Police in one Wisconsin city are being asked to look into the alleged assault of two Christians who claim they were attacked while sharing a biblical message about homosexuality.
Earlier this week, two member of Wisconsin Christians United (WCU) were in Burlington distributing a brochure titled "Homosexuality: The Truth." After leaving literature at homes throughout the city, the pair stood on a busy street, holding signs that read "Homosexuality is Sin" and "Christ Can Set You Free."
After a short time, a car with two individuals stopped near the picketers. According to eyewitnesses, one of the car's occupants approached the picketers yelling obscenities. Then the man allegedly began assaulting the Christians.
Ralph Ovadal, director of WCU, says this is not the first time his group has seen what he calls "this very, very violent heart of the homosexual movement." Despite the ugliness of that exhibition, he feels there is a certain benefit to be gained from such confrontations.
"There's an awful lot of people that are deceiving themselves," Ovadal says, "thinking [that] on this particular issue we can strike a happy balance, and we can coexist with both sides in this thing, and we can all be happy and just get on with life - and it's just not true."
According to the Wisconsin pro-family leader, such intolerant reactions to Christian expressions are common. "We hear it over and over and over," he says, "that our speech is not legitimate, it incites, it's something that's violent in and of itself, and, if we insist on continuing to preach what we preach. We should be put in jail."
Still, Ovadal says, in many such confrontations, the Christians have encountered fair-minded and dutiful law-enforcement officials. "I will say this - in Burlington, as in so many other places, we met some very good police officers ... some very godly police officers out there, and they did their job," he notes. "They were upset by what happened, and we're hoping that their eyes were opened as well to what's going on in our culture."
A suspect has been arrested in connection with the Burlington assault, and Ovadal says police are investigating the altercation. Despite that incident, the WCU leader says members of his group will soon be back in Burlington, handing out more literature.
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