The building in his backyard is 2,000 sq. ft., and is not being used as living quarters. That’s a fairly large area when you just have people standing or sitting in chairs. It’s being used as a church building.
The article says he told the building code authorities he was constructing a game room for his family. If that’s true, then the minister lied.
Having lived in Arizona...I can say this. If a guy had an occasional five or six folks over and chatted over just about anything (to include the Bible), then no neighbor would care. The minute you build onto your property, and it starts to look like a large-scale building...that has nothing to do with a garage or hobby...and looks like something beyond a house...folks start to ask questions.
I’m guessing that cars in front of the neighbors irked folks, and that this guy really didn’t see where this was going to lead to.
The size of it is far less important than the issue here. And that is, whether or not a man has the right to hold Bible studies on his property or not - even though there is no chance of that activity harming his neighbors in any way whatsoever.
It is a sad day in America when atheists can dictate absolute restrictions on religious activities in such a ham-fisted way.
At best these local ordinance tyrants should focus on safety and proper building standards and let people decide how to use their property. I'll lie to any totalitarian bastard who oversteps their authority as the city of Phoenix has. A 45x45 building shouldn't be a problem in most neighborhoods, that's just a medium sized garage. I get that his neighbors don't like him, but haven't read anything that he has done to harm them. What don't people understand about liberty? Too many on Free Republic confuse the law with true morality and liberty, when in reality the gross balance of the law is stacked against individual freedom.