About six years ago, the Rev. Tony Pope began preaching the gospel from his front yard in Mobile. He then started taking his sermons to some of the city’s more crime-ridden streets. More recently, he can be spotted outside one the city’s Walmart stores, “spreading peace” through scripture.
He’s also taken his microphone and sound system to downtown Mobile, where lengthy sermons are conducted from Bienville Square or Cathedral Square parks.
The problem, according to some residents who live near downtown, is the sound system is too loud. And a recent request by Pope, 46, to hold his sometimes fiery sermons for four hours every Saturday generated a swell of opposition.
It also placed some city leaders deep in the heart of the Bible Belt in an awkward position: In the middle of the Christian-observed Holy Week, do you shut down the passionate preacher?
And of course there’s Pope’s First Amendment rights to consider.
The answer, from the Mobile City Council on Tuesday, was to support the people who live near downtown Mobile who say their otherwise quiet and serene moments spent at the city parks filled with park benches and mammoth oak trees is disrupted by Pope’s mic’d up sermons.
“His intent and message is not only needed, but it’s well-received,” said Mobile City Council President Levon Manzie, a fourth-generation minister and pastor of a Baptist church who represents downtown Mobile. “Up until this point, I had not heard a complaint (about Pope’s preaching). But the complaints were about the volume of requests and the fact that the requests involved two parks at the same time.”
Excessive
Mobile’s noise ordinance prohibits the use of amplification exceeding 85 decibels from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., or which exceeds 50 decibels from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. If an event has a sound system with a loudspeaker, the city recommends people to get a waiver of the noise ordinance. Typically, the council grants waivers from the ordinance for infrequent events at a city park.
“We need more people like (Pope),” said Mobile City Councilman C.J. Small, a dedicated Baptist and a chaplain for the MLK Adult Mardi Gras Association. “But once you go over 85 decibels, you need a noise ordinance (waiver). You can preach and teach, but you can’t go over 85 decibels.”
Pope, however, requested a waiver for every Saturday during the months of April and May. The waiver requests were from 2-6 p.m.
Manzie said he’s heard complaints from people living in neighborhoods near downtown Mobile, such as DeTonti Square Historic District and the Church Street East Historic District, as well as from downtown residents and businesses. The complaints, he said, focused on the length of time that Pope was seeking at both parks.
The groundswell of complaints was so much that Manzie told Pope on Tuesday, “I probably have spent more time dealing with this particular issue and your ability to preach than you would have spent preaching over the last two weeks.”
He added, “Residents have just become irate over the idea that, regardless of what they were articulating, we would allow one entity that much access particularly as we come off the stringent requirements of COVID-19 and as the weather has improved.”
Elizabeth Luther, a resident near downtown Mobile, said she was speaking out against Pope’s request because of what she said was the excessiveness of it.
But she also said that Pope’s past downtown sermons, many of which are posted on his Facebook page, are simply too loud.
“I got feedback form people downtown that the noise level was so high they could not have a conversation,” said Luther. “It was about the noise, not the message.”
First Amendment rights
Regulation of Pope’s message would place the city in a tricky First Amendment quandary. City officials repeatedly said on Tuesday they were OK with the contents of Pope’s sermons.
Some of his sermons have been received with enthusiastic reactions. At a recent sermon outside of the Walmart store on Interstate 65 Service Road South, Pope and others gave energetic sermons that were met with honking horns and a small crowd that shouted its approvals.
Other sermons have a somewhat cultural and political tone. During one sermon last month in Bienville Square, Pope – who is Black -- spoke by himself on the subject of “division” and the need for everyone to come together.
“Let’s stop looking at how different we look and act and believe, which causes division,” Pope said.
Mobile City Councilman Joel Daves said the city is trying to balance the concerns of the residents with First Amendment rights, which includes preaching in public parks.
