town « The Irate Nation

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

GILBERT, Ariz. — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed an appeal Wednesday with the town of Gilbert’s zoning Board of Adjustment to overturn a decision banning churches from meeting, holding Bible studies, or having any other activities in private homes. The pastor of the seven-member Oasis of Truth Church received a cease-and-desist letter ordering him to terminate all religious meetings in his home, regardless of their size, nature, or frequency.

“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.”

Sutherland stopped the home meetings in December and requested a clarification of the restrictions from the town zoning administrator the next month. The initial informal response was followed in February by a zoning interpretation letter--offered at a $305 fee--confirming the alleged basis of the ban. The church currently holds its Sunday meetings at a local school, where it can only meet for one weekly service due to rental costs.

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.

Operation Moshtarak

clipped from www.foxnews.com

Roughly 15,000 American, Afghan and NATO forces began an assault late Friday on the Taliban in the central Helmand town of Marjah in what senior military commanders are calling the largest operation since the start of the Afghanistan war.

Detecting multiple layers of insurgent defenses encircling the city, Cobra helicopters fired Hellfire missiles at tunnels, bunkers, and other defensive positions. Militants also flooded the main canal at the town's entrance, making it more difficult for U.S.-led forces to enter on foot.

By:DODvClips

British troops are engaged in fierce fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan as Operation Moshtarak gets under way.
Operation Moshtarak - which means 'together' in the Dari language - will involve around 15,000 International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and Afghan National Army troops.
The Ministry of Defence said Moshtarak was the first part of a three-stage plan to increase security in Afghanistan.

By:Sky News

By:itnnews

Presidential Inexperience Goes Worldwide

Fred Barnes, "What Obama Accomplished in Asia" - from the article: Obama struck out on his entire agenda in China and he acquiesced as the Chinese subjected him to the humiliation of a choreographed town hall meeting with student members of the Young Communist League. And he suffered through a 30-minute news conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao in which no questions from the media were allowed. Presidents normally come away on visits to foreign countries with "deliverables"--that is, tangible signs of progress like a treaty signing. All Obama got was a list of things the United States and China would do in the future. There's a name for this: diplomatic boilerplate.

As disgraceful as the President's inexperience is, there may be no way to get the American people - on both the Right and the Left - to admit that politics is a skill which requires practice and involves making hard decisions better than most people can. Our culture of individualism means that we think ourselves automatically self-governing and independent, and to a degree, we are. But many of us on the Right complaining about Obama's inexperience would vote someone in who had absolutely no clue how to govern if they said the right things, and sometimes not even that. I like Sarah Palin as a person, but she's got a long way to go in terms of being articulate and less shrill, her record in Alaska is solid but very limited, and the fact that she pretty much is the face of the opposition is a serious problem for those of us who know that the future can made or broken by politics. I know for myself, I've only got one aspect of the solution: don't let things get dumbed down, don't let news analysis degenerate into conspiracy theory. But I don't know how to express the more positive aspect of what political discourse has to become, except that to say if I wanted to run for President, I'd be spending a ton of time studying problems and talking to experts, asking how people get things done given the bureaucracy, trying to meet the right people who would help and instruct, trying to understand how Congress and the judiciary work and what concessions need to be made to them on any given issue. In short: I wouldn't run for Senator and then immediately run for President. Nor would I surround myself with a fan base that only told me what I wanted to hear, not what I needed.

Off-topic, at my blog - Rant: The Banality of Conservatism

Civil Rights Lawsuit Pending: Douglasville, Georgia Police Chief Illegaly Prevents Public Videotaping Of Town Hall, Illegaly Detains Protester, Orders Harassment Campaign

The following is a cross-posting from ACTIVE! Don't kid yourselves folks. The following read is a must and spills the koolaid for all to see that Obama and his Acorn thugs are out to stop our voice of opposition. FREEDOM? Best think again if your still an Obamazombie.

Douglasville Police Chief and ACORN enforcer Chris Womack drinking his Obama Kool-Aid, er, Pepsi

Related: ACORN Using Police To Silence Joker Care Protesters - With Video

I want to know if this Police Chief was acting out of political passions, or political pressures (the mayor and other city political thugs were there), or if that night he was on the ACORN/Obama payroll. Civil court discovery motions and a thorough Federal law enforcement investigation of his civil rights violations will allow for a probe into his personal finances, as well as depositions and sworn testimony from all officers on duty as to the Chief’s orders and actions, both that night and during any other occasions of political activity.

As Matt notes below, the rank and file Womack cops were at odds with Womack’s use of their uniformed authority to support his Democrat’s agenda. The real American cops in Douglasville have stood up to CAIR. And by the way, we don’t use the term “real American” in some sloppy fashion. ACTIVE defines a real American as one who ardently supports the US Constitution, as Chief Womack obviously doesn’t, given his blatant trampling of it.

From Matt, ACTIVE’s Georgia State President:

We were at a David Scott (D) town Hall meeting about a highway project in Douglasville. We intended to take the floor and ask him questions on his Health Care position as well as other things, and videotape it. While bringing our cameras into the venue I was stopped by an Acorn type and told that I couldn’t bring my camera. I ignored him. He went over to a cop, a radio call was made, I was approached by Douglasville police chief Chris Womack who threatened me with arrest if I took it in. He also asked for the camera. I refused to give it to him, and told him “I will be using it outside and there is no law against that”, he ratcheted up the attempt to intimidate me at that point, asking for ID. I had nothing to hide. Roger “Screaming Eagle” covertly caught the end of the exchange on his own video.

Throughout the townhall, free speech was shut down. If anyone asked an off-topic (non-highway 92) question, they were cut off and police and security immediately surrounded them.

There were plenty of video cameras in there, but we were singled out. You could also say that we were an obvious minority there.

BTW, it was obvious most of the other cops didn’t agree with the chief’s behaviour.

I don’t like the fact that this sworn officer of the law knowingly and intentionally violated my civil and Constitutional rights for political purposes.

I think from the meeting we got some good lessons learned as to the level these bastards clamp down on free speech and press. I am going to write up a “lessons learned” for future town halls. The town halls have not been going well for these guys and they are starting to resort to brown shirt behaviour.

Matt

Source accdf.com/blog/2009/08/15/civil-rights-lawsuit-pending-douglasville-georgia-police-chief-illegaly-prevents-public-videotaping-of-town-hall-illegaly-detains-protester-orders-harassment-campaign/