Street preacher arrested at pride event says Christians 'ought to say something' about drag events for kids
Marcus Schroeder doesn’t talk like your typical 19-year-old male — and certainly not like someone who’s been arrested for standing up for their Christian faith.
“My vision personally, for my life, is to inspire other young people to engage in the spiritual war that is going on in our nation and to inspire young people to join this reformation that’s taking place amongst American Christianity.”
Schroeder was among one of four protesters who were arrested July 29 at a “Pride in the Park” event in Watertown, Wisconsin, a roughly 40-minute drive from his home in Waukesha.
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While he estimated there were about 200 protesters at the event from various churches, ministries and activist groups, Schroeder said the turnout was more divine providence than community organizing.
“A lot of us weren’t connected with each other in any way,” he told The Christian Post via phone Tuesday. “We just showed up to the same event to protest it.”
Video footage of the event and ensuing protests quickly went viral, along with Schroder’s confrontation with police while sharing the Gospel over a loudspeaker.
When it was over, four people were arrested, two of whom received citations. Schroeder was the only one who was handcuffed and taken to the police station.
But despite the ensuing national media coverage, Schroder says it wasn’t attention-seeking that drew him to the event.
“'Love your neighbor as yourself' — that’s the second greatest Christian command in Scripture,” he said. “So if we actually love these children, whose minds are being perverted, who are being taken down this path of destruction, then we ought to say something about it.
“Love can’t stay silent on this issue.”
He specifically pointed to disturbing footage shared by Gays Against Groomers, which posted a video of children watching as men dressed in lingerie danced around and collected money from the audience. Seeing kids giving these drag performers dollar bills, said Schroeder, made the whole thing feel like it was “being run like a strip show.”
“If we know that something like that is being accepted in our culture and we as Christians do nothing about it, what is our Christianity worth?” he said. “We are the salt of the earth; we are a city on a hill.”
Schroeder said it was “frustrating” to see police officers at the event standing idly by as protesters cited a specific local statute prohibiting the behavior they saw at the pride event.
A video shared on social media from the event showed Pastor Matt Trewhella of Mercy Seat Christian Church in nearby Richfield preaching out of Romans 13 as officers looked on.
Schroeder said it’s one thing for the police to be ignorant of an alleged crime and quite another for them to stand and watch as it happens.
“Just look at the law, read the law. Pretty much every single part of that law the drag queens that day broke in some form or another,” he said. “To see them be so negligent in their duty in the face of children's minds being perverted, the children are the most vulnerable among us, and so they’re the ones who need to be protected the most.”
Schroeder, who is part of the Warriors For Christ ministry, which held an event in Milwaukee in June, said he was initially drawn to street preaching by the fight against abortion when he was around 14 years old.
As a lover of history books, Schroeder said he particularly enjoyed The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom and other tales about Christians who resisted the Nazi movement.
It wasn’t until he watched a documentary about abortion and saw it "for what it was” that he realized that “millions of children are being murdered every single day in my nation and I've done nothing about it.”
He began standing outside abortion clinics, ministering to women as they came in and out, pleading with them, offering alternative resources for their pregnancy.
After one particular abortion protest, Schroeder said he realized many of the same folks who advocated for abortion were supporting drag events.
“We found out that a lot of these same people who were working for the abortion clinic would come out there to support the drag queen event too,” he said. “It’s a demonic stronghold in our nation; it’s a spiritual war that we’re in.”
And while he can’t speak much about his pending legal case, Schroeder said he has “quite a few offers” from attorneys who want to take the case.
More importantly, he said, he knows the people of Watertown have his back, especially after the mayor and police were “exploding with phone calls” with what he called “immense support” from the people of Watertown.
It’s for those folks, said Schroder, that this crusade continues.
“My goal would be to do what I can to make sure this does not happen again, that grown men in lingerie are no longer allowed to do sexual dances in front of children in the city of Watertown.”
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of BACKWARDS DAD: a children's book for grownups. He can be reached at: [email protected].
