Thought Police: Protecting the People from Prayer

But now, in the wake of an amendment to the Public Order Act which mandates protest-free “buffer zones” around abortion clinics in England and Wales, we have witnessed several instances of government authorities literally attempting to police thought. And sadly, this has happened not in China, North Korea, or Iran, but in the UK, a supposed bastion of democracy and the rule of law. In the past two years or so, at least three people have been arrested for engaging in silent prayer, without saying a word out loud, in the vicinity of an abortion clinic. One of these people has been arrested twice for her ‘crime.’ Others have been harassed by police, but not arrested. So far, all of them have been vindicated, eventually declared innocent of having committed any crime. But the mere fact that police have been able to question anyone’s right to pray—not only aloud but silently—gives us more than just a taste of dystopia. Read Full Article »