Orwellian UK arrests CA preacher for free speech violation

July 12, 2013

By John Seiler

George Orwell’s nightmare of an “Orwellian” totalitarian regime taking over his native United Kingdom — Airstrip One — has come true. As he wrote in the appendix to “1984”:

“Newspeak was the official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism….

“The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought — that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc — should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression  to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever.

“To give a single example — The word free still existed in Newspeak, but could only be used in such statements as ‘The dog is free from lice’ or ‘This field is free from weeds.’ It could not be used in its old sense of ‘politically free’ or ‘intellectually free,’ since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.”

That obviously is the situation in today’s UK, where Big Brother imposes Newspeak and intellectual freedom no longer exists. Consider this story:

“An American evangelist said he was arrested and interrogated about his Christian faith after he was caught on a London sidewalk preaching that homosexuality is a sin.

“Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff and former chaplain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., was charged with ‘using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult.’

“Miano had been preaching on a London street corner during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships with a ministry group called Sports Fan Outreach International.

“He was preaching about immoral living — and cited homosexuality as an example of lifestyle choices that are contrary to biblical teaching.

“ ‘I never used any gay slurs,’ he said. ‘You would never hear me using slang or discriminatory language against homosexuals or any other group. That would be contrary to my faith.’

“At some point, the evangelist quoted I Thessalonians 4:1-2 — a passage of scripture that mentions sexual immorality.

“ ‘I talked about women addicted to romance novels, men addicted to pornography, people with lustful thoughts, heterosexual fornication and homosexuality,’ Miano told Fox News. ‘When I mentioned that the Bible was clear that homosexuality is a sin, a lady walked by and she glared at me and hurled the f-bomb.’

“Miano said the woman came back a short time later and began to videotape his sidewalk sermon. Then, she called the police.

“ ‘They were concerned about homophobic speech,’ he said. ‘But I told them I don’t fear homosexuals. The language I used was not homophobic, as I was not promoting fear or hatred of homosexuals.’

“Miano said he did not limit his remarks to homosexual acts.

“ ‘I did not speak solely about homosexuality as a form of sexual immorality but also about any kind of sex outside marriage between one man and one woman, as well as lustful thoughts,’ he said. ‘All of these are considered mainstream Christian positions and have been taught and believed by Christians for thousands of years.’”

Notice how the woman, brainwashed by Big Brother, ratted out the preacher’s thoughtcrime to the Thought Police?

At least Chaplain Miano won’t have his free speech suppressed when he returns to California. The First Amendment still protects him. For now, anyway.