Violation of church and state?

[Margies3]

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/...?ncid=webmail1


Or is this just some jerk making things look bad for the rest of us? What do you think?

[deafdriscoll]

I looked at this and read it carfeully. Why would he just put in the building codes? Is not fire safety important? he did build a building for the gatherings that should have had safety codes. All other buildings do. permits have nothing to do with seperation of relgion and state. Building codes for churches require an emergency exit.

[HRea]

Originally Posted by Margies3

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/...?ncid=webmail1

Or is this just some jerk making things look bad for the rest of us? What do you think?

This is not a matter of separation of church and state, but a matter of using the property outside what the property was zoned for. Each piece of property has been determined for a category of acceptable use. That's what zoning is all about.

There is (and has been) a distinct segment of believers who favor house churches over traditional church building. This fellow appears to be hosting a house church in his home. But his area is not zoned for regular assemblies.

Zoning versus Freedom of Religion - this is deceptive, because the city wasn't cracking down on the "bible study", it was cracking down on the "regular use". Once or twice hosting a bible study is one thing; regular use of his home or his garage or whatever is a completely different matter.

Asking the question in a different way - if this guy setup 20 camper/trailer hook-ups in his backyard and regularly hosted weekend camps, would the city react the same way? I think they would.