Thanks to our friends at First Liberty Institute, evangelist Ernest Giardino is once again free to share the Good News of Jesus Christ while walking the sidewalks of Chapin, South Carolina.
After eight months of carrying around signs that declared, “Trust Christ He paid the price,” “He saved others — Jesus” and “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found,” Giardino had been told by local police that he was required to obtain a permit to continue his silent witnessing.
But not only was the evangelist required to file for a permit – but he needed to do so at least 14 days in advance and could only stay in the same place for upwards of 30 minutes at a time. Worse yet, the mayor had final say – and could decline his request for no reason at all.
When Ernest pushed back on his own citing his First Amendment rights, the Chapin city manager told him, “Our permit supersedes the Constitution because it’s a local ordinance.”
First Liberty, which stepped in to represent the sidewalk evangelist, pushed back. In a letter to city officials, attorneys wrote, “Permit schemes, like the one found in Chapin, have the effect of freezing speech before it is uttered. Permit schemes are thus viewed skeptically, being the most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.”
The U.S. District Court of the District of South Carolina agreed, filing a consent order effectively blocking enforcement of the ordinance.
Nate Kellum, First Liberty Institute’s senior counsel, applauded the decision.
“Mr. Giardino just wants to share his Christian faith with others. We commend the Town for revising the ordinance language so Mr. Giardino can live out his faith in the public sphere.”
According to reports, Giardino will be paid “a symbolic $1 in damages” and the city has agreed to pay his $35,000 in legal fees.
Most importantly, Ernest Giardino will be proclaiming God’s truth via his signs. We may sometimes wonder how effective sidewalk evangelism is. Some Christians may even be tempted to raise an eyebrow at some of the tactics employed by fellow believers.
Yet, God uses His people in all kinds of ways to reach all kinds of people. On X the other night, Them Before Us founder Katy Faust shared a classic story from the life of the evangelist, D.L. Moody.
A woman was critiquing Moody’s evangelism methods. The preacher replied, “I agree with you. I don’t like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?” The woman replied, “I don’t do it.”
In response, D.L. Moody said, “Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”
May God bless Ernest Giardino and the faithful fighters at the First Liberty Institute who are “doing it” – and working tirelessly to preserve and protect our hard-fought religious freedom.
Image credit: First Liberty
