Last weekend was NBA All-Star weekend. We joined up with some other evangelists from Sports Fan Outreach, Lost Cause Ministries an Jeremiah Cry. On Saturday night there were fourteen of us on the streets of Dallas near the American Airlines Center.
We decided to setup to preach and hand out tracts across the street from the southeast corner of the building at the intersection of Houston and Olive. I decided to ask the police where a good spot to preach would be. They said we could preach right there from the grass. Said we could even use the amplifier. Mike preached first. Then Keith. Then Tom and I took turns. Others in the group were handing out tracts.
After a little while a strange thing happened. We were approached by three people wearing city of Dallas uniform. They said they were with code of compliance and said we could not hand anythng out because it was a special event. I explained that we were on a public sidewalk and the police had given permission to be hear. Nonetheless, they threatened to issue a citation if we did not cease tract distribution. Interestingly they did not mind the open air preaching and while they talked to us we had the largest crowd who were all asking what was going on.
Btw – the next morning I emailed my attorney who assured me that we were well within our constitutional rights!
