with perfect weather. Our portable sound system was moved up toward Kellogg an pointed north to avoid any noise problems with neighbors down the street. Furthermore, we had the volume turned down and monitored it with each person that spoke. It was just enough amplification for each in our group to hear (our purpose in using the amplification).
Also gathered there in Tiller's driveway were 10 pro-abortion people, besides paid staff Linda Burkhart and Rex Blair. They were there with no intent but to attempt to disrupt and annoy. Their loud boom box blared out old jazz music at a loud volume. Some heard it down the street as far as Orme Street. They even played it loud during the opening prayer that was mostly for those families with loved ones killed in Tuesday's attack. We ignored them as far as their taunts and kept our hearts on the Lord. We were there for a more solemn evening in view of the attack on America. Someone did finally call the police over the boom box as it would disturb neighbors and we were not there to compete with anyone.
Pastor Daniel Thompson welcomed everyone there even our 12 guests who need to be in the house of the Lord to hear truth and the Word of God. The worship team from Faith Community Church was there and began to lead us in worship. I was right by one of the PA speakers on the west while the vast majority of Christians sat on the grass along the East Side of Bleckley. The worship songs were accompanied with 3 acoustic guitars, only one of which was amplified.
After several songs in which I could always hear the boom box across the street blaring, the loud Jazz music stopped. That was nice. It wasn't much more than 5 minutes later that we all learned why the loud interference stopped. Several Wichita Police cars drove up and Daniel went down to speak with them. He returned and announced we would continue to worship without the amplification. This we did for a couple more songs. Then the police began to walk up to our worship team. They asked them to accompany them away from the group.
They not only arrested all 5 members of our worship team, the police officers confiscated their guitars, cases, a tambourine, microphones, cords and the PA system. Pastor Leon led in more prayer for families of victims, the police and our nation. Others led out in prayer one by one. It is unbelievable that rather than tell us to turn an already purposely low volume down or off, they arrested and took our 5 Christian brothers and sisters to jail over a city noise ordinance. The charge was Disorderly Conduct.
God moves at and in the jail
We made the decision to reconvene downtown outside the Sedgwick County Jail. Most of the Christians, over 125 gathered to pray, determined to stay until our brothers and sisters were released. Apparently the City is deathly afraid of the Church actually acting like Jesus and His followers in the book of Acts because a total of 18 police cars circled around and kept a close watch on us. It's astonishing that they would do this.
Pastor Daniel Thompson stood in the center of the quiet street by the jail preaching an anointed sermon on God's dealings with nations when the people refuse to repent. He stirs up nations around them to bring His judgment upon them. Daniel shared the pattern that is found all through the Bible.
"When a trumpet sounds in a city do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?" Amos 3:6
God even deals in this manner with His own people when they turn away from His laws and ways and refuse to listen to his prophets warning them in hopes that they would repent. God even spared the wicked city of Nineveh when they repented in weeping and fasting. God had told Jonah to tell them He would destroy the city in 40 days because of their wickedness.
God is a loving God but He is also infinitely just. Were God not to hold people in blatant sin and working injustice accountable, it would be a denial of His very character not to act to bring about judgment. Christians in America today seem to ignore the Bible where God even killed Ananias and Sapphira right in church for lying to the Holy Spirit.
God's dealings with His people are to warn us to repent. He then sends judgments to get our attention in hopes we His children will listen and return to His way which is always for our good. The problem in America is that while God has sent many warnings by His servants we have not listened. We have forced God's hand into bringing numerous judgments on our nation but we still have not returned to God. Innocent blood is shed, and now our President has opened the Pandora's Box of funding research on tiny humans at the stage each of us once were.
Finally, 4 of the worship team members were released on their own recognizance. Two of the young Christian ladies had been placed in a cell with 6 other women. Once there, they began to pray out loud. Then 3 of the 6 women began crying. Two of them prayed to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and the third prayed to rededicate her life to the Lord Jesus. Praise God!!!
We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 A short while later, Maurice was released.
The police told us there that the complaint came from a woman inside Tiller's mill and that the woman who called claimed "the music was so loud it was shaking the walls." If any of that were true, it wasn't music that "shook walls" and I'll give you one guess Who that was? It was impossible for the music to be that loud. I could hear the 150 Christians across the street directly in front of Tiller's walls as loud as the amplification.
According to what Police Sgt. Joseph Kennedy said in the Sunday Wichita Eagle, when he arrived to answer the disturbing a worship service call, the boom box was turned off but our worship team was leading the people in worship songs. Then one of the pro-abortion 12 told Sgt. Kennedy that they wanted to file a complaint against the worship team for disturbing the police.
It was fine when they could play their music with the sole motive was to disrupt us. The police still they think they did the right thing. One officer remarked to me, "The noise ordinance is enforced at the officer's discretion." The last I knew, we lived under a system of laws. Now we're told it is at a police officer's discretion. Pray for these police officers and those over them in the City. The next step is taking affidavits from those who attended and using our lawyers in court.
And some Christians question why God would send judgment at the hands of evil men on America.!?
The Wichita Eagle got it wrong again and misquoted Marshall Swor as saying our weekly rallies last 30 minutes each instead of the correct 1 hour and 30 minutes.
For the Wichita Eagle's blip on Friday night: 5 abortion opponents arrested for loud music
