Posted on 07/08/2012 8:33:47 AM PDT by trailhkr1
Actually this is an old story that has been going on for some time. Turns out the neighbors, not the city was the ones who had the beef with Michael Salman.
Guy really ticked off his neighbors who all sided against him.
From the story: But then Salman announced that he was planning to build a church right there in his backyard. He talked about not just Sunday services, but weeknight Bible studies, a workout room and basketball court, even a Christian day care center.
"He gave us a lecture on the fact that all of us were going to make money on our property, and if we were true Christians, we ought to be willing to sacrifice a little bit," Woods recalls. "You can imagine, a few guys in the audience were all over him for that.
"That meeting is where the real animosity started. He made no effort at being conciliatory or cooperative. That really united the neighbors against him," Woods says. "He was his own worst enemy."
(Excerpt) Read more at phoenixnewtimes.com ...
“we should not permit Christians the religious freedom of having Bible studies because Muslims might have Koran studies....”
I asked how you would like it. Personally I don’t want either one next door. This goes way beyond having Bible study into something which impacts the neighbors rights.
No, this is all about residential zoning and a guy thinking he is exempt and using the religion get out of jail free card.
We have residential zoning to protect the neighborhoods and the good of all. If a house next to you wanted to put in a nudie bar under "first amendment" freedoms you would be screaming from the rooftop.
OK, I’ve read the whole piece. A lot more to it than in the initial posted piece here on FR.
I’m very big on religious freedom, in particular as persecuting Christians goes in this country.
BUT, religious freedom is not a right or carte blanche to be a flaming A hole and completely trample all over the quality of life of your neighbors. The ones, I might add, that were living there first. There is certainly nothing “Christian” about that.
RLUIPA sounds like a recipe for legal and social chaos.
If someone wants to worship and pray to the great god Zoog that’s fine. But that means privately. Not crapping up everyone’s quality of life that is near them.
I have political freedom of speech (for the time being anyway), but that doesn’t mean I can force others to listen to me. As much as I am sure they would benefit (grin).
Sure we do...over 60+ neighbors are all wrong?? Face it, this guy brought everything on himself. As the neighbors mentioned in the article, he was his own worst enemy as he was unwilling to be reasonable about anything.
You better recognize what you are living in now. A few haters can easily whip up a mob against a target. Being an out of the closet Christian is infuriating to people these days. If it was a Monday night football gathering, I don’t think the witches would have been so jacked up.
Other current events - Police stood by in Dearborn while a mob of Islamists stoned them. In that case, too, this was all justified because out of the closet Christians attended a Muslim festival. They had to right to be there, we heard. They were extremists for being there. They were forbidden a booth to had out Bible tracts which is what they wanted to do and is absolutely normal and legal in America. So they carried protest signs and for that the police stood by while little piggies from the Middle East stoned them. Dearborn had already lost in court for violating this group’s rights to participate last year and so they just did it again and police behaved like the days of the KKK. It was only demon Christians, they explained. Just like this enemy of the state who dared have Bible studies in his house. He made ‘em form the witch hunt...just like the nig-er in the noose made ‘em do the lynching. Do you know how easy it is to use the state and paper to demonize the target while he’s in prison and can’t defend himself.
It’s not exactly like Arizona is running out of land. There are options for him to locate his church than right up against people that just want a quiet place to live.
He built that after the harassment began and the State told him he could have people in his living room. I would have done worse for the mob of witchey neighbors. He was pretty Christian about it.
You don’t understand the power of hatred’s witch hunts. That’s okay.
A nude bar is not a religion. For you it might be, though. ;/
Well there is alot of things people do protected under the first amendment. I have to tolerate religious people gathering in their homes and so do you. I have to tolerate communists having political meeting in their homes and so do you. They have to tolerate conservatives and libertarians having meetings in their homes and so do you and I. That is life in a free country.
You are going to have property owners meeting in their homes. It’s none of your business. Intolerants usually complain about parking because that is where they can see the occasion and get irritated. Cops in the US would tell them to get bent unless there was a car parked illegally that they would ticket.
They have a right of self-defense. God gave it to them.
So if they bring in bad people who victimize the neighbors with crime, the second amendment provides a remedy to that while at the same time protecting the first amendment rights of property owners to conduct Bible studies in their homes. Feeling endangered by Christians is a tad odd, by the way.
When neighbors start acting like comunists...Bible studies are outlawed in China, too.
who are complemented by the CINOs who invisible and not not make spectacles of themselves, lest it cost them something in this world.
who are complemented by the CINOs who invisible and not make spectacles of themselves, lest it cost them something in this world.
Michael Salman wants to build a church in his backyard. His neighbors aren't buying it
It is normal. People generally don't want their sins pointed out to them. Consider how deeply homosexual addicts hate those who hold that homosexual behavior is a sin. The same applies to addicts of pornography and drugs/alchohol. And don't even start with smokers ...
I’m all for personal and religious freedom and the reasonable freedom to use one’s private property as one wants to use it for their own private use, but then I’m also not against reasonable zoning laws. Without such restrictions, hearings and zoning applications, what would stop my next door neighbor from opening up a publically accessible nightclub, an “adult” book store or a for or not for profit swimming club or amusement park or pig farm in their back yard?
True story: back in the late ’70’s, my brother bought a very nice house on a seemly quiet street in Severna Park MD. His next door neighbor was collecting unemployment, workers comp and monthly federal disability checks for both him and his wife, neither of which appeared to be disabled or incapable of holding a job BTW.
The next door neighbor had also completed some sort of ministerial correspondence course that enabled him to become a “minister” and proudly claimed to my brother that this “loophole” let him claim his house as a “church” and that he wrote off his mortgage payments and all other household expenses on his tax return, not only getting his disability and workers comp checks but also living completely tax free as a “minister”. He even told my brother that he should do the same; it was such an “easy” scam.
But the guy’s “ministry” consisted solely of his “Youth Outreach Ministry” which was actually nightly beer keggers, pot and porn flicks for any teenage boy willing to pony up $20 as a “donation” to his “church”. My brother turned a blind eye until the partying and noise, the teenage boys wandering into his yard and puking in his bushes at all hours of the night, the 10 to 20 cars parked on the neighbor’s lawn every night, got way, way out of hand. My brother called the local police, zoning authorities and eventually the IRS. The neighbor and his wife were eventually found out to be fraudulently collecting disability and unemployment payments and then the IRS came calling one day and the guy was lead away in handcuffs, much to the cheering and to the great relief of his neighbors.
I’m not a big fan of big government or stupid, overly restrictive and unreasonable zoning restrictions or the IRS; I’m the total opposite of the neighborhood busybody, usually adhering to the “live and let live” philosophy, but if that guy (my brother’s former neighbor) was my neighbor …. Yea, I’d use zoning laws, the IRS and anything at my disposal to shut that scam artist down and bring peace and civility back to my neighborhood.
Uh, it is wrong to invite your neighbors to shoot down your guests, particularly when simple adherence to the existing laws would have eliminated the cause for such action.
There was adherence to existing laws before the witch hunt began. You are the one who claimed fear of the Christians victimizing you. You have second amendment rights.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.