Ariz. town: No church meetings at home. Period.
ADF attorneys appeal town of Gilbert’s use of zoning code to shut down small house church
Friday, March 12, 2010
“Christian church groups shouldn’t be singled out for discrimination and banned from meeting in their own homes,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Daniel Blomberg. “The interpretation and enforcement of the town’s code is clearly unconstitutional. It bans 200,000 Gilbert residents from meeting in their private homes for organized religious purposes—an activity encouraged in the Bible, practiced for thousands of years, and protected by the First Amendment.”
In November 2009, Oasis of Truth Church was ordered in a letter from a Gilbert code compliance officer to stop church meetings in Pastor Joe Sutherland’s home, based on the town’s Land Development Code. The officer was not responding to a complaint, but to signs he came across near Sutherland’s home about the meetings.
The town contends that, under its zoning code, churches within its borders cannot have any home meetings of any size, including Bible studies, three-person church leadership meetings, and potluck dinners. This ban is defended based upon traffic, parking, and building safety concerns. However, nothing in its zoning code prevents weekly Cub Scouts meetings, Monday Night Football parties with numerous attendees, or large business parties from being held on a regular basis in private homes. In fact, the zoning code explicitly allows some day cares to operate from homes.
Notably, the church only met for a few hours a week in members’ homes, and would rotate to different homes weekly. Further, the church was quite small, consisting of just seven adult members, including three married couples, and their four children.
ADF attorneys argue in their appeal that 1) the town’s zoning code does not authorize such a broad ban on church meetings in homes; 2) the Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause doesn’t permit a ban on church meetings where all other meetings are permitted; 3) Arizona’s Free Exercise of Religion Act (FERA) protects “Arizona citizens’ right to exercise their religious beliefs free from undue government interference;” and 4) the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) prevents zoning officials from singling out churches for discriminatory treatment. Blomberg adds that “the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause prevents the town from stopping the church from holding its meetings on the public sidewalk outside the pastor’s home, yet the town won’t allow him to hold the same meetings just a few feet away in the privacy of his own living room.”
Please Help Make Sure All Of Our Deployed Troops Votes Are Counted – Here Is What You Can Do
Many of our deployed troops votes were not counted in the last election. This is nothing new, it was just more obvious the last election. It has been going on since the 90's that I am aware of and maybe before then.
Some states, districts worked underhandedly to make sure our deployed troops didn't vote by making sure they didn't send the ballots out in time to ensure they wouldn't be received in time. Well we all remember much of the crimes committed last election. But this has been going on for a long time.
I've been paying attention to our (We The People) pattern of dealing with this.
Right before the elections, we talk about it, Then it's election time. Then after the election, we learn nothing has changed EXCEPT the marine corps got their voting system down pat. I didn't hear of any voting problems with deployed marines, but I don't know every marine so....
After the last election we of course again learned many of our deployed troops votes were not counted. This was all due to very underhanded tactics of many.
Is it honorable that we allow this to continue to happen? These are the very men and women who take their oath seriously. They are the very men and women who honor service, integrity and sacrifice for our Republic and our Constitution. Many of these have sacrificed much for us, limbs, blood and their lives.
I find it down right wrong and obnoxious that we the people allow our deployed troops votes to not be counted! I find it down right wrong and obnoxious that our politicians are so criminal that the likes of Nancy Pelosi bused in illegals to vote for her....and Pelosi was not the only one known (for a fact) that pulled that crap.
Think about that! Illegals bused in to vote and our deployed troops votes were not counted.
After the election we learned again many of our deployed troops votes were not counted. We got angry and raised our voices for about a month - and then again as previously done - We forgot about it and moved on to the next battle.
Now we have the elections coming up in Nov. We are making our plans, etc. I say this time we get ahead of this criminal action and make sure our troops votes are counted.
I need people in all your state districts to research and find out if any of your districts did the unthinkable to our deployed troops. Also talk to the veterans, ask if their vote counted, if not, ask what excuses were handed down to them.
Also I, no, our deployed troops need people to make sure in all districts you let the people in charge of voting know you and others are aware of this and are watching to make sure it doesn't happen again. Then follow through.
Please contact me and let me know who of you have chosen to take care of this important work. Our Troops have our backs, who has theirs?
Here is a link that will be helpful for you and for you to get to our deployed troops.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act Overview
The Expat Factor: Making Overseas Votes Count
There are as many as 6 million Americans living abroad, with an estimated 4.9 million of voting age. But although overseas Americans have had the right to vote for decades, the process has historically been riddled with imperfections. According to Stephen Ansolabehere, a political scientist at Harvard University who specializes in elections, overseas military and government personnel are the "single most likely group to experience problems with registering and voting."
(click link above to read all of it)
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