Preachers rebuff LDS buffer zones

Despite Salt Lake City's efforts to "buffer" LDS Church members and stationary street preachers, those attending the church's annual general conference next weekend can expect to be sermonized as usual by members of the World Wide Street Preachers' Fellowship.

Representatives of the group vowed Friday that they will not abide by the city's latest buffer plans, and the fellowship sought a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City asking a federal judge to bar the city from establishing physical zones where preachers must stand while preaching during the most crowded times of conference weekend.

"We're prepared to go to jail if we have to," street preacher Lonnie Pursifull said. "We're not going to be put into a box."

The court filing comes after Salt Lake City released details of its plan to create free-speech zones across the street from the LDS Conference Center where preachers must stand when holding signs. When mobile, the preachers would be allowed to cross the street and mingle with conferencegoers, but those preachers would have to stay moving so as not to block pedestrian traffic. Also, on the conference side of North Temple there is a small zone where preachers can stand while holding signs.

In court documents the preachers argue the city is sheltering and favoring the LDS Church while violating the rights of the preachers to practice their religion, which, according to the Bible, calls them to "stand" and "preach the gospel to every creature."

"You got some people up there in the City Council favoring one religion over another, and we aren't going to have a hard time proving that," Street Preachers' Fellowship director Ron McRae said. "I don't think there's a federal judge in Denver (where the 10th Circuit is based) that's not going to agree with us."

The city adopted the zones, designed to create a buffer between LDS Church members and preachers, after an LDS Church attorney asked the city to create "buffer" areas to shield conferencegoers from the preachers. At first City Attorney Ed Rutan and Mayor Rocky Anderson declined to include buffer zones when reviewing the city's free-speech laws. However, last week the city announced it would create the zones.

The city's review of the free-speech laws followed the LDS Church's semiannual general conference last October, when two street preachers were assaulted by conference attendees. The two attackers became enraged when the preachers donned church clothing sacred to the LDS faithful. Many, including a group of evangelical Christians called Standing Together Ministries, have since decried the preachers for using what they consider mean-spirited tactics when preaching.