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Christian school sues Oregon county over right to meet at church property
Christian Post ^ | 01/14/2020 | Michael Gryboski

Posted on 01/14/2020 7:38:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind

A Christian school that meets at a church has filed a lawsuit against an Oregon county after officials told the congregation that the school could not use the property.

Skopos Christian School, which has around 30 students, began to hold classes at Faith on Hill Church in Milwaukie last year after they had to leave their former building. Skopos and Faith on Hill are both being represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative law firm based in Sacramento, California.

PJI explained in a statement released last week that they're filing the suit under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA for short.

“Essentially, the county has been fining the church for letting Skopos use its wing in a manner consistent with the terms of the church’s permit,” explained PJI attorney Ray Hacke in the statement.

“Nothing in the permit limits the wing’s use to Sunday school classes and Wednesday night Bible studies. The wing is being used for what it was built for, and suing under RLUIPA was the only way to stop the county from misusing its power to suppress religious exercise.”

According to PJI, Clackamas has sent letters to the church telling them that having the Christian school operate on their property violates the terms of their permit.

The Christian Post reached out to both the County of Clackamas and Skopos Christian School for this story, however neither returned comment by press time.

Enacted in 2000, RLUIPA is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against religious institutions regarding landmark and zoning laws.

“RLUIPA prohibits zoning and landmarking laws that substantially burden the religious exercise of churches or other religious assemblies or institutions absent the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling governmental interest,” explained the United States Department of Justice.

Last July, a Florida church successfully won a legal battle against a county that was fining them for opening a school for children with disabilities on their property.

Crosspoint Church voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit against Sarasota County after reaching a settlement in which the county waived a daily $250 fine against the church.

“We commend Sarasota County for changing course, approving Crosspoint’s zoning request, and reimbursing the church’s hefty application fee,” said Kyle McCutcheon of the Alliance Defending Freedom, who represented Crosspoint.

“The county already allows the church to host a secular charter school on its property and has now correctly determined that Crosspoint has an equal right to host a private Christian school that’s motivated by its convictions.”


TOPICS: Current Events; Evangelical Christian; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: christianschool; lawsuit; oregon; property

1 posted on 01/14/2020 7:38:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The government should not be restricting churches.

When main stream denominations allowed themselves to fall under zoning laws.

They broke the dam.


2 posted on 01/14/2020 7:45:22 AM PST by riverrunner ( o the public,)
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To: SeekAndFind

I think all houses of worship should pay normal property taxes. Gets rid of deciding what is a church or not. Like Scientology. It’s against the spirit of the law. (If you will)

Why can’t any one of us declare that we are a church and stop paying property taxes? Who is to decide? The state? Under what criteria?


3 posted on 01/14/2020 8:00:11 AM PST by Concentrate (ex-texan was right and Always Right was wrong, which is why we lost the election.)
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To: Concentrate

The Peyote Churches do.


4 posted on 01/14/2020 8:02:39 AM PST by Scrambler Bob (This is not /s. It is just as viable as any MSM 'information', maybe more so!)
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To: Concentrate

Neither primary residences nor churches should pay property taxes. Church has are non-profit organizations.

Churches located on valuable land would be forced to move. Moreover, there would be pressure to use eminent domain if they refused to give up prime land.

What you have against churches?


5 posted on 01/14/2020 8:13:24 AM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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To: SeekAndFind; goodnesswins; PROCON; Twotone; VeryFRank; Clinging Bitterly; Rio; aimhigh; ...

If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.

Please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.

6 posted on 01/14/2020 9:12:16 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: SecAmndmt

**Churches located on valuable land would be forced to move.**

Not if they have a workable plan for that land.


7 posted on 01/14/2020 9:13:29 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: SeekAndFind

More anti-Christian persecution coming from Democrat-run government.


8 posted on 01/14/2020 1:37:26 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: SecAmndmt
Neither primary residences nor churches should pay property taxes.

But how do you prevent someone from over-landing their primary residence? Is there a limit on size? Can a married couple have a 10acre 30bedroom mansion, and not pay anything? If I own an apartment complex, and live in one of the units, can I declare the entire property as my primary residence? After all, it is contiguous and I live on it.

I don't have a great answer for this, but at a minimum you should be unable to have your land stolen for non-payment of property taxes. Simply cease any and all city services covered by the taxes until such time as the homeowner is paid up. (Water/trash is use based fees separately billed, so you can't claim this makes the location unliveable.) I bet most insurances won't cover you if you aren't covered by police/fire, so that's a risk people will have to take, and a good incentive to not do this. BUT, either way, the city is not allowed to lien/garnish/foreclose/etc on you simply for not paying property taxes.
9 posted on 01/14/2020 1:40:38 PM PST by Svartalfiar
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To: Svartalfiar

Property taxes for non-commercial dwellings imply that the owner of the property does not really own it. They are quasi-commie in that regard. There is no reason not to simply cover services like fire and sewage using sales taxes and even a poll tax.

As to apartments, simply charge sales tax on rent. The only one not paying is the resixent owner who is not renting.

I have no desire to soak the rich with their big houses. Socialism simply impoverished both the middle class and the nation.

There are middle class people around here on the hook for $25k/year property taxes on $600k homes in good areas.


10 posted on 01/14/2020 3:18:44 PM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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To: Salvation

“Not if they have a workable plan for that land.”

What plan for church land will return the same revenue as a mall?


11 posted on 01/14/2020 3:19:46 PM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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To: SecAmndmt
Property taxes for non-commercial dwellings imply that the owner of the property does not really own it. They are quasi-commie in that regard. There is no reason not to simply cover services like fire and sewage using sales taxes and even a poll tax.

Hell, property taxes on commercial dwellings imply that the owner doesn't really own it. And yes, sewage, water, garbage, all of that is easily covered by usage fees: Rowlett sends me a ~$100 bill every month for all of that. But services like fire or police can't be usage-based, as the break-even cost would be too much for the few people who do use them. But a sales tax can't really cover it - people spend money outside the city, and why would outsiders be responsible for covering those services? And more importantly, how does a primarily residential city recover any sales taxes, whereas a primarily commercial/industrial city will have an overflow of $$. City-level services mostly need to be fed from the city, and excusing the people that live there isn't viable for most places.


As to apartments, simply charge sales tax on rent. The only one not paying is the resixent owner who is not renting.

Sure, but as a commercial venture, would any apartment landlord be immune to commercial property taxes? What if there's a laundromat or restaurant in the complex? How do you start splitting the percentages of the property into business that is property taxed, vs residences that are sales taxed? How do you split parking/outdoor seating/other amenities?


I have no desire to soak the rich with their big houses. Socialism simply impoverished both the middle class and the nation.

You aren't soaking the rich when you have a flat rate: it's fair for everyone at all levels. Why should someone with a massive house and ten acres pay the same flat amount as each of a hundred people with tenth-acre lots? That's a lot of area that isn't getting equally taxed if the city isn't charging more for a bigger property.


There are middle class people around here on the hook for $25k/year property taxes on $600k homes in good areas.

And it sounds like 'around here' is a rather high-tax area. IU hope you're getting quite a lot of services out of the city at that price! Around here, a $250M house gives you about $5500 in taxes. Most of that school district, which is a whole 'nother issue we could have a couple conversations about.
12 posted on 01/15/2020 3:22:02 PM PST by Svartalfiar
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