“As a city council, we have a responsibility to provide reasonable access to individuals who want to exercise their First Amendment rights on public property,” said Daves. “We try to balance that against people being intrusive to our neighborhoods. We don’t always get that right. But I think we are, all of us, willing to listen our constituents and try to take steps in order to get it right and minimize the impact and intrusiveness on nearby residents.”
Daves said he’s had constituents contact him about utilizing loudspeakers in public parks.
“We’ll be careful in grating very broad access under those conditions,” Daves said.
‘Worshipping the Lord’
Pope said he will continue with his preaching, but in areas where he’s allowed. He has focused on Walmart stores in Mobile, delivering sermons close to the parking lots. He is also taking his loudspeaker to troubled neighborhoods, where drug use and prostitution exist. He said West Prichard Street, close to the Prichard-Mobile city line, is one high-crime area he’s focused on, as well as some public housing complexes in the city.
“Right now, the Lord is putting my heart on DIP (Dauphin Island Parkway) and Duvall and Holcomb avenues,” said Pope. “We want to be right there. On Friday nights, oh my Lord. The air is filled with marijuana. There is just so much (illegal activity) going on. That’s the type of place where we are compelled to come and preach.”
Pope said he believes church ministers should be considered among “first responders” who are battling crime on the streets.
“Most of the police I’ve dealt with, there is love,” said Pope. “(The preaching) brings a peace to that area. They have a sense of peace on their jobs.”
As for his downtown request, Pope said he was surprised his sermons were met with so much opposition. He said his appearances have only been met with people walking up to him and thanking him for what he’s doing. He also said similar sermons he’s conduct at Public Safety Memorial Park on Airport Boulevard have included participants from members of the Presbyterian Church.
“That is rare,” said Pope. “They are a real traditional, inside church.”
Pope plans on an Easter Sunday sermon at the city park where the city’s only skateboard park is located.
He said he is disappointed in the city’s decision, but also on the lack of what he said were stories of “good reports” about his preaching. He said what he is trying to do is “bring peace to the city and to the hearts of the citizens of Mobile.”
“I thought it would be a few concerned citizens,” he said about the opposition that Manzie said he received. “I was really shocked.”
Pope added, “Every time I go to Bienville Square and Cathedral Park, there is no one down there. It’s a cross section where people go to shop and to the stores, but I had no idea I was being watched like that. We were playing peaceful worship music and people were gathering together and worshipping the Lord.”
Street preachers
Other cities, over the years, have handled similar issues on loud preaching without violating someone’s First Amendment rights, but the issues do spark controversy.
In most cases, federal courts back up the local governments if the street sermons are amplified by loudspeakers.
-A federal judge in Michigan dismissed a lawsuit from an anti-abortion street preacher in 2019, who alleged the city of Grand Rapids’ police department violated his First Amendment rights when they enforced a city noise ordinance against him. The white preacher accused the police of threatening him with arrest based on complaints over the content of his speech. The city said the electronic voice amplifier the preacher used in sharing religious beliefs outside and abortion clinic and other places, was the problem.
-Federal courts in Oregon denied a white street preacher’s appeals of a disorderly conduct arrest in 2018, despite the preacher’s position that he was arrested because of the content of his speech. The preacher, a self-described “confrontational evangelist” was arrested for using an electrified bullhorn to preach outside of a department store in Portland.
-A Springfield, Missouri, a white street preacher was arrested on Good Friday in 2018, for violating that city’s noise ordinance after delivering a loud downtown sermon. As he was handcuffed and taken away, the preacher shouted “corrupt,” “coward” and “bullies” at the police, according to media reports. The preacher, who also claimed he was being arrested because of his message, said the loudspeakers were essential to preaching his “mission of mercy.”
- In Charlotte, a Black street preacher has walked through the city chanting, “Jesus Loves You!” He has shown up at Black Lives Matter rallies to continue with his chants, which elicited return shouts back at him. But police sided with the man, saying that despite complaints from business owners, he was not amplifying his voice through a loudspeaker and was protected by the First Amendment.