Yes, Pastor Ball wants to preach on the streets of America. Unfortunately for him, Hendersonville, North Carolina had a local ordinance that did not allow him to preach freely in their town. In fact, Pastor Ball learned that angering the authorities in Hendersonville meant that preaching the Gospel in public ends with a night in the local jail.
That’s right, Pastor Billy Ball was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to
jail in Hendersonville, North Carolina for preaching the Gospel on a public sidewalk.
The Hendersonville ordinance states: “No person shall deliver a sermon, lecture, address or discourse…whatsoever on the streets,
alleys, sidewalks, public squares or any public grounds of
the city without having first obtained the written permission of the chief of police.”
I visited Pastor Ball while he was being held in jail in Hendersonville. On a Saturday morning in April, I traveled there to keep more preachers from being arrested and help get Pastor Ball out of jail. I walked into the jail and was lead to the attorney’s visitation room. When I got there, Pastor Ball was already in the room. He rose to greet me; the first friendly face he had seen in hours. He was dressed in the prison uniform shown in the picture on the News page. He was wearing prison issued flip flops. He stood, spread his hands to give me a hug, but could not open his hands more than about two feet apart because his hands were cuffed and shackled together with a chain.
Here he was brought from his cell to meet with his attorney, and for forty-five minutes he was forced to talk with me with his hands shackled like a common criminal. In the buckle of the Bible belt.
Within a few hours, the IHRG had Pastor Ball released from jail. On Friday, June 8, 2007 we filed a motion to dismiss with the court in Hendersonville. In the middle of the furor that was created by the work we were doing, the City Council of Hendersonville met and took the unconstitutional ordinance off their books. The charges were summarily dismissed.
Unfortunately, this is not the only time street preachers have been arrested or given citations. The IHRG will continue to stand with these ministers until their right to preach is assured.
For news coverage of these events, please click on the links to the right.