►因為默禱被抓, 萬斯演講中的受害人現身說法, 看看英國離專制極權有多遠?◄

The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons in particular in the crosshairs. A little over two years ago the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes. Not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own. Vice President Vance taking a strong stance for free speech and religious liberty on the international stage this weekend. Adam Smith-Connor, who was highlighted in the speech, joins us now along with Senior Legal Communications Officer for the Alliance Defending Freedom International, Lois McClatchy-Miller. Welcome to you both. What an honor to have you both on. I'm going to start with you, Adam. How surprised were you that Vice President Vance chose to highlight your story as an example of how Europe is losing its values? I was incredibly surprised. I had no idea it was going to happen. I was, I'm a physiotherapist, I was treating a patient. I just had a few minutes gap between patients and Lois's number came up on my phone so I quickly answered it and she said, the Vice President of America is talking about your case. So it was incredibly surprising and I'm very grateful to him for highlighting. So take us back to when you were in front of that abortion clinic. Why were you there and what were you doing? So I've been part of 40 Days for Life for a few years and we pray, we offer help to women and we have a phone number that people can call. I wasn't doing any of that on this occasion. On this occasion, I had no banner. I wasn't saying anything aloud. I wasn't even particularly close to the clinic. I was behind a tree obscured from view and I was there for not very long. I was there for about three or four minutes silently praying. I wasn't interfering with anyone and these two officers came up to me, asked me what I was doing. I said I was praying and then amazingly, shockingly, they asked me what was the nature of my prayer and it was my answer to that question that I was praying for my son Jacob who they had died in an abortion that led to my prosecution. Unbelievable. I'm really taken aback. Lois, tell me about what happens now. So he was prosecuted. You guys are now appealing. What are the penalties? For those of us who don't understand British law, take us through that. Sure. Adam was convicted on account of his silent prayer. He now stands a criminal because of his thoughts. He was ordered to pay £9,000 to the other side who prosecuted him. As a result, ADF International are supporting Adam's legal defense as we seek to appeal this judgment in July. But this intervention from President Vance highlighting the case has really exposed that this is the worst example of censorship in the West right now. If we cannot think thoughts in our head on certain British streets, then we have no hope for freedom anywhere else. It is truly stunning, although I can't sit here as an American and say that we're clean of any of this. The last administration imprisoned plenty of pro-life activists who were in front of clinics as well. Thankfully, Donald Trump has set them free. Adam, what's your message to the British government, to Western powers, just as JD Vance was up there? What are your thoughts? What would you like to say about any of this? Well, my case is not an exception. I'm very grateful that mine was highlighted, but JD Vance could have spoken about Claire Brennan, who has been prosecuted in Northern Ireland for saying the Lord's Prayer, could have spoken about Stephen Green, who was prosecuted and had his appeal turned down. His appeal, he was doubly prosecuted in a sense for holding a Bible verse in Ealing in London. And Isabel von Spruce in Birmingham, who has been arrested twice and is being harassed continuously by the police for silently praying. Father Sean Goff, also in Birmingham, who was, they attempted to prosecute him for having a bumper sticker. So my case is one of many, many cases that are out there. And I wanted to highlight that, you know, many of our MPs and members of Parliament are backpedalling now. They're saying that, oh, no, no, no, we haven't banned silent prayer. And I just want to remind them that on the, I looked this up before I came on air, on the 7th of March 2023, 255 members of Parliament voted against an amendment to the abortion clinic buffer zone clause to ensure that silent prayer was not made an illegal activity outside of abortion clinics. Amongst those 255 MPs was our Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, our Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, our Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, our Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Rees, and our Health Secretary, West Streeting, all voting to make it a crime to pray silently. Our Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, didn't think it was important enough to even vote on it. He abstained. So these people. Finish your thought. Yeah, in my opinion, my humble opinion, that Britain is a country that has always stood for and at other times, if you cannot even stand up for the basic right to practice your faith in peace, in this great nation, in my opinion, you do not deserve to be in government. And I call upon these people to repeal this law. It goes against everything that we as a nation stand for. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I thank you, Lois, for representing Adam. He's definitely deserving of that. And Adam, I thank you for speaking out. This sounds like not just an attack on free speech, but it sounds like a war on Christians, frankly. And I just want to thank you both for joining us and sharing this message. And I know you appreciate JD Vance highlighting this as well. Thank you both for joining us. Fascinating. Thank you for watching.