A pastor in California hosts a weekly Bible Study meeting attended by approximately fifteen people in his home. He's been told that he cannot continue to do so without obtaining a Major Use Permit from the county, and has been threatened with escalating fines if he does not comply.
This insidius form of back-door persecution, in the form of forced registration and requirement of government permits in order to share the gospel or meet with believers, used to be reserved for severely oppresive nations such as China. Surely, this can't happen in America where the first amendment to the Constitution protects our right to free speech, free assembly, and free practice of religion, can it?
Apparently, it can.
Home: No Place For Bible Studyhttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=98895I hate to say, "I told you so." But, it's kind of hard not to, when I've been trying to make people wake up and get their head out of the sand and realize their church could be next on the list for SIXTEEN YEARS.
Wake up, people. I don't care if you're Christian, Budhist, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Athiest, Agnostic, or one of the two-dozen some odd smaller faiths that I have neglected to mention - you believe in *something,* even if it is the belief that there is nothing to believe in. And when the day comes that your belief isn't what the government wants you to believe, you will be the one with government agents at your door.
Wake up, now. Stand up, now, and say "enough." Write to your representatives. Call your local media. Let them know that this is an outrageous abuse of civil rights, and we ARE NOT GOING TO STAND FOR IT ANYMORE.
Wake up, and take a stand for the freedom of others - BEFORE it is your freedom being threatened.
Rec this, copy & paste it to your own site, email it to your friends, whatever. Spread the word.
Before it is too late.
Comments (14)
This is the kind of thing the ACLU is very good at defending against. I suspect a neighbor complained about all the cars parked on his lawn and a over-zealous bureaucrat instigated the action.
Does a religious group have unfettered right to disrupt a neighborhood? Here in the US we allow more religious freedom than most countries but is there (or should there be) limits on disruptive religious behavior?I would like your input on a recent post of mine.
CLICK HERE.
(http://thegreatbout.xanga.com/702442500/rethinking-freedom-of-religion/)
@tychecat - I agree with your guess. I think the same thing. This is just an idiotic bureaucrat overstepping his bounds in response to complaints made by a neighbor.
this article doesn't pass the sniff test. no names, fuzzy details, sensationalistic.
not particularly uncommon with WND.
more details are needed before any third party can know what's really going on here
You say, "I've been trying to make people wake up and get their head out of the sand and realize..."
I also have been trying to make people wake up and get their head out of the sand and realize that our citizenship is in heaven and we are called to do his will for his purposes. This world has been given over to the power of darkness.
I'd write the congressman of the district i live in but i ain't talking to people who do business with Saudi Arabia.
How do I recommend this... I have not ever done it before but this needs to go out!
The days of thinking this was just an "overjealous bureaucrat" are long gone. We've reached the tipping point where over 51% of the people hate religion and feel it interferes with their "good times" or simply don't care or in the case of some Christians prefer to just look the other way and pray it doesn't come to their town. It's the same story that throughout history has repeated itself over and over.
This is a systematic, well thought out, actively executed plan to destroy religion. It's the same plan or variation that has been used in places like Chine, russia, england, Spain, etc. etc.
It's good vs. evil. And for the first time in my lifetime, evil is winning with it's accomplices in high places.
WTF!!! (Where's Their Faith!!????) People assume...which makes an "ass"..out of..."U" and "me!!"
This article amkes a person think,..however!! In California,..I do believe,..anything could happen!!
......Stanelle
@tychecat - You have read a lot into the article that isn't there. If fifteen people meeting once a week is "disrupting a neighborhood," then every backyard bar-b-q with a handful of friends taking place today is "disrupting" the neighborhood and should be illegal as well.
@WyomingSheepRanch - The attorney and the location are clearly named. The article says the couple's name is being withheld pending filing of legal papers. This is fairly common practice and enough other names are given to do any independent research you wish (though if your idea of independent research is what you can google, you will probably be dissappointed). If you think the story is false, why don't you pick up the phone and call the San Diego county clerk's office?
I'm trying not to take sides in this individual/religious rights argument. This clearly is an attempt by San Diego to curtail the rights "to assemble peaceably", which are well inshrined in our civil law codes.
I don't think a careful look at the evidence will show that a majority (or even a very substantial minority) of people in the US "hate Religion". We are probably the most religious developed nation in the world. UNESCO did a sort of poll a few years ago and the US results indicted that over 70% of us were strong religious believers. The next highest was Ireland at 40%. Most of the European nations were in the 10-12% strong religious believer category.@radicalramblings - you seem awfully eager to accept everything in the article as 100% accurate. i have better things to do with my time than to hunt down leads on a xanga post. the truth will come out and i'm a patient fellow.
and i don't know what you think is "common practice." if this is a matter of public record, there is no reason to withhold the names; it's not as if the parties here are or would be anonymous.
@WyomingSheepRanch - You seem awfully eager to dismiss the article as 100% false. The only way to ever know if *any* news article is accurate or not is to do your own research - and if you have "better things to do" than discover the truth, I'm not sure why we're having this discussion at all.
actually, i did not dismiss the article as "100% false." i said "more details are needed before any third party can know what's really going on here." in contrast, you are already up in arms over scant and vague information from a single source (unless you're holding out?) that sounds highly sensationalistic: invocations of nazi germany, a "litany of questions" on good friday, etc.
you are incorrect about how to tell if a news story is true. these things typically flesh themselves out. why would i spend time digging up info on a story that will play itself
out (i.e., the truth will "present itself to me in due time")? if i
were to set out on a quest to "discover the truth" about all of WND's
preposterous story lines (see obama, birth certificate), when would i have time to do anything else??
Just in case someone else reads this post. You need to know that San Diego apologized for its mistake. See the article.