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 ...
A real winner here who makes Christians look like loons.
A real winner here who makes Christians look like loons.
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It can get ugly when people confuse being persecuted for their beliefs and being persecuted for acting like a complete and total jackass.
A real winner here who makes Christians look like loons.
****
It can get ugly when people confuse being persecuted for their beliefs with being persecuted for acting like a complete and total jackass.
That is all gossip and heresay of a mob who now need to justify themselves for getting a Christian man put in jail for having Bible studies. The man was sent to jail for having Bible meetings in his home. He was not sent to jail for all the gossip nonsense and would have been if he really did refuse to obey all laws as this pack of hyenas claim.
They know what they did has pissed off the country and now they are trying to justify their mob action witch hunt against a Christian man by demonizing him. In truth, we don’t know what happened and who he is.
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.
Face it SJ, a person who thinks he is exempt from traffic tickets because he has "diplomatic immunity" from God is not dealing with a full deck.
Thanks for the followup, always good to get as much info as available to put a story into perspective. I haven't time to read the whole thing at the moment. Interested in hearing the other side.
But.....whatever this man does is not automatically a blanket statement on "Christians". Although this sort of thing is usually presented that way.
Oh, good grief.
I have seen a church break up because they argued about what color carpet to put in the sanctuary, and whether to go from organ to piano.
About fifty people walked out because the pastor replaced the organ with a piano, and went with the majority opinion on the carpet color.
My sister says quite frequently there would be more Christians if it weren’t for Christians.
What is one to do when their exercise of their property rights severely affects the property rights of their neighbors? Freedom of religion seems secondary to property rights in this instance. The religious freedom of this guy is a problem only when he violates zoning laws and inconveniences his neighbors. What if the Muslim next door to you sounds the call to prayer five times daily and has prayers at his house in a residential neighborhood with residential zoning?
The gov’t and the neighbors should have gone in and burned the whole place down with everybody in it just like Waco.
I agree 100%
Although this sort of thing is usually presented that way.
I also agree 100%. That being said, there will be a certain amount of Christians who will stick up for him no matter what, even if he is wrong. That is just as sad.
You might try going to the article and reading all of it.
Guy’s a punk.
Good Sunday morning.
Yes, there are those magic christians who, in order to fulfill the need to be persecuted in order to be validated, go out of their way to be obnoxious and make spectacles of themselves.
There are warped nuts in every cause.
I have had to stand my ground many times in giving out gospel tracts in public, but this sounds too much like Ken Hovind’s unreasonable insistence that he was exempt from building codes, etc.
And maybe it will help to repeat what i said in the original thread on this,
From what I read the man want to have public meetings three times a week in a 2,000 square foot building, which has a pulpit and chairs for as many as 40 people, which he built after obtaining a a permit to convert a garage into a game room.
The city of Phoenix forbids any other occupancy or use, which can be sticky (what if they played Bible games), but the man apparently could have a church there if he complied with the normal requirements for such.
The question is whether the state has a legit interest is not only insuring homes are safely built, but that meeting houses of a certain size can require more safety features.
And at what size or frequency does having regular meetings for any purpose at your house require these extra requirements.
These are legit questions as i see them, and both sides need to be reasonable, with tolerance but not compromise, which can be a grey area.
Your touting group identity and collective guilt on a forum dedicated to individual and religious freedom makes newbies look like loons, lol.
I admit I could have worded it better..
Yup. Everything he’s done since his “ordination” would indicate a convicted felon and practicing con man cloaked in the mantel of religion. Why not? Worked for Jim Jones.
What if the Muslim next door to you sounds the call to prayer five times daily and has prayers at his house in a residential neighborhood with residential zoning?
We should not permit Americans to have the second amendment because Muslims and Black might get guns an murder people.
This case was over a man having Bible studies in his house - a legal activity under the first amendment. After massive harassment by his witchey neighbors, he was raided by the State and told it was unsafe to have people in his living room. So he moved it outside. Then they banned him from having it outside because he built an overhang to protect his friends from the weather. They were harassing the nig-er, er, I mean Christian.
Moving into an existing residentially zoned community and starting up a church ~ that attracts strangers, not all of whom can be assumed to be honest ~ may well create the appearance of endangering the neighbors.
They have a right of self-defense. God gave it to them.
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