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When retired pastor Clive Johnston stood near a hospital in Northern Ireland and preached the gospel, he was not protesting, disrupting services, or confronting anyone. He was doing what he has done for decades—publicly proclaiming his faith. Yet that moment ended with criminal charges under the UK’s buffer-zone laws.
In this episode, we examine the Clive Johnston case and why it has become a defining moment in the debate over religious freedom, free speech, and the shrinking public square in Western democracies.
This is not simply a story about one man or one sermon. It is a story about how peaceful religious expression is increasingly treated as suspect—especially when it appears in public spaces. Buffer-zone laws were originally presented as narrow protections against harassment. Johnston’s case raises a harder question: when does regulating behavior become regulating belief?
We explore who Clive Johnston is, why his background as a long-time pastor matters, and how his prosecution signals a shift from managing conduct to policing content. We look at how Christianity, by its nature, is not a private faith but a proclaimed one—and why the idea of “believe whatever you want, just don’t say it publicly” represents a fundamental misunderstanding of religious liberty.
The episode also examines the broader implications. Across the UK, Canada, and parts of Europe, similar cases are emerging where Christians face legal consequences not for aggression, but for conviction. When preaching becomes punishable, the question is no longer about tone or location—it is about whether public faith is still permitted at all.
We discuss the chilling effect these cases create, how selective enforcement quietly reshapes behavior, and why silence from the wider Church may prove costly. Even believers who do not engage in street preaching should care about this case, because rights are rarely lost all at once. They are narrowed gradually, beginning with practices that are easy to dismiss or unpopular to defend.
This episode is not about endorsing a method of evangelism. It is about defending a principle: that peaceful religious speech belongs in public life. A free society does not protect only comfortable ideas. It protects contested ones.
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