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.
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