- Chicago's Millennium Park is one

of the city's top touristattractions, but now,

it is limiting access to those who want

to share the Gospel; that includes a group

of Wheaton College studentswho've used the park

to preach and hand outevangelistic literature.

Dr. Ed Stetzer, the Billy Graham Chair

of Church, Mission, andEvangelism at Wheaton College,

joins us now with more on this.

Dr. Stetzer, welcome to Newswatch.

- Thank you, Wendy, good to be here.

Thanks for covering this important issue.

- Yes, absolutely.

Well, give us the back story here.

How have the Wheatonstudents been using the park,

and what are they no longer able to do?

- So, the park, ofcourse, is what we call a

traditional public forum, sopeople often pass out fliers.

Many of the viewers may havebeen to Millennium Park.

It's where that Bean is, we call it,

with the reflective surface,

and people take picturesthere, and I've been approached

there many times by vegans,and Jehovah's Witnesses,

and political parties, again, it's

a traditional publicforum, so our students,

on Friday night, a groupof students, we have kind

of a ministry here through theOffice of Christian Outreach,

they go down to Chicago, andthey seek to share the Gospel

in that tradition public forum,

but Chicago has come upwith kind of a new way

of thinking about parks,and they've decided

that certain parts of MillenniumPark are called rooms,

and there are rooms when you can exercise

these aspects of free speech.

By the way, it's notjust religious speech,

it's any form of speech,or fliers, or whatever.

So, there are rooms, and then other parts,

like around the Bean, arerooms where you can't exercise

that free speech in the same way.

So, it's a rather novelapproach and students requested

it to be changed.

It did not, and thenthe students took action

through a Barcham law firm for change,

for relief on this issue.

- Well, you're an evangelist,

and you, of course, wantto share the good news.

What is your concern about this new rule?

- Well, I think there's a couple things.

First of all, I think ingeneral, not just for people that

who want to share the Gospel,traditional public forums need

to not be limiting speech.

The ACLU, not exactly abastion of evangelistic

faith and practice, would agreeand push on these realities.

So, our students who,Wheaton College students tend

to be very, very filled withinitiative, and just intellect,

and moxie, and everything,well, we wanna push back

on this for the free speechissue, but ultimately, it comes

back to they'd like to be ableto show and share the love

of Jesus to a broken andhurting world, and there's

no better place to do that,based on all the people

that come up to me at theBean, there's no better place

to do that with lots ofpeople, and then to share

the faith in a non-disruptiveway, there at Millennium Park.

- So, you guys decided,or the students rather,

and the college, decidedto file a lawsuit.

Is that right?

- The students did.

The college is not a partyto the lawsuit, but we're

certainly appreciating ourstudents for standing up

on those things as well,but again, the students,

again, this is one of the aspects

of Wheaton College students,they tend to be the best

and the brightest, theywent and said we wanna

stand up on this issue and we think, even

in the press conferences andinterviews, they've talked

about this is free speechfor everyone, but it includes

the opportunity to share thegood news of Jesus Christ

to those who don't knowHim, in public places,

and again, traditional public forums.

- So, it's interesting cause you're saying

that the city's notdiscriminating, they're saying

no matter what your group, nomatter what you're selling,

so to speak, you can onlydo it in certain places now.

- Yeah, the discriminationhere is on the location,

not the content of thespeech, and so again, all

around the roads, sidewalks,and public parks are

traditional public forumsacross the United States,

and so to say that you canonly go to this small place,

which is a very corner of thepark, to exercise free speech,

basically, you'd haveeveryone over there talking

to one another, when thereality is is, again,

across the country, and this is

a novel idea Chicago'sdoing, across the country,

traditional public forumsis where people who want

to share the Gospel, orpeople who want to tell you

to be vegans, tend to go.

Our students think that should continue.

- Yeah, I think the studentshave a pretty good case

on their hands, and I'm sure you agree.

Well, we definitely wantto keep tabs on this,

and we hope you'll comeback and keep up posted.

- Good.