Posted on 06/04/2009 5:49:38 PM PDT by CedarDave
The leader of a Valley church gets three years probation and a ten day suspended jail sentence for ringing church bells .
Last month, Bishop Richard Painter of Cathedral of Christ the King Church was convicted of violating noise ordinances.
A Phoenix judge convicted the Bishop without any set standard or noise dosimeter readings, instead relying on testimony from four neighbors who said the bells were a problem.
The bells chimed every hour between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The judge will allow the bells to ring once once Sundays and once during religious holidays. With help from the Alliance Defense Fund, Bishop Painter will appeael the conviction.
Who brought this case against the Bishop?
Muslims who couldn't hear their muezzin's call to prayer?
Perhaps someone with better googling skills than I have could help.
What kind of bah-humbug complains about church bells? There is nothing more innocuous on this earth than the sound of church bells.
What about the muezzin’s calls to prayer in Dearbornistan?
"...four neighbors who said the bells were a problem."
Hmmmm...I would like to know more about these neighbors.....
They think that’s bad wait until they get a mosque.
This is insane!
I love the sound of church bells. So long as it isn’t at night, what kind of jerks find a problem with this?
Then he could be Christian.
I’d like more evidence before howling over this. But then, part of the problem is that it doesn’t sound as if any objective standard of evidence was applied. Doesn’t put the court in a very strong position the next time a noise complaint is brought and there’s potentially a discriminatory aspect to it. If a mosque’s call to prayer is allowed to continue despite complaints, is it because it actually wasn’t nearly as loud as the bells? Or because the court was being indulgent towards the poor oppressed Muslims?
It’s possible that the bells really were very loud, and that people living nearby who work graveyard shifts and really need to sleep during the day were unable to block out enough noise with earplugs and closed double-pane windows to get enough sleep. Seems there also ought to be some consideration of whether the botherees moved to the site of long-standing bell noise, or whether the frequency and/or volume of the bell-ringing increased susbtantially after their arrival, or the bell-ringing was completely new since their arrival. This is a reasonable approach which has been used to deal with city folks who move the rural areas and then try to launch legal actions against neighboring farms for various sorts of smells.
Hmmm, better than impaling the conviction, I suppose.
Christ the King and Cathedral pretty much says Catholic to me but I’m wondering if it isn’t an SSPX Cathedral, they have a large following in Phoenix.
Charismatic Episcopal:
www.cctkaz.com/
LOL.
The hell with this judge. Let freedom ring.
Charismatic. Apparently they like to play Catholic.
Here’s their parent group:
“We are fully evangelical, fully charismatic, and fully liturgical/sacramental.”
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