San Diego couple barred from holding Bible study in their home without permit

(Update: San Diego County has backed off the demand that the couple must get a permit to hold the meetings. The story has a lot more facts than the one from Fox Newx I initially posted. It was basically about parking. Neighbors complained about too many cars being parked around the house.The incompetent who wrote the story for Fox didn’t even mention the parking issue.)

. Naturally the article, from Fox News, lacks sufficient facts for the reader to make any sense of it. The code referred to would appear to be a building use code: you cannot use a residential building as a church or formal religious assembly. Fine, understood. But what made the authorities decide that this Bible study group was a religious assembly? Was it perhaps because the group was over a certain number? The story says the group consisted of a “few friends.” What defines the difference between a group of friends reading and discussing the Bible together in a home, and the unpermitted use of a home as a church? Whatever the dividing line, it sounds as if some stupid official construed the former as the latter.

Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a Bible study—unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.

“On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the Bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county.” David Jones told FOX News.

“We told them this is not really a religious assembly—this is just a Bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all,” Jones said.

A few days later, the couple received a written warning that cited “unlawful use of land,” ordering them to either “stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit,” the couple’s attorney Dean Broyles told San Diego news station 10News.

But the major use permit could cost the Jones’ thousands of dollars just to have a few friends over.

For David and Mary Jones, it’s about more than a question of money.

“The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion,” Broyles told FOX News. “I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their grave if they saw that here in the year 2009, a pastor and his wife are being told that they cannot hold a simple Bible study in their own home.”

“The implications are great because it’s not only us that’s involved,” Mary Jones said. “There are thousands and thousands of Bible studies that are held all across the country. What we’re interested in is setting a precedent here—before it goes any further—and that we have it settled for the future.”

The couple is planning to dispute the county’s order this week.

If San Diego County refuses to allow the pastor and his wife to continue gathering without acquiring a permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 01, 2009 02:59 PM | Send