May 27, 2009
A San Diego pastor and his wife were interrogated by a county official and warned they will face escalating fines if they continue to hold Bible studies in their home.
Richard Gilmore is pastor of Christ is Lord Free Lutheran Church, and Audrey Gilmore had been hosting Bible study meetings on Monday nights for college-age students.
The Western Center for Law & Policy has been retained to represent the couple.
The couple told their attorney a county government employee knocked on their door on Good Friday, asking a series of questions about their home Bible studies, which are held on Tuesday nights and attended by approximately 15 people.
“Do you have a regular weekly meeting in your home? Do you sing? Do you say ‘amen’?” the official reportedly asked. “Do you say, ‘Praise the Lord’?”
The pastor’s wife answered yes.
Lawyer Dean Broyles of the legal rights group, told WND the county’s action not only violates religious land-use laws but also assaults both the First Amendment’s freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.
WND reporter, Drew Zahn, writes that the pastor’s wife was then told that she must stop holding “religious assemblies” until she and her husband obtain a Major Use Permit from the county, a permit that often involves traffic and environmental studies, compliance with parking and sidewalk regulations and costs that top tens of thousands of dollars.
And if they fail to pay for the MUP, the county official reportedly warned, the couple will be charged escalating fines beginning at $100, then $200, $500, $1000, “and then it will get ugly.”
“The First Amendment, in part, reads, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’” Broyles said. “And that’s the key part: ‘prohibiting the free exercise.’ We believe this is a substantial government burden on the free exercise of religion.”
He continued, “If one’s home is one’s castle, certainly you would the think the free exercise of religion, of all places, could occur in the home.”
A letter to San Diego County officials being drafted by the Western Center for Law & Policy to rescind the permit request should be completed and available within a couple of days, Zahn said.
There is no permit necessary for dinner, Superbowl, American Idol or wife swapping parties.
This story is to be featured on FoxNews this morning.
Update to this story June 7th…. San Diego Backs Down
