The Oasis of Truth church began meeting at Pastor Joe Sutherland’s house in November and rotated homes several times a week for Bible study and fellowship.
A Gilbert code compliance officer hit the church with a violation notice after seeing a sign near a road advertising a Sunday service.
A zoning administrator told the church that Bible studies, church leadership meetings and fellowship activities are not permitted in private homes. (read more)
Imagine. We have all that in Jordan, no problem. Other problems, yea, but no zoning issues. 
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The Scottsdale-based group has filed an appeal with the town of Gilbert, contending its code violates the U.S. Constitution.
I’ll be interested to see what happens with that. I can see how a town would want to enforce zoning regulations on official religious activities, seeing as how there are federal and state laws in play, not to mention tax exemptions for religious activities. If somebody wanted to play games it could be a mess. One of the downsides to all the protections that religious institutions get in the US is that government would naturally want to clearly define what a religious institution is. On the other hand maybe the town should have waited until somebody tried to claim they shouldn’t have to pay property taxes or something like that, before invoking zoning laws.
Yes, I smell a Constitutional court case here. Freedom to gather, etc. They can’t regulate gatherings in private homes, I think. Unless it causes a traffic problem or a fire hazard.
the only thing they need to be praying for is to get out of Gilbert. That place is a craphole
Actually (boy do i not like saying this…) but craig is absolutely right.
The issue here is not the gathering part, and if we do fox minus spin you will notice that the violation was given after “seeing a sign near a road advertising a Sunday service”
When you advertise private gatherings to the public it ceases to be private, and a religious gathering open to the public is policed by public law and zoning laws.
This actually applies to Jordan as well, you are not allowed to hold public gatherings, religious or otherwise, without going through the right channels and authorizations.
The consequence of allowing such a thing to go on is that it waters down what a church is, after all a church doesn’t need to indicate it self as such to be one after all !
when you water down the definition of what a religious institute is, like craig mentioned, you can make it easier for people to claim all those goodies that come with that status like tax exempt.
They didn’t tell them not to hold it in private, I’ll bet on that, they only told them they are not allowed to open it up to the public or advertise it publicly.
eh… thanks for the support, bambam
Hareega, thanks for that on-the-ground assessment!!
Marvin, many developments in Orange County simply don’t have the parking for extra people, and know that neighborhood Bible studies can draw twenty cars, so they ban Bible studies. It will be interesting if they ban similar meetings of other faiths.
Craig and Bam, I will keep this post as a mental screen shot, miracles do happen.
Craig, I imagine that defining a religious institution in America is like storing water in your hands, or herding cats. don’t people have to be a specific kind of org to get tax-exempt status? I can’t imagine a house-church/Bible study would be anywhere near ready for that formality…when they did, they would likely begin meeting in a school or store-front anyway.
Bam, I agree, Craig is right, and your point about posting of a sign is what made a difference.
Here it is different, I was being a bit facetious. I know of a group who used to apply for a permit to have a prayer meeting. Every year, permission was granted a month in advance, every year, permission was revoked the day before after the news had been spread and advertising spent. Now, they don’t bother to get permission, they just do it