The Texas city of Waco relented to a demand letter asking city officials to allow a pastor and his church members to share their faith in a public park after law officers removed them from the public space.
A pastor and four members of his church were engaging in consensual conversations about Christianity with attenders of an LGBTQ event held in a park known as Brazos Park East. The event, sponsored by Waco Pride Network (WPN), was a free and public event. However, officers from the Waco Police Department appeared and escorted them to a “free speech zone” about 50 yards from the event. One officer told the pastor that “protestors” were required to move under WPN’s permit, while another called the WPN permit “kind of like a business prohibiting unwanted activity.”
Seeking justice, the pastor and two invested pastors met with five Waco city officials. However, the city officials sided with the decision to remove the church from the park.
In May 2025, First Liberty Institute, a religious freedom legal center, sent a demand letter on behalf of the pastor, arguing that the city violated the pastor’s free speech and free exercise rights.
“Here, the City of Waco targeted Pastor Holmes’ activities precisely because of theirreligious nature,” the demand letter states. “Pastor Holmes’ Christian faith entails teachings on same-sex attraction that are anathemas to WPN. Enabled by the express language of the City’s policy, WPN compelled the City to impart a message of its own: ‘Your faith does not belong here.’”
The letter also argued that the city’s treatment of the pastor violated the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which bars government agencies from “substantially burden[ing] a person’s free exercise of religion.”
“The City has no legitimate, much less compelling, interest to justify banishing inconspicuous, one-on-one and small group conversations to a secluded zone simply because the presence of those conversations might make some guests ‘uncomfortable,’” the letter argues. “Nor can the forced removal qualify as the least restrictive means for addressing appropriate concerns.”
On July 9, First Liberty Institute announced that the city consented to the letter.
Nate Kellum, senior counsel at First Liberty, celebrated the win for free speech.
“We are pleased that the City of Waco now recognizes that Free Speech cannot be banished to an isolated speech zone simply because event permit holders and attendees do not like the message being shared,” said Kellum. “Pastor Ronnie Holmes and members of his church are grateful that their First Amendment rights have been upheld.”
