County Trying To Stop Home Bible Studies

12:00 PM Posted In , Edit This 0 Comments »
"A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold bible studies in their home...
The county employee notified the couple that the small bible study, with an average of 15 people attending, was in violation of county regulations, according to Broyles.
Broyles said a few days later the couple received a written warning that listed "unlawful use of land" and told them to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit" -- a process that could cost tens of thousands of dollars."
I'm not surprised at all, really. I've seen a handful of articles over the past couple of years involving the same issue with earth-based religious groups who don't have anywhere else to go (i.e. no church). They're common enough that I don't have any articles at hand to cite.
Most likely the real problem here is the neighbours complaining about parking and noise. Since the studies are on a weekly basis, the neighbours have to fight for parking and listen to "Praise the Lord!" and "Hallelujah!" every five minutes.
I don't know about San Diego, but here in Eugene, at least, we work out regular events with our neighbours before calling the cops. For example, someone I know hosts weekly play parties at his house and when they grew fairly large, he asked his guests to park at a nearby park and to keep the noise down because they are held on a weeknight. Then again, the BDSM community is rather accustomed to the nuances of not attracting attention.

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