It’s been a while but is still controversial among American Christians.
Take a look at this article.
Couple fights city fine for illegal Bible study
A husband and wife in California host a Bible study in their home. For this quiet exercise of their Christian faith, city officials have fined them hundreds of dollars, and will continue fining them every time they meet. This issue is now going to court.
Chuck and Stephanie Fromm hold weekly Bible studies in their San Juan Capistrano home. According to city officials, they’ve attracted as many as 50 people in their 4,700-square foot house. Some of these gatherings also involve songs and sermons taught by Chuck, and are regarded as home-based church services.
But the city has an ordinance barring gatherings of “religious, fraternal or non-profit” groups in residential neighborhoods unless the city first grants a conditional-use permit. The city fined the Fromms $300 for the first offense, and says it will levy a $500 fine on all future gatherings.
This is a profound religious-liberty issue. Of 230 million Americans who profess to be Christians, tens of millions specifically believe that their faith requires regular Bible study and worship gatherings. San Juan Capistrano’s actions flagrantly violate these rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court significantly narrowed the protection of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause in 1990, when it held that general laws that don’t reference religious activities, but end up incidentally burdening religious practices, do not violate the Constitution. This decision — written by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia — was a mistake, overruling decades of Supreme Court precedent to severely narrow religious exercise.
But even under the court’s current crabbed interpretation, this ordinance is unconstitutional because it specifically goes after religious gatherings.
The ordinance also inhibits the exercise of other First Amendment rights. It violates the right of association, for example, by barring people from peacefully gathering and socializing with like-minded citizens over areas of shared interests.
The Fromms are being represented by Pacific Justice Institute, which has taken this issue to court in California’s Orange County Superior Court. A hearing is expected in the next couple of months.
America’s first permanent settlements were founded for religious liberty to escape exactly this kind of oppressive government control of religious practice. More than that, in the early decades of the Christian religion church services were mostly held in homes, as there were no church buildings.
The courts now have an opportunity to correct this intolerable situation of government censorship of worship and religious practice.
Source: http://washingtonexaminer.com/2011/09/couple-fights-city-fine-illegal-bible-study/118620
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