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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Home Bible Studies Threatened by Government

Recently my attention was drawn to an article of news in San Diego County, California.
I present the article as I obtained it, here it is.

SAN DIEGO -- 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, 10News reported.

Attorney Dean Broyles of The Western Center For Law & Policy was shocked with what happened to the pastor and his wife.

Broyles said, "The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say amen?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say praise the Lord?' 'Yes.'"


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.

"For churches and religious assemblies there's big parking concerns, there's environmental impact concerns when you have hundreds or thousands of people gathering. But this is a different situation, and we believe that the application of the religious assembly principles to this Bible study is certainly misplaced," said Broyles.

News of the case has rapidly spread across Internet blogs and has spurred various reactions.

Broyles said his clients have asked to stay anonymous until they give the county a demand letter that states by enforcing this regulation the county is violating their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion.

Broyles also said this case has broader implications.

"If the county thinks they can shut down groups of 10 or 15 Christians meeting in a home, what about people who meet regularly at home for poker night? What about people who meet for Tupperware parties? What about people who are meeting to watch baseball games on a regular basis and support the Chargers?" Broyles asked.

Broyles and his clients plan to give the County their demand letter this week.

If the County refuses to release the pastor and his wife from obtaining the permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.
San Diego News

In response to this, I wrote an email challenging other Christians to write the San Diego County Government that was responsible for the above..

I did a search for their website and sent an email to one of the contacts listed on the page. I sent one to: Write here

gliceria.magpayo@sdcounty.ca.gov

I also provided their phone number for others to call them. Bot listed here.

I sent a letter directed to them which reads as follows:

Dear San Diego County Official,

I would like to remind you, that the FREEDOM OF SPEECH and the RIGHT TO ASSEMBLY are foundations to which this country was built on. Your actions against a Christian couple in your county remind me of the very actions taking place against Christian's in "Communist China" right now.
With what authority can you act upon, in treating the gathering of anyone in this country within their home, for lawful purposes. Lawful purposes means those rights that our forefather''s died and shed their blood for, to prevent just such excesses of a Police State, to keep America free, I find that what you have done is absolutely, the most outrageous thing one County could think they could do!
.
Will you, let your personal predjudices threaten your very freedoms, I am sure not. Perhaps, the next time someone is invited to your home for a dinner, or a poker party or whatever it is you enjoy having friends and family over for, they would require a permit and a little harrassment for you. I can only pray that you will awake to your actions and see the error of your way. I pray that this case will go to the people, if necessary and gathering the reaction and comments on the San Diego News where I read about your adversarial actions against Christ and His people, the people will declare you guilty of violating their rights and perhaps you will find yourself in the U.S. Supreme Court at tremendous cost and time to your county official and those behind these horrible actions. I pray that whoever was responsible for this, will not only repent of their actions but they would beg the forgiveness of the people of the United States of America for thinking they can power over others in such a way as to bring harm to the body of Christ!
I can only say, you are seriously wrong and need to re-consider your actions and remove the responsible party that took these actions from public service, for it is clear this person or perhaps your whole county is not serving the public but your own selfish whims and desires, It is time our public servants become just that, public servants and not elitist rulers who just want to power over others. It would suffice to say, your actions are the sorriest actions yet taken by a governmental official.....

Brother Joe Black
Athens, Texas

I received a response from them just yesterday.
It reads as follows:

Good Afternoon,



This letter is in response to your interest in the recent Code Enforcement Complaint case involving a Bible Study in Bonita, California. It is unfortunate that a routine code enforcement complaint resulted in the questioning of the County of San Diego’s commitment to religious freedom. Please be assured, this code enforcement case dealt with land use issues and not religious beliefs.



As you may already know, on Friday, May 29, 2009 the County ended its code enforcement action. The Bible Study will continue to meet. Further, the property owner will not be required to obtain a major use permit for the activity.



In order to respond to the comments in your correspondence, it may be helpful to provide a brief explanation of the events that unfolded in recent weeks regarding this case. Unfortunately, some of the media coverage of this event did not include all of the information regarding this case.



The County of San Diego Code Enforcement Division receives 3,000 to 4,000 code complaints annually. The responsibility of the Code Enforcement Division is to determine that activities and associated offsite impacts comply with the County’s land use regulations. In April 2009, a complaint was received from a member of the public stating that a private residence was holding religious meetings (Bible study) every Tuesday evening and people were double parking in the cul-de-sac (at least 30-40 cars) The complainant also stated there had been damage to both of his cars during these events.



Upon receiving the complaint, Code Enforcement staff first sought to determine how the event would be classified under the County Zoning Ordinance. The Zoning Ordinance is the document that defines various land uses and impacts (such as traffic impacts) on communities within the County. Given the fact that the complaint described the meetings as “religious”, the determination that needed to be made was whether the weekly event should be classified as a religious assembly. Under the Zoning Ordinance a religious assembly is defined as “religious services involving public assembly, such as customarily occurs in synagogues, temples, and churches” and would require a Major Use Permit to address impacts of the use such as traffic and noise to nearby property owners. Based on the original code complaint description of the size and frequency of the events and the parking impacts, County staff thought this use could be considered a “religious assembly.”



