A district judge in Northern Ireland has convicted an elderly pastor of breaking the country’s abortion buffer zone laws by preaching a sermon on John 3:16 on a public sidewalk across from a hospital.
Retired pastor Clive Johnston, 78, the former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, was convicted on two criminal counts and fined £450 (British pounds) for a July 2024 sermon he delivered on the fringes of a buffer zone near Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital. He is charged with “conducting a protest” that could influence a “protected person” and failing to comply with orders to leave, according to U.K.-based Premier Christian News.
Johnston called the conviction “a dark day for Christian freedom.” He is represented by The Christian Institute, which said in a news release that Johnston “had no banners or placards, and made no mention of—or allusion to—abortion during his preaching.”
“We held a small, open air Sunday service near a hospital,” Johnston said in a statement following the verdict. “We made no reference whatsoever to the issue of abortion. And yet the buffer zones law is so broad that holding a Sunday service has been found to be a criminal offence. And at 78 years of age I find myself, for the first time, convicted of a crime.
“If someone is out there causing trouble, stirring up violence, harassing or verbally attacking people, then, absolutely, go ahead and prosecute them,” Johnston said after the verdict. “But I wasn’t doing any of those things as the police video shows and as everyone involved in this case accepts.”
Calling the ruling “creeping censorship,” Christian Institute Director Ciarán Kelly said options for an appeal are being considered.
“Despite assurances to the contrary when this legislation was being considered,” said Kelly, “we now see that an already controversial and deeply unjust law has now been selectively applied to criminalise Gospel preaching.”
In April, a U.S. State Department spokesman, speaking to the Daily Telegraph about the case, said, “The United States is still monitoring many buffer zone cases in the U.K., as well as other acts of censorship throughout Europe.
“The U.K.’s persecution of silent prayer represents not only an egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty, but also a concerning departure from the shared values that ought to underpin U.S.-U.K. relations.”
