My friend was stopped by police because he was putting religious flyers on homes.

The police are right. You can't leave religious flyers at the door. I know that people still do because A church member and the pastors wife came in to our apartments and left flyers at every door. They did knock and talked when someone was home if not the flyers were left. It is still done alot however you are just one of the unlucky ones that got caught doing it. Your rights were not violated but just remember you had your heart in the right place just be carefull how you try to go about getting the word out about your church. I am one myself that wish it was not against the law.

There is another way to look at this that might make this whole issue easier to understand. The issue is not the fact that the material is "religious," the issue is that your friend is not only trespassing on other people's private property, but also littering. It is all a matter of littering and that is illegal in most places.

Another way I have seen neighborhoods band together to stop this type of activity is to call the police when it happens and report that someone has left "pornographic material" on their property. If several neighbors get together and claim they personally believe religious material is pornographic (according to the Bible, the angel did rape Mary) , the police actually have to take it seriously because the definition of "pornography" in any given location is based on a "community standard."

I'll bet your friend would be truly surprised if he or she was out littering peoples' property and was suddenly arrested for distributing pornography. LOL

In our area you have to have a permit to distribute however i dont want the flyers no matter whose they are and including political sales and religous most get dumped down a street drain which causes all sort of problems the only thing that gets distributed here is the phone book