Posted on 03/06/2015 7:25:29 AM PST by hoagy62
My pastor shared this article today. It's about a Lake Worth, Florida church that meets in a coffee house.
***snip***
The church owns and operates a coffee house in downtown Lake Worth. For the past three months, it has used the coffee house for a weekly worship service. Prior to that the congregation rented space in other buildings in the community.
Pastor Mike Olive told me there had not been any problems until early last month, when he had an encounter with Andy Amoroso, a city commissioner.
After we opened up the coffee bar and started doing services, I heard that he told people we were anti-gay, Olive said. So I went to his shop to ask him about that.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
yo buddy, if you take the kings money you follow the kings rules...
churches enjoy tax free status and tax breaks...
want the government to butt out, them pay your taxes like everyone else..
can’t have it both ways
This sounds like a zoning issue, not an anti-religious issue per se, even if the complaint was filed by a homosexual.
Oh yes we can have it both ways. Freedom of religion must include freedom from taxation because taxation opens the doors to government coercion in a manner which is forbidden by the 1st Amendment. Requiring churches to pay taxes is encumbering a right of the people and is ethically no different than a poll tax.
Free speech a stupid pesky amendment and free assembly....in your world you can regulate it to death and pretend you are still free.
They were meeting in the coffee shop once a week. If I ran a Dungeons & Dragons gaming group, and we decided to rent a restaurant's "party" room on Sunday mornings, it would not be anybody's business. WE would not need a business license, the establishment we held our meetings in would have one.
The lawyer's letter to the city notes that the city's own regulations (quoted in the linked letter) specifically EXCLUDE churches from needing a business license.
And yes, they can have it both ways.
Why do you hate the Constitution?
/johnny
What’s wrong with being anti-gay?
Do you seriously think that paying taxes will get the government to "butt out"? Seriously? When has that EVER worked, for ANYONE, anywhere?
Bump
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