Carrying a Bible in Northern Ireland Hospitals Could Now Be a Crime

Carrying a Bible or praying at a patient’s bedside inside Northern Ireland hospitals could be treated as a criminal offense under abortion buffer zone laws, according to newly issued police guidance that has left Christians across the United Kingdom uncertain whether basic pastoral ministry is now illegal.

On July 2, the Police Service of Northern Ireland issued written guidance clarifying how the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023 will be enforced. The law prohibits “influencing,” “preventing or impeding access,” or “causing harassment, alarm or distress” to a protected person within 100 meters of facilities where abortions are performed. The shocking reality is that the law makes no exemptions for clergy or religious identity.

According to the PSNI guidance, carrying Bibles, reading Scripture, consensual pastoral ministry, and praying with a patient during end-of-life care could all be considered unlawful if the activity takes place inside a protected zone and is recognized as potentially influencing or distressing a protected person nearby. Even visible or passive religious practice may constitute an offense, the PSNI added, “even where no direct approach or communication takes place.”

The standard for determining criminality is chilling. The PSNI emphasized that a religious person’s intention behind the activity does not protect them from liability. “Describing conduct as pastoral, prayerful or religious in nature does not determine whether an offence has been committed,” the guidance states. The test is whether the behavior, assessed objectively, influenced, impeded, or caused distress to a protected person, regardless of intent.

This means a hospital chaplain praying with grieving parents who just lost a child and reading Psalm 23 could face criminal prosecution if someone nearby claims it caused them distress. A pastor wearing clerical dress while visiting the sick could be investigated if someone finds it offensive. Simply carrying a Bible through certain hospital corridors could trigger a criminal complaint.

The law has already claimed its first victim. In May, retired pastor Clive Johnston, 78, was convicted and fined approximately $614 for preaching a sermon on John 3:16 near a hospital where abortions are performed. Johnston may be the first person prosecuted under the law for preaching a sermon that did not mention abortion, according to The Christian Institute, which supported his legal case.

Pastor Jonathan Campbell of Newbuildings Independent Methodist Church told Fox News Digital that the ruling against Johnston and this new guidance has created paralyzing uncertainty for Christian ministry. “It’s unthinkable that the Bible, or even just clerical dress, could be off limits on hospital grounds in case someone might find it offensive,” he said. “The Christian message is one of hope and comfort to those who are ill, worried and grieving. It cannot be the case that in Northern Ireland, church representatives are unable to comfort those in need.”

Ciarán Kelly, director of The Christian Institute, said the law is “being interpreted in ways that threaten ordinary Christian ministry inside hospitals.” He emphasized a fundamental point that should be obvious: “Patients do not lose the right to spiritual care because they happen to be in a hospital where abortions are also provided.”

The PSNI insists it is “not seeking to police religion or lawful pastoral care,” but admits that rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and expression “are not absolute and must be balanced against the rights and protections contained in the legislation.” In other words, your religious liberty ends where someone else’s feelings begin.

The United States State Department is monitoring these cases closely. A spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital that “the U.K.’s persecution of silent prayer represents not only an egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty, but also a concerning departure from the shared values that ought to underpin U.S. U.K. relations.”

This is where unchecked abortion ideology leads. Not just to the destruction of unborn life, but to the criminalization of compassion itself. When carrying a Bible to comfort the dying becomes a potential crime, freedom has been extinguished.

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