Teens Picket!
Church Hoppers Protest Arrest
By James McNabb, Jr., Daily Pilot Staff, The Daily Pilot, California
December 12, 1968, North America
Turning from Bibles to sandwich boards, the militant Teens for Christ Sunday picketed the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, and the Huntington Beach Police Department.
They were protesting continued confinement of five brethren arrested Friday on trespassing charges at Golden West College in Huntington Beach.
Earlier, a roaring motorcycle police escort unexpectedly accompanied eight carloads of the church-hopping teens from their headquarters in the “Light Club,” 116 Main St., to the Huntington Beach city limits.
The target of their fourth consecutive Sunday church march was the Shield of [Deliverance] Center, 115 E. 6th St., Santa Ana.
But the self-styled “Christian revolutionaries” got off to a halting start when three cars in their caravan were pulled over by Huntington Beach police for alleged traffic violations.
A Fountain Valley patrol car zipped into the procession as it crossed into that city on the way to the San Diego Freeway.
The hippie-appearing band which has thus far made surprise invasions of seven county worship services was welcomed to the Pentecostal congregation by the Rev. Bill Byrd, pastor.
Daniel Anderson, Leader of the group, sat with the Rev. Byrd in the chancel area. Other members of the band sat in the front rows of the sanctuary in Santa Ana.
Anderson later addressed the congregation, speaking for a return to primitive Christianity. The Teens are opposed to what they term “hypocrisy of organized religion.”
The 45-member band joined the congregation for a soup and punch lunch in the basement of the old downtown church, the former United Presbyterian Church building.
PICKET JAIL
Some 20 of the Bible-carrying young people later picketed the nearby new Orange County Jail facility, where five members of the group are being held on misdemeanor trespassing charges after allegedly failing Friday to leave the Golden West College campus when requested to do so by the administration.
Near dusk they returned to Huntington Beach were for a short time they picketed the police station. Huntington Beach police officers had arrested the accused trespassers after being summoned to the campus by dean of students Dale A. Miller.
NO INCIDENTS
About 13 members of the group were discovered on the junior college campus handing out religious tracts, which is an illegal act, said Miller.
No incidents were reported during Sunday’s church visit or picketing.
“It was the first time that a congregation has been receptive to us,” said Mrs. Steve Harris, 22, of 19860 Coventry Lane, Huntington Beach. “I never saw anything like this before. They were so warm.”
“Our Negro brothers weren’t as particular about the way we dress,” said Anderson.