I Love To Ride!
I mean, to US….NOT here, not in my state!
It happened at the Sturgis South motorcycle rally in Sturgis, Mississippi the weekend of August 14-17.
I had teamed up for the third year in a row with the Baptist Biker Mission for this event. This was an association of concerned Christians of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, the Golden Triangle Baptist Association, and the Sturgisarea Baptist churches, primarily the SturgisBaptist Church and their wonderful pastor, Russel Mord. These fine folks gear up each year with all kinds of witnessing tools like Gospel tracts that the “bikers” would like, grease rags with the Good News printed on it, hand fans like we used to see at the old funeral homes, all with the Gospel printed on them, and “Baptist Biker Mission” pins for the leather vest that bikersloveto wear. Get the drift of what we had to hand out? We were handing out the GOSPEL, just in different ways. Of course, we also had Bibles (New Testaments) that were geared to bikers…..with the Gospel in them!
Here’s what we do: We had a training session on Thursday night where we got familiar with the “tools” that we had for this year’s mission, learn how to share the Gospel effectively AND safely with bikers, and we learned about the locations around the town of Sturgis thatBaptistBiker Missions people would be working. Then, on Friday morning, as the bikers began to roll into town, we get out there and maned our various stations around town. We had free water to give away (its usually very hot and free water is always a biggie. And oh by the way, we have the Gospel printed on the water bottles!). We also begin to simply walk around town and visit with the folks who’ve made it to Sturgis for this annual big time biker event! As we HANDED OUT THE “TOOLS” WITH THE GOSPEL PRINTED ON THEM, including the small New Testaments, we would share Christ and “witness” to the folks about His love for them.
Here’s why I’m sharing all of this with you: The Sturgis Police began to stop our “witness-ers” and threaten them with arrest if they didn’t stop handing out the Gospel materials. They claimed that they had directives to do so by the mayor of the town. When one of the gentlemen who had been stopped confronted the mayor about this, he said that the town had an “ordinance” that prohibited the handing out of anything by anyone.
I’ve had the privilege of doing a lot of what I call “street ministry” over the years. In the year 2000, I carried a 12 foot wooden Cross in as many towns and cities of my home state as I could, all as a part of Mission America’s, “Celebrate Jesus2000″. I’ve NEVER had any trouble in my street ministry, with the exception of the University of Southern Mississippi during the Mississippi Crosswalk, as I called. They threatend to throw me off the campus. They claimed that the Cross was blocking the sidewalk and that the issue of separation of church and state came into play!
I’m telling you this because Southern used some of the same arguments that the mayor of Sturgisused, as I’ll share in a minute. At that time I checked with the lawyers from the American Family Association, and as I believed, they confirmed that the school’s actions were illegal as addressed by the Supreme Court of the United States. But at the time, I had a mission to complete and didn’t have time to get arrested, fight the court fight, etc. I complied and left Southern’s campus, but not without first in prayer, turning the school over to the Lord for His discipline. (It’s an interesting fact that shortly after all of this took place, the school’s president had to resign, and the school went through some tough days and some embarrassing situations. I firmly believe the Lord “spanked” them for running the Cross off campus!!) Other than this one experience, I’d never had any kind of persecution from witnessing or street ministry.
That, however, was about to be changed on this fateful weekend in Sturgis!
A couple of former church members owned the resturant where I decided to plop down and eat supper Friday night. The owner, whose name also is “Buster”, came and sat at my table and asked, “Have you heard? They’re arresting people for witnessing!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! He told me that the mayor had ordered it so. “Who is the mayor?”, was my next, obvious question. I found out that he owned the hardware store next door to the restuarant. So, here I went!
I prayed and I tried very hard to be calm, courteous, and as Christ-like as possible because I knew that I was not only representing the Lord, but all of the Christians who were in town to witness that weekend. Imet the mayor, who was a very nice and courteous man. I asked about the conflict. He acknowledged that two had been stopped and that they would be enforcing a new ordinance that prohibited us from witnessing.
Here’s the argument that the mayor made: “When you people hand out your stuff, the people you’re having to talk to have to stop, the people behind them have to stop, and before you know it, there’s a blocking of the free flow of traffic on the sidewalk. Therefore, we’ve said that no one can hand out anything on the sidewalks or streets of our town. We’re not just picking on Christians, we’ve said no one, can hand out anything!” (That’s not an exact quote, but it’s close enough to be a truthful representation of what he said to me.) Well I had several problems with the “ordinance” and the premise upon which it was based. First of all, according to the mayor’s argument, one could not stop to speak to a friend that you’ve run into at the rally, or stop to look at a bike, or stop to scratch your nose…..for if the people behind you had to walk around you, stopped the “free flow of traffic” and thus have caused a disturbance! “No, that’s your interpretation, ” said Mr. Mayor. “Sounds like it’s yours,” I retorted in Christian love! Secondly, I have a problem with any such “ordinance” because it violates at least two of my constitutional rights: The freedom of speech right and the prohibition of legislators from creating any law that prohibits the free exercise of religion. Third, being a street minister with several street minister friends (Arthur Blessitt, Keith Wheeler, etc) I know from their and other’s experience that the Supreme Court of the United States had already ruled on this issue at least twice. They have set the precidence that as long as you don’t block a business, cause a disturbance or otherwise break the law, you can preach, hand out religious literature, etc, do whatever you want (in regards to what we wanted to do) on public property, of which streets and sidewalks are!
I said, “Mr. Mayor, you seem like a nice guy, and I promise you I’m not trying to be confrontational or smarty, but I’m trying to help you! You may not realize it, but your ordinance is illegal, according to the Supreme Court, and if you follow through with enforcing it this weekend, I can assure you that CNN, Fox Nws and many others will be HERE, Monday afternoon; because I WILL GET THEM HERE!”
