Last October, a former British Army soldier, Adam Smith-Connor, was convicted of a new non-crime in Great Britain – silently praying. His story made international headlines. Adam, who served courageously in Afghanistan, became the first citizen in modern British history to be criminally convicted for his thoughts when praying silently near an abortion facility in Bournemouth, England. The Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court convicted and sentenced Adam to a conditional discharge (suspended jail sentence) and ordered him to pay prosecution costs of £9,000 (AUD$17,000). With the legal support of international Christian lawyers, Alliance Defending Freedom International, Adam is appealing the decision.
Adam was sentenced for praying about his own personal experience, and for the son he lost to his decision to pay for an abortion many years ago, which he has come to deeply regret. He was also praying for the men and women facing difficult decisions with regard to abortion that day. Adam stood with his back to the facility, so as not to be misconstrued as trying to disrupt the privacy of anyone there, and silently prayed. However, a local council by-law bans prayer as an “expression of approval or disapproval of abortion” on that public street. In his case, authorities argue that the ban also applies to silent prayer. The police arresting Adam would not have been able to arrest him if he had lied about what he was doing. When asked, he replied that he was silently praying for those facing the trauma of abortion, and for his lost son. He was arrested.
That’s all Adam did. And now, in Britain, according to a magistrates decision, silently praying is now a crime. Adam has a conviction to prove it. But nowhere on the statute books of Britain is prayer listed as a crime, or that even thinking a certain way, is a crime. This is ludicrous, of course. The courts are turning into thought crime “star chambers”. Prayer is never a crime, thinking is never a crime - and Adam is not a criminal.
Adam’s situation is not an isolated case. Earlier this year a judge dismissed criminal charges against a Glaswegian grandmother who was arrested for silently offering consensual conversation in a “buffer zone” (within a 200-metre zone around a local abortion clinic), in a significant victory for free speech. Judge Reid’s ruling, dismissed two charges of alleged “influencing” within a “buffer zone”, against Rose Docherty, aged 75. Mrs Docherty was the first person to be criminally charged under Scotland’s censorial 2024 “buffer zone” law. Mrs Docherty was arrested last September for peacefully offering to speak with people in the vicinity of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, in a “buffer zone”, and holding a sign that read: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want”. She did not approach anyone, did not speak about abortion, did not engage in any behaviour that was obstructing, harassing or intimidating, and was not protesting anything. It was all silent and non-coercive. No one complained. But zealous local police jumped straight on to her.
Her arrest sparked outrage in the UK and around the world, including from the Scottish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and from the US State Department, who described it as “another egregious example of the tyrannical suppression of free speech happening across Europe”. Her arrest was an act of censorship at best, at worst it was persecution. These are not isolated incidences in the UK or Europe. Pro-Palestinian protestors across the UK have openly and aggressively screamed their anti-Jewish hatred for the last two years as they have done here in Australia. None of this is considered criminal influencing or even hate speech – yet silent prayer is considered harmful and criminal influencing?
These incidents should deeply concern us. They are clear violations of freedom of expression, and far worse, freedom of thought.
Magistrate Reid in his ruling concluded that the prosecution had “failed to disclose an offence known to the law of Scotland” and dismissed the case pro loco et tempore, meaning the matter can be brought back if prosecutors can present actual evidence and decide that a prosecution continues to be “in the public interest”. And, of course, the prosecutor’s office has immediately lodged an appeal against the decision in a higher court.
And there it is, ladies and gentlemen – it is not about the law, it’s about weaponising the legal system so that the process of it – win or lose – is as damaging as possible. The process is the punishment. None of this is about justice. Behind the scenes in the spiritual realm the enemy is stalking Christians in order to destroy or ruin them or, failing that, silence them.
So what is our response to all this? One word – INTERCESSION.
When the Church stops interceding (and it has pretty much stopped in the last twenty years, or so, in this country) the same old demons get loose and start executing their evil plans all over again. Demons never die. There was a time, not that long ago, when the Church was so strong in intercession that this reflected in our society. Christians did their spiritual warfare due diligence – they came against principalities and powers and bound them. In response the Restrainer (Holy Spirit) enforced it all. But we are now seeing all over the Western world all the old demons getting loose again and unleashing evil. If it is not the ancient antisemitic demon that constantly seeks to destroy Jewish people, it is the demon of mammon (materialism) to whom we have built a sacred monument in Melbourne’s CBD – the Crown Casino. If it is not the spirit of anti-Christ now let loose and unrestrained, infecting our education system, it is Moloch, the ancient Canaanite demon who still demands worship through child sacrifice (abortion on demand) in our day – and we happily comply. I could go on and on here, but you get my drift.
Ephesians 6:12 (NRSV)
“For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
The weapons of such warfare against these invisible foes are spiritual and divine …
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)
“The weapons we (Christians) fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Our first response to these demonic forces now wreaking havoc on the Church and the world is INTERCESSION. Intercessory prayer has divine power to defeat and bind demonic personalities. The Church has this authority, but does not use it - it is a forgotten spiritual practice. We need to pick up this weapon once again and stop these demonic influences. When we aggressively intercede, Holy Spirit goes to work to restrain and prevent. We CANNOT sit around and lament the rise of evil in our society as we are seeing, especially when we are partly to blame. We’ve almost lost our saltiness … As I have said many times before in these pages, the people of God need to mobilise and intercede like never before. The only difference is that now it is more urgent than ever before. The thought police are already in our own society deploying their puppets, from the recently invented “Welcome to country” rituals imposed upon just about everything we try to do, to the introduction of hate speech laws which are actually a smokescreen for the real agenda – the silencing of the prophetic Christian voice.
2 Thessalonians 2:7 (NIV)
“For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the One who now holds it all back (Holy Spirit) will continue to do so till he (the lawless one who is coming) is taken out of the way.”
Until the lawless one is taken out of the way for good we INTERCEDE.
If you are interested in becoming part of a new intercessors ministry, drop me a line ASAP, or call me. This cannot wait a moment longer.
Ps Milton
[Sources: The Australian newspaper and ADF International website for Adam Smith-Connor and Rose Docherty details]