by Jayla Ward & Jorge Gomez • 3 minutes
Mississippi evangelist Gabriel Olivier will soon present his case at the U.S. Supreme Court. First Liberty is waiting for the Court to set a date to hear the case.
Gabe’s journey to the high court has not been easy. Over the last five years, he’s faced ridicule, harassment and discrimination simply for sharing his faith with others and for standing up for his constitutional rights.
Despite much adversity, Gabe continued to show courage and didn’t quit. He stayed the course. But why remain faithful through a difficult and long legal battle? Because for Gabe, this is very personal. It’s about protecting the very freedoms and legal rights that completely changed his life.
Gabe is a pastor at a church and an evangelist who’s been serving for the past decade. Sharing his faith, however, is not limited to just a message on Sunday or hosting Bible studies with the congregation. His desire to reach others with the message of salvation is woven into every aspect of his life, and he feels a profound conviction to share his faith in public.
Gabe told First Liberty that he became a Christian after an evangelist shared the Gospel with him. That evangelist approached and talked to Gabe on a sidewalk—one of the most legally protected and common public spaces for religious expression. That encounter altered the trajectory of his life—and it wouldn’t have happened if there had been no legal or constitutional protections for religious liberty.
Because of that brief yet powerful exchange, Gabe now feels called to extend that same message of hope to others. For him, being an evangelist is a divinely inspired calling.
Here’s an interview with Gabe, where he shares his story:
Gabe’s legal battle began when the City of Brandon—under a local ordinance—arrested him for sharing his faith in a public park. He paid a fine. Then he sued, claiming his constitutional rights were violated by that ordinance. But the case was dismissed under a broken legal precedent. It stopped Gabe from having the opportunity to have his day in court.
So, the specific question before the Supreme Court is whether he can bring that challenge. It affects Americans’ right to plead their cases in court when their liberties are violated. And that includes their religious freedom.
And Gabe is fighting for something more. At its core, this is about protecting one of the most sacred rights in the Constitution: the right to talk about your faith in public.
Gabe’s story is one of bravery, perseverance and faithfulness. It takes emotional and mental toughness to endure a five-year-long legal battle. It takes guts to stand up for what is right, knowing it could place a target on you and your family. It takes valor to forge a path of freedom, so that your children, grandchildren and generations to come won’t have to face the same adversity.
“I’ve been able to able to benefit from other people and other cases that established my rights and freedoms,” Gabe says. “And I want to be able to do that for those coming after me. It is important to fight these battles even though it doesn’t make for a comfortable, quiet or peaceful life.”
Gabe’s case is a historic opportunity to correct more than 30 years of bad precedent in this area of the law. A new precedent could bolster the civil rights and religious freedom of millions of Americans—ensuring every person in our country has strong legal protections when they go into the public square to share their faith.
And it all goes back to the resilience of an everyday American hero in a small Mississippi suburb, a man whose passion for sharing God’s Word inspired him to live out what Scripture says in Isaiah: “Here I am, send me.”
Armed with courage, Gabe fights so that those who may have been wrongfully accused can get their day in court. He fights so that 50 years from now, there is no question that your rights will be protected.
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