I asked that if he was going to hinder my constitutional rights, I wanted to see a copy of the document that did so. I’m sure was a part of their public records. But he could never produce a copy. He kept telling me that it was at City Hall. His wife came over and handed him some papers, like she was giving him the legal documents. He took one look and said to her that, “No, these aren’t them”. He even went so far as to tell me that he didn’t pass the ordinance, that the city Aldermen did. He couldn’t even vote. It was their law. “Ok, tell me the names of those City Aldermen and I will be in contact with them tonight,” as I pulled out my pen and note pad. He couldn’t remember their names! He couldn’t remember the names of the city aldermen that passed a monumentally, constitutionally questionable law!? Ok. I asked if we could get together the next morning as the city hall opened up to get a copy of that ordinance? He agreed. I got ready to leave.
“Can I have a card with your name on it?” He asked. I don’t know if he thought he would use my info in some sinister way, he really wanted to remember me. “Sure, I’ve got four cards with me tonight. A church biz card, a Christian Motorcyclists card, and two Sheriff’s department’s cards. I’ll be glad for you to know anything you need to know about me.” He took my cards and I left.
I made a bee-line to the home of the SturgisBaptist pastor, Russell Mord. Russell, several members of his church, and his dad were in his front yard when I found them. “Did you guys hear?” I shouted. Yes they had…what did I know….had I talked with anyone……WOW, did he give you a copy of the ordinance? I knew a good bit, yes I talked with the mayor, and no, he did not give me a copy!
I just love the providence of God, don’t you? It just so happened that Russell’s dad, who was visiting from out of town that weekend to see the rally, was, as well as a Godly, Christian brother, a lawyer! He asked Russell if he wanted him to go and ask for a copy of the ordinance? Yep, here we go, all loading up and heading back to the mayor’s office again!
This time, we let Russell’s dad do the talking. Do you have a copy of the ordinance? No, not here. Do you know that you’re restricting two constitutional rights? Maybe so, maybe not. Do you have a city attorney? Yes. I’d advise you to call him tonight! Silence. Do you own this store, Mr. Mayor? Yes I do. You do realize that there might be some personal liability involved as well, don’t you? Silence again. We thanked him for his time and agreed to meet him at 8 am the next morning at city hall. There, he would gladly give us a copy of the legal document that was going to try to restrict the sharing of the Gospel in little ole Mississippi!
The next morning, we elected to have the attorney, the church pastor, and the Associational DIrector of Missions for the Golden Triangle Baptists, to be the ones to meet with the mayor at city hall. There, he admitted that there was no document (oh, I just can’t find it in the books….) and rightfully, apologized to the group. The group, being more Christ-like than I could have generated on my own, thanked the mayor for his time and consideration, and then gave him their forgiveness. They also informed him that we would be witnessing as led by the Lord, though we will avoid blocking the sidewalks or streets, which we were trying not to do to start with.
To Try To Sum It Up:
This was almost a surreal experience for me. I’d read about encounters like this, but, with the exception of that one time at Southern’s campus, I’d never been a part of anything like it. I couldn’t believe that we were having our witnessing freedoms hindered, openly, defiantly here in Mississippi, the heart of the Bible belt! But here’s what hurt me the most: Many of the other Christians that were there witnessing with groups other than our own, felt that we should “obey” the mayor’s laws, not fight him or the law, but do as he says. One state leader of another Christian group TOLD ME that, “he’s the law. If he says we can’t do it, then we have to stop. We can’t fight him!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! They were so ready to simply lay down and give up our freedoms and liberties without even trying. I cried. I prayed. I asked God if I was wrong to pursue changing this? The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said that this was one of the reasons He brought me to Sturgis this year! One lady who was a member of this other group, even shouted out at me, “You shouldn’t go off down there acting like a hot head!” after I had told her and othersof my conversation with the mayor. (I promise you that I had gone out of my way NOT to be hot headed or confrontational!) I was hurt that she had characterized my actions in this way. I noticed members of her group huddling up together, looking my way and whispering. I felt betrayed. I felt ashamed that they wouldn’t want to fight for their freedoms to witness for Christ. Listen, if you have to be reminded to remain gracious, loving and Christ-like, then something’s wrong, and I understand that! But understanding that, we must remember there ARE some hills upon which it’s ok, even desirable, to die on for the Lord. And I had determined that this one was about as desirable as it gets.
I want to thank Russell Mord and his dad, Dan Robertson of Golden Triangle Association, and the others who were willing to stand up to the mayor. Thank you guys for your faith and boldness, and for letting me be a part of it all. You were willing to call him on this thing that could have been tragic, and all because of a bluff! What would the town have done if those two police officers had actually arrested those witness-ers? There would have been no ordinance upon which to have made the arrest. They would have been liable for false arrest and imprisonment! I have to believe that the mayor simply did not understand the terribly dangerous ground upon which he stood in this matter.
This was truly a tragic and sad day in our state. But, as always, God got the glory due HIs Name! In the end, righteousness prevailed. I’m humbly proud to say that I had a chance to play a role in the matter. I’d do it again without hesitation. If we had played the meek and mild (unbiblically so) and layed down our rights to freely share the Gospel, we might not have been able to pick them back up again. I for one, was simply unwilling to let go of those precious freedoms.
My brother-in-law jokingly said, “It wouldn’t do for the pastor of Friendship to go to jail!”, to which I replied, “If I go to jail for sharing the Gospel, I’ll wear it like a badge of honor.”
I know that YOU would have, too!
Blessings.
