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An evangelist in Illinois is suing the city of Naperville for being ticketed while street preaching last month, allegedly because a sign he carried was a violation of an ordinance regulating street sign location.In September, Elmer Joe Christopherson of Burning Hearts Outreach Ministries says he and his colleagues had been witnessing for about three hours before the incident occurred, and he had been using the sign the entire time."It's a 4' x 6' sign on a twelve-foot pole. It said, 'Lied? Stolen? Lusted? Abortion? Stop sinning. Call on the Lord Jesus and escape hell fire," explains Christopherson.He says two police officers told him he had to take down the sign, but would not answer his question about whether he was breaking the law-and that only after writing the citation did one of them read him the city ordinance about non-commercial signs being displayed at least ten feet from the street. Christopherson says city police officers failed to notify him of this violation on at least two visits earlier in the evening."We'd been harassed by a Muslim group a couple of times, so the police came and moved the hecklers on so they wouldn't bother us-and at that time the police didn't even speak to us," he points out.Christopherson's attorney says his client's counterclaim asks for damages against the city for infringement of his free speech and exercise of religion rights, and asks for the right to witness freely in the public square in the future.As in the days of Noah....
