Posted on 03/13/2010 5:21:54 AM PST by stars & stripes forever
The city of Gilbert, Ariz., has ordered a group of seven adults to stop gathering for Bible studies in a private home because such meetings are forbidden by the city's zoning codes. The issue was brought to a head when city officials wrote a letter to a pastor and his wife informing them they had 10 days to quit having the meetings in their private home. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Ummm...Dear Steve you just bought your city a civil rights law suit, what are you going to do NEXT???
There goes that right to peacefully assemble.
ACLJ = American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian organization that would be happy to come to their defense.
Happens every football season.. :)
I just thought of another thing. I wonder if the Gibson lawmakers decided that banning home religious meetings is, in a roundabout way, preventing the possibility that Muslims might meet to plan terrorist attacks. I know I have heard that argument before when a Christian activity is banned. The real reason is to stop other groups like Muslims or satanists and the like from claiming the right to hold meetings. In today’s pc climate, you can’t ban just a few, you have to ban all. Just a thought.
oops Gilbert, not Gibson... dang I knew I got that wrong.
>> However.. would you REALLY want your neighbor running a church or anything else very regular out of his house filling up the street with cars ect?
They already do, in our neighborhood. Very regular bible study meeings with about THIRTY (shudder) TEENAGERS.
They don’t make noise, yes their cars fill the street to some extent, and yes, they’re teenagers so they drive like such when they’re leaving.
But they’re polite and respectful and what’s more they’re studying God’s word rather than smoking dope.
We haven’t taken a poll, but it’s certainly OK with Mrs. Tick and me and we haven’t heard anyone complain.
The Bible study attendees should call themselves 'community organizers'. Problem solved.
It is a dumb rule that will be changed at the next Council meeting. Listen to the whole story. The church was actually soliciting with neighborhood signs for attendees. A little different situation than what was presented (just a Bible study). Without the signs, then the church would never have been targeted.
How about signs in the neighborhood like “Come to our football party, $10 gets you drinks and snacks. Watch on a 42” television.”
A more appropriate law/code may be how many people could actually attend a function (any funcition) in a given house. This has safety and nuisance considerations.
My hubby says, do it anyway and pay the fine.
Look like someone with a grudge against religion to me.
Banned....in my HOME....
Like WTHell!
“Don’t get out to church much, huh? That’s one of the least likely scenarios. The impetus is probably is someone who was part of the targeted group who got his panties in a knot over some decision in which he felt slighted, left in a huff, and then started this to retaliate.”
On the contrary, I am a regular Baptist Church attendee for 25 years. I was just thinking of scenarios that might have caused this odd law to come into effect. ALthough I agree that a large church interfering with the practices of non denominational ones is a long shot, it is certainly not unheard of. I was once a member of the Anglican Church, and they could not resist taking pot shots, albeit polite ones, at fundamentalist churches. A local cable station that is all Roman Catholic also presents programming that marginalizes Protestant groups in general. So, the possibility exists although not probable.
Relabel the meetings “parties” and keep right on holding them.
But in our country, this is unconstitutional, and these nattering Nabobs of negativity should lose their jobs, at the very least. Too bad we don't have Haman's gallows...
When I first saw the headline I thought, this must be in a place like Dubai or Yemen or something. Gilbert, AZ? WTF?
Um, seems to me there’s a right to free expression of religion. And of speech. And the right of the People to peaceably assemble.
It’s dhimmies like this crew that are bringing the Country to it’s knees, and not only with stupid announcements like this...their peers in Government at all levels are violating the oaths they took to “Protect and Defend...” almost as soon as they took office. What’s worse, we actually pay these yammerheads a lot of money to come up with insanity like this.
This is the stuff that feeds revolutions, and a lot of people around the country have had just about enough of this. At some point we need to tear it down and get back to basics the way this Country was intended to be run.
If the Founders were to pop back in right now, they would not recognize the Country we have created, and would be stunned that we so casually threw everything they created for us away.
The lawyer must be having a field day, trying to figure out what constitutional right they are going to defend, Freedom of Religion, Freedom to Assemble, or Freedom of Speech
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