Florida city wages soviet-style crackdown on churches
A government crackdown on churches has Christians in Lake Worth, Fla., wondering if they live in the United States or the former Soviet Union.
Churches in Lake Worth, population 36,000, have been ordered to acquire a business license. As if the church has to get the governments permission to preach and pray?
But wait. It gets worse, folks.
City officials were so concerned about one congregation that they dispatched a code enforcement officer cloaked in a hoodie to spy on a Southern Baptist church that was meeting in a coffee house.
Folks, its like the plot of a Cold War spy novel.
Government employees are public servants and prohibited by the Constitution from inhibiting religious freedom, said Mat Staver , founder of the religious liberty law firm Liberty Counsel. That is a far cry from sneaking around and into a church and acting like KGB agents.
Staver is calling on city leaders to immediately rescind the business license mandate on churches. He is also representing Common Ground Church, the congregation that was targeted by the citys investigator.
The church owns and operates a coffee house in downtown Lake Worth. For the past three months, it has used the coffee house for a weekly worship service. Prior to that the congregation rented space in other buildings in the community.
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The Christian Examiner has a good article relating to this story. Evidently all has been worked out and resolved once a Use & Occupancy license was issued. Don't know if it was confusion or overreach but looks like the good people of Lake Worth and their leaders are resolving.
Good to see a happy ending. Church and coffeehouse, great combo for me!
LOL!I've found a shot of espresso helps keep me propped up...nothing more embarrassing than drooling or slumping over on a fellow congregant.
Churches are non profitorganizations with the protection of religious liberty and separation of church and state. Government should not have the kind of power over religion as theydid in that city.
You're correct regarding separation.Under current law, there is no authority to tax a church which is why this case is no longer a case
Havingchairedour churchesproperty committee in Illinois, it was required to have a Occupancy License along withyearly inspections by the fire department. If sited for any fire code violations we had x number of days to bring up to compliance or the town could shut-down the facility.
We need governmental regulations to insure the safety of people. Particularily since a lot of maintenance and work done in small congregations are done by volunteers. I shutter to think of a baptismal installation and subsequent operation without oversight, that oversight comes from local government.
I don't know that I like it. But I do believe that churches should pay taxes as they are now contributing to Politics and candidates and strongly suggesting who they should vote for. They are doing the same thing Corporations are doing. Strongest to my knowledge is the Catholic Church pushing for their members to vote for the choice selected by the church, the local bishop, or higher.
Most likely its in other churches as well. But have no personal knowledge of other churches.
Well the slumping over could be all right in some cases. Drooling would be suspect as a towel would be required. Kind of like a weeping towel only maybe bigger. Shots of espresso or other liquid yep. Maybe alternate the two.
CH4P..... To bad they weren't shouting "Burn This Place Down" and burning all the hardworking citizen's businesses down. Then you could get some support from JW.
To be honest Lynne, I didn't see anything about how many people were there or if this could even be considered a church. I would think the first thing anyone who wants to start a church should do is make sure they have all the requirements if there are any taken care of in order to prevent anything like this from happening. I really don't think it should have taken such force, but this is the way things seem to be handled today with brute force far beyond what is necessary in every aspect.
Totally agree, the force displayed is absurd. Still trying to figure out how such a simple issue became such a big deal.