California Family Fined for Bible Study in Home

[Shawnster]

A California family has been fined for holding weekly Bible studies in their home, meetings that are allegedly in violation of the city's zoning regulations.

 

Stephanie and Chuck Fromm have been living in their San Juan Capistrano home for 18 years and were shocked when they received a notice of violation from the city. They have already been fined $300 and have been told they will be fined an additional $500 per meeting if they continue to meet without a Conditional Use Permit.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/US/california-family-fined-bible-study-home/story?id=14582868

[Dustparticle]

 Must be money hungry.

[Musky]

This story is from 2011 and I believe it was resolved satisfactorily but I can't remember the outcome.

 

They were not witnesses.

[Old]

1 hour ago, Shawnster said:

A California family has been fined for holding weekly Bible studies in their home, meetings that are allegedly in violation of the city's zoning regulations.

 

Stephanie and Chuck Fromm have been living in their San Juan Capistrano home for 18 years and were shocked when they received a notice of violation from the city. They have already been fined $300 and have been told they will be fined an additional $500 per meeting if they continue to meet without a Conditional Use Permit.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/US/california-family-fined-bible-study-home/story?id=14582868

 

Way prior to 2011 it became a court case of great magnitude for us living in the US.

Did you ever wonder why the congregation book study arrangement was dropped and we now have a mid-week meeting?  A number of years ago several cities had passed laws restricting scheduled meetings in private homes that interfered with neighborhood activities, mainly using up all the street parking available. One case involving a Baptist group that had a program similar to ours of having weekly Bible Studies in private homes. According to TIME magazine, the zoning law passed the test of not interfering with freedom of religion. I believe JWs were brought into this legal review as A FRIEND OF THE COURT, as we were the most known for meeting in homes on a scheduled basis. The state supreme court, Arizona or Colorado, I can’t remember which, found in favor of the City’s right to restrict such activity through zoning laws and did not find these laws were in violation of ‘freedom of religion’. Very shortly after this legal precedent was set, our organization abandoned the Congregation Bible Study arrangement in favor of a Family Worship Night.

 

A similar situation took place when we discontinued requesting fixed contributions for our literature in the United States. The TV evangelist preacher Jimmy Lee Swaggart was charged with tax evasion due to the manner in which he carged for his recordings. He demanded a fixed contribution for his records claiming it was a non-profit arrangement. Our organization was brought in A FRIEND OF THE COURT as we were well known for requesting a fixed contribution for our literature and we were a non-profit organization. Swaggart had been demanding very large sums for his albums and discounting his profit as religious contributions. The courts found him in violation of the law and demanded back taxes. It was also noted that he ran a for-profit business under the guise of religion and the action by the courts was not in violation of Freedom Of Religion. Shortly thereafter we dropped our fixed contribution request for our literature. At that time this only affected the US Branch, not the Canadian Branch but shortly thereafter it became policy in all western Branches of JWs.

 

Do you know why palm trees survive hurricanes? They bend with the wind and so do we if it does not interfere with our right to preach the good news. 

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by Old

[Shawnster]

32 minutes ago, Old said:

According to TIME magazine, the zoning law passed the test of not interfering with freedom of religion. I believe JWs were brought into this legal review as A FRIEND OF THE COURT, as we were the most known for meeting in homes on a scheduled basis.
 

I wonder if such zoning laws stipulated attendance size.  

 

41 minutes ago, Musky said:

This story is from 2011

 

I didn't notice that.  Thanks

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by Shawnster

[trottigy]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bible-study/

 

Quote

Chandra Wallar, the county’s general manager of land use and environment, said the county has re-examined the situation and decided that the Joneses don’t need a permit after all.

Religious assembly, under the county land-use code, is defined as “religious services involving public assembly such as customarily occurs in synagogues, temples, and churches.”

 

Wallar said that definition, which doesn’t spell out specific thresholds on when a religious gathering becomes a religious assembly, probably needs to be clarified and that more training may be warranted for code enforcement officers.

 

She said the county was not targeting the Joneses because they were exercising their religion, but rather it was trying to address parking and traffic issues.

 

I couldn't find a court case. It looks like they worked with the "minister" and did their best to handle the parking situation.

 

I know if my neighbor had 40-50 people over every week and they parked all over the place and even damaged one of my vehicles - I too would have had an issue.

 

Anyone find a court case that was related??

[Old]

We had the book study at our home for years. One of our neighbors constantly complained, putting complaint notices on the windshields of our visitor's vehicles. The problem was accentuated due to the fact that the neighborhood mