Texas is one of the most socially conservative states in the Union—you would expect to hear stories like these coming out of California or Massachusetts, but not the Lone Star State.
Yet multiple Christian preachers have posted videos of themselves on the social media platform X, showing as the police tells them they are about to be cited for their supposed offensive speech.
The first of such incidents took place on 27 June in Fort Worth, Texas. Preacher David Grisham was speaking on the street during the Trinity Pride Fest in Fort Worth, Texas. The pastor was preaching against homosexuality, causing tensions between him and the Pride Fest attendees.
A female police officer approached him. The video of the incident was just released, and the things the officer can be heard telling Grisham caused outrage.
‘If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem,’ the officer says in the footage. The preacher raises the evident counterpoint: offensive speech is clearly covered by the First Amendment of the Constitution, and should not be subject to any criminal penalties.
‘If they are offended by your speech, then I’ll write you a ticket, and we go from there,’ the responding officer says in return. On the scene, she threatened to cite the Christian preacher for disorderly conduct. A post by the Facebook page Follow Jesus published on 7 July claims Grisham ended up getting a ticket for ‘unreasonable noise,’ which is an offence under the Disorderly Conduct Statute of the Texas Penal Code
On Wednesday, 8 July, the X account Libs of TikTok shared a video of the incident that took place last month. It has received 76,000 likes and a whopping 6.8 million views.
In the replies to the viral post, Libs of TikTok pointed to another preacher in Texas who claims to have received a citation for similar reasons.
Rich Penkoski, going by the handle @WFCPreacher on X, also shared a video of his interaction with another Fort Worth police officer. In it, the officer seems to be taking issue with an anti-gay protest led by Penkoski in front of the business of a complaining owner. Penkoski claims he was given a citation for an unspecified offence by police; and even makes the accusation that he was ‘set up’ by Fort Worth police to be fined.
He describes himself as a ‘Bible teacher’ who is ‘waging war on woke lies & sin’ in his X bio.
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