The disorderly conduct conviction of a Christian preacher who delivered a Gospel message in Salem, Mass., the self-described "Witch City," on Halloween one year ago is being appealed.
The Foundation for Moral Law, a religious liberties legal organization led by Judge Roy Moore, has filed a brief in the Massachusetts Appeals Court challenging the conviction leveled against Michael Marcavage of Repent America.
Marcavage was preaching peacefully with a megaphone, which is allowed by city rules, one year ago when police took it upon themselves to arrest him and silence his message.
A video of the encounter can be seen on YouTube:
The Foundation is arguing that under the Salem city code Marcavage had a right to use a megaphone until 10:00 p.m. as other businesses and street performers were being allowed to do.
The Salem Police Department's decision to shut him down and arrest him at 8:30 p.m. was "completely unwarranted and a violation of Marcavage's constitutional rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, and equal protections of the laws," the foundation said.
A trial court on March 10 found Marcavage guilty of disorderly conduct, but Foundation attorney Ben DuPré said the judge had to justify the guilty verdict by alleging Marcavage's preaching of the Gospel "could" have made the participants of the city's Mardi Gras-type Halloween festivities unhappy.
"In a city that treats Halloween like Mardi Gras," said DuPré, "the Salem judge essentially decided that the police could confiscate a Christian evangelist's megaphone simply because the drunken crowds later in the night might react badly to his message."
However, DuPré noted, Marcavage's preaching never caused a public disturbance that evening.
"The self-titled 'Witch City' may be a hotspot for Halloween celebrants, but it's not a Constitution-free zone. The rights of free speech and free exercise of religion may not be suppressed simply because Salem's tourists may not like the gospel message that Marcavage preaches," he said.
The Foundation for Moral Law, a national religious-liberties organization, is located in Montgomery, Ala., and is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation relating to moral issues and religious liberty, as well as education consisting of forums for pastors, judges, and the general public.
Repent America is an evangelistic organization based in Philadelphia, Pa.,
which "zealously labors to further the Kingdom of God through Biblical evangelism."
DuPré said at the time of the trial police simply "suppressed" Marcavage's ability to preach.
"The police should have been protecting Mr. Marcavage's right to speak instead of targeting him for the Christian content of his speech. Preaching the Gospel is not disorderly conduct, even on Halloween night," he said.
The city boasts on its own website: "Of course, Salem has become known as The Witch City! The Salem Witch Museum , the Witch Dungeon Museum and The Witch History Museum take you back in history to 1692, yet, present-day popularization of the witchcraft hysteria doesn't reveal anything about the large number of modern Witches living in Salem today."
Marcavage, whose Repent America website calls for sinners to turn from their ways and follow God, describes his work as evangelizing and "zealously labor[ing] to further the Kingdom of God."
He was one of the original Philadelphia 11 team whose members preached the Gospel at a homosexual festival and were arrested, only to be cleared later.
He also is challenging speech restrictions imposed by the National Park Service at the Liberty Bell Center in Philadelphia, which houses the Liberty Bell, the artifact from American history that rang to announce the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and is inscribed with "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof," a biblical quotation from Leviticus 25:10.