When the Code Enforcement staff visited the site and spoke to the property owner, they asked a series of questions attempting to determine whether the meetings constituted a “religious assembly’ and the extent to which the meetings impacted the neighborhood. Unfortunately, Code Enforcement staff incorrectly interpreted the event as a religious assembly and issued an Administrative Warning requiring that the property obtain a Major Use Permit (MUP) for the activity to continue.



County programs do not seek to regulate Bible studies; however in this case there was an incorrect staff interpretation that the event was more than a Bible study. After County management reviewed the case and additional information provided by the property owner, staff determined the event is a Bible study that is allowed within the scope of a residential use and thus requires no use permit. Therefore a letter was sent to the property owner rescinding the Administrative Warning, and stating that no MUP would be required for continuation of the weekly Bible study event given the scope described by the property owner and in consideration of the property owners’ ability and willingness to appropriately address parking concerns.



Upon review of this case, several factors contributed to this error. The Code Enforcement staff incorrectly made the finding based in no small measure on unclear language in the Zoning Ordinance. In response, the County is taking steps to address this unclear language so that a situation like this does not happen in the future.



Again, let me assure you, the County never had any desire or intention to stop anyone from holding a Bible Study meeting. We addressed Pastor Jones’ case solely as a land use issue.



If you have any additional questions, or if you would like to speak to us further, please contact:





Gig Conaughton

Public Affairs Officer

Department of Planning and Land Use

County of San Diego

(858) 495-5481

gig.conaughton@sdcounty.ca.gov


Now with all that said. I would like to add, the problem lies as I haven't written in the past, with churches that put themselves under the State in the first place, with incorporation, buildings, and being all about money, and real estate. This created the ability for the government to not only regulate the church, and to oversee their money and real estate but in essence it replaced Christ as the Head and put the STATE in POWER OVER THEM, thus there will not only be regulations pertaining to where you can assemble but what area of the city, and many other laws, including fire marshall laws, etc. This is the result, and in truth we can't be upset with government because they are only exercising the powers that the church handed them.. Christ never came to create an institution nor did He come to build a physical empire of money and real estate. It was about relationship on an equal basis as His people being restored to the image of God in behavior. Instead man chose over 1900 years to supercede all Christ did with the traditions of men, and ever since they have more and more handed what once was intended to be without organization or devised structure of men, but of God and the Spirit, they have turned it into an institution that must find itself subject to the authorities for they have agreed to do so, by incorporationg under man's law and man's ways, and therefore all for the sake of greed and money, must deal now with the government overseeing their money, how it is spent, where and when, and what kind of building they can have and where. I wrote only to express my opinion of the fact that if any man should want to meet with any man, and have relationship in Christ with others, the government should have no say so, however the idea of the separation of church and state was thrown out by the church long ago, and now as you see is subject to it's ever whim and even things like ZONING LAWS. Since when can a Christian be told where to meet and with how many, since the false prophets, teachers and "PastorS" sold it all over to the STATE! Sorry baby, it's nobodies fault but your own, and it's going to get a lost worse before it gets better until the church wakes up to who she really is, and not the Babylon it has become!

Dr. J.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Red Storm Rising- America Has Fallen!

When President Obama ran for office and even while in office, he proclaimed a hard stance on China for devaluing the American Dollar. The lies he told are no different than all the lies that American leadership has told forever. I must ask Americans, how did you expect the President and Congress to spend so much money without borrowing it? They couldnt of course, America is broke, it is a broken nation both morally and financially.. America right now is in debt to the Communist Chinese for the mere amount of 798,000,000,000,000 dollars! That is 798 BILLION DOLLARS...who you ask really owns this country, the people of the nation of America or the Communist Chinese? I wrote about the book written by Chinese military leadership, called "Unlimited Warfare", and told people last year, they were experts at it.
They have accomplished along with the help of the elitist leadership of this country, the sell out, with the help of corporations like Wal Mart and the silence of the American people they have won the war. They own us now! Financially we are forever in debt to the tune of almost a TRILLION DOLLARS to those who once were enemies of Free Enterprise and Freedom in general.. We have begun to take on more and more the look of our Chinese bed partners.. There is a scripture that says "Bad company corrupts good morals"!
We are there.

We have managed to murder since Rowe versus Wade, Forty Five MILLION, children with abortion, we have further managed to accept homosexuality as a way of life, and now most states will change their marriage laws to include this as NORMAL and LEGAL Marriage. Hard core conservative Vice President Cheney who loves torture, proclaimed in a recent TV interview, that all forms of relationship and marriage should be acceptable and legal! I can't wait until people start marrying their dogs!
What a nightmare has befallen a nation that has loved money, success, riches and material things before God. Of course, the greatest farce was that anyone could say America was a Christian nation. From it's founding it was based on greed, and avarice, and though certain words were used, like Providence, or God, in no way makes a country "Christian". The fact is most if not most of the founding fathers weren't Christian regardless of what history the evangelicals have tried to re-write. Most were Masons, or Dietist, owned slaves, practiced Masonic rights, and other paganism.
I am a full fledged Preterist in my eschatology, and watching the kingdoms of this world including America who so prided itself on it's self made moralism fall even convinces me more, that only the Kingdom of God is everlasting,I am glad I am in that city from above, the New Jerusalem and not a part of these kingdoms, I only live here, but to be in the world is not to be " of the world".

History proves that every great kingdom has fallen, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and even Israel have all fell and are now part of the dust of history. America will not outlast any one of them, as Rome only lasted a mere 500 years and we have gone beyond the moral decadence, the financial problems that Rome had when it fell. We have turned America into a hodgepodge of all religion, and races of men, Paganism is rampart in America, We have no sovereign language anymore, nor are any cities that exist now that aren't a melting pot of every race, creed, color and religion. There is nothing left that I remember as a child left of what it used to be, but this could only be expected, as I said there is "no such thing as a Christian nation". America as all nations has destroyed itself within, for a people that calls itself "Christian" by poll to the tune of 80%, to me it is the grandest joke ever told by anyone, superseding any great punch line that even the greatest of comedians could come up with. Yes, the Red Storm is Rising and America has fallen.
Recent news shows that there is much more sorrow for the death of a abortion doctor than all the children he murdered. I personally don't believe in any kind of violence, or that this is the answer to the aborton issue, but it goes to show, just like all the so called Christians who believe in war for the sake of country, are seriously misguided and deluded in error, to what TRUE CHRISTIANITY IS!
When 70 % of the population says they beleive in torturing other human beings for the sake of their own personal safety, that means less than 10% of those who claim to be Christian out of 80% truly understand scripture and the work of Christ, and the value of life- eternal life and that we are not to fear those who can kill only the body but to fear Him who can cast both body and all that a man is into eternal death with no chance of life!They who fear the imaginary enemies of man, could not stand alongside Christ at His crucifixion, Stephen at his stoning, nor a thousand martyrs who rather than resist, died in Christ knowing their hope was in Christ, and that to leave this world was only to be absolutely with the Lord. People say they believe in heaven, and that when they die they go there, but judging by the fear they live in, and have managed to allow the government to motivate their moral judgements, and everything else you can imagine says very loudly much differently..

Yes, there is a Red Storm Arising, and your enemy is not the Muslim, or even the Chinese, Americans enemy is herself,in her love for money, she has forgotten what the Lord said.....YOU CANNOT LOVE THE GOD OF RICHES ( MAMMON) AND LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD...the one true God... AMERICA has fallen, and their is no chance of rescue, it is all down hill from here...unless you come out of Babylon, and turn to Christ, there is no chance for you individually to overcome the death of this world.
Even now in American just like China, home churches are being shut down for the sake of the world sold out, institutional church who is founded on it's pride of ownership and grand buildings and it's servitude to the government as it is under it as corporation and for what the sake of money!
Saving Israel ( the false nation of Zealots, has done nothing to save America, has it? Of course not, we have supported a nation of people that are not Jews but who have manipulated the American evangelicals into monetary support for their apartheid cause, and their Anti- Christ beliefs...Sorry christians who believe in all that non-scriptural Dispensational Zionist Baloney, which is a mere lie...you have been manipulated and used for the advancement of death and torture to thousands if not millions of other people as well...

Unless American Christians get in their Bible and quit listening to the false prophets of the land, they too will disappear into the annals of history to be known no more... An Archaeologist of the futures dream to find what we left behind, and the Anthropoligist dream to interpret why it happened. I know why it has all happened. Do you know why it happened? Study and show thyself approved...I doubt it all we have time is for making more money and spending it...don't you just love your money,.....the answer....it is the love of money that is the root of ALL EVIL!

Where cometh the Red Storm, it cometh our way and soon, very soon, we will be a complete totalitarian government no less than China or Russia, where the government owns it all, dictates it all, and where it's desenters will be shipped off to some Siberia or other far away land to be tortured and murdered for making a stand for FREEDOM and the LOVE OF GOD above all things.. It's here already, when your own job tells you to keep political statements to yourself, yet they express theirs but since it isnt agreement with everyone else, your shunned for standing up and expressing TRUTH ABOVE ALL THINGS... Truth no longer matters in America, I don't know that it ever has, but at one time, it seemed to have a greater weight on the minds of Americans than the lies we beleive now, and the lies we live now...

Is American Communist...I have no doubt that we are now! No doubt that what was once known for it's ideals and strength at one time, have been whitewashed under the table for the BIG LIE! MONEY and POWER! If that's what it's all about Christian, then you better take another look at the WORD OF GOD and the JESUS WHO POWERED OVER NO ONE, yet powered under, so that HE IS THE POWER NOW... come into His Kingdom which is everlasting before you go under with the kingdom of America! It's gone, vanished to the annals of history for what it once was, which was ten times better than what it is NOW!


Dr. J.