Here is the text of the letter I sent to the Newsletter earlier in the week. I don't know whether it was printed unedited as I haven't seen the printed version yet:
Thanks to John O’Dowd on last week’s Hearts and Minds we now know why the new restrictions on open air services and protests have been proposed in the draft legislation on parades. These restrictions are proposed to placate nationalist resident groups who want a wider remit and more time to object.
Anyone organising an open air Gospel meeting or protest, where there is the prospect of more than 50 people in attendance, will have to give 37 and 22 working days notice respectively, while objectors will only have to give 7 days notice. How grossly distorted this arrangement is must surely be obvious to all right thinking people.
It says a lot about these proposals when they are receiving objections from the Human Rights Commission and the likes of Emmon McCann, hardly the frontline defenders of Gospel liberties!
It is a sad day when Gospel liberties and freedoms are so casually given up to feed the insatiable appetite of republicans who are long bent on the destruction of our way of life.
It should be clearly stated in the final legislation that open air religious services and non-parade related protests are totally exempt from these requirements even where they have more than 50 people.
I also preached on the subject Lord's day morning past when dealing with the Christian's attitude to the state in the aftermath of the general election.
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