Local Pastor Charged for Peaceful Protest

This state is going to heck in a handbasket.

An Oklahoma City pastor who was arrested last month has officially been charged on two counts of criminal activity. This has folks across the state wondering aloud, what in the hell (sorry, Jesus) world has happened to all of the decent, lawful, godly preachers? It seems like nowadays even the so-called good ones are being arrested for unruly behaviors.

Take Pastor Derrick Scobey of the metro’s own Ebenezer Baptist Church for example.

While by day he appears to lead a clean, wholesome life as the church's leader hosting vaccine clinics and distributing groceries to Oklahomans in need throughout the pandemic, by night Pastor Scobey exchanges divinity for debauchery in his run-ins with Oklahoma law enforcement. On the eve of Julius Jones’ scheduled execution,  was arrested outside of the governor’s mansion for failure to comply with an officer and obstructing traffic.

I mean, I can’t think of a single time in the Bible when Jesus stood up to lawful authority in times of injustice.

For those of you who don’t have the governor’s office number programmed into the contacts of your phone at this point, last month the state of Oklahoma was set to perform another likely botched execution, which led religious leaders, civils rights advocates, and citizens across the state to protest and call for Stitt to take the recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board members he had appointed himself and grant clemency to Jones.

A day ahead of the scheduled execution as protests were building across the metro, OKCPD set up barricades along the sidewalks in front of the governor’s mansion.

Barricades protect sidewalks like immunity laws to protect drivers when they hit protestors in the street with their trucks. It’s science.

While many protestors stayed behind the barricades, on the night of November 17th Pastor Scobey defied law enforcements’ commands, knelt to pray right in the middle of the road-- one that is reported the police had already conveniently blocked off from traffic—and was subsequently arrested for refusing to retreat.

Last week Pastor Scobey was officially charged with his crimes, though it appears his law-breaking was all for naught since Kevin Stitt reportedly made the decision to spare Julius Jones’ life through his own “prayerful consideration” and not at all due to the efforts of protestors like Pastor Scobey. At the end of the day, it’s good to see Oklahoma has a man who actually lives by the values of his proclaimed Christian faith to look to as a leader.

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Hayley's not religious, but she is a minister. Follow her on twitter @squirrellygeek and become a contributing member of TLO here.