Local authorities in a coastal English town are dropping the threat of legal charges against Adam Smith-Connor for praying silently outside of an abortion clinic. 

In a video of the incident, a police officer, obviously uncomfortable, asked Smith-Connor to describe the “nature of [his] prayer,” adding that she doesn’t “want to probe.” She suggested Smith-Connor might be violating the town’s “buffer zone” rule, which outlaws “acts of disapproval” outside of the clinic. Ultimately, the officers say they believe he is allowed to pray silently, but they still fined him. Smith-Connor refused to pay it. 

People have to stand up to government overreach. It’s much easier to be a council member and pass an ordinance like this from safely inside City Hall than to be the police officer charged with enforcing it while their gut says, “No, this isn’t right.”  

And Christians, who are called to “live not by lies,” as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, may have to make tough choices about what or Whom they must serve.