{"id":1196,"date":"2009-05-29T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indefenseofthefaith.org\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2009-06-11T09:57:47","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T13:57:47","slug":"culture-news-no-more-home-bible-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/?p=1196","title":{"rendered":"Culture News: No more home Bible studies?"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: San Diego withdraws Bible study warning<\/a><\/strong>
\n‘The weekly activity is within the scope of the residential use’<\/p>\n

\"42-16242335\"<\/p>\n

Home: No place for Bible study<\/strong><\/p>\n

County demands pastor spend thousands<\/p>\n

on ‘Major Use’ permit to host friends<\/em><\/p>\n

Posted: May 22, 2009, 5:13 pm Eastern<\/a><\/p>\n

By Drew Zahn at WorldNetDaily.com<\/p>\n

\n

A San Diego pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a county official and warned they will face escalating fines if they continue to hold Bible studies in their home.<\/p>\n

The couple, whose names are being withheld until a demand letter can be filed on their behalf, told their attorney a county government employee knocked on their door on Good Friday, asking a litany of questions about their Tuesday night Bible studies, which are attended by approximately 15 people.<\/p>\n

“Do you have a regular weekly meeting in your home? Do you sing? Do you say ‘amen’?” the official reportedly asked. “Do you say, ‘Praise the Lord’?”<\/p>\n

The pastor’s wife answered yes.<\/p>\n

She says she was then told, however, that she must stop holding “religious assemblies” until she and her husband obtain a Major Use Permit from the county, a permit that often involves traffic and environmental studies, compliance with parking and sidewalk regulations and costs that top tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

And if they fail to pay for the MUP, the county official reportedly warned, the couple will be charged escalating fines beginning at $100, then $200, $500, $1000, “and then it will get ugly.”<\/p>\n

Remind the world who’s really in charge with the “Worship GOD, not GOV” magnetic bumper sticker from WND.<\/p>\n

Dean Broyles of the Western Center for Law & Policy, which has been retained to represent the couple, told WND the county’s action not only violates religious land-use laws but also assaults both the First Amendment’s freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.<\/p>\n

“The First Amendment, in part, reads, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,'” Broyles said. “And that’s the key part: ‘prohibiting the free exercise.’ We believe this is a substantial government burden on the free exercise of religion.”<\/p>\n

He continued, “If one’s home is one’s castle, certainly you would the think the free exercise of religion, of all places, could occur in the home.”<\/p>\n

[Continue Reading…<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: San Diego withdraws Bible study warning ‘The weekly activity is within the scope of the residential use’ Home: No place for Bible study County demands pastor spend thousands on ‘Major Use’ permit to host friends Posted: May 22, 2009, 5:13 pm Eastern By Drew Zahn at WorldNetDaily.com A San Diego pastor and his wife … Continue reading Culture News: No more home Bible studies?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,86,4,78,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-culture-news","category-current-events","category-law-and-faith","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indefenseofthefaith.org\/idotf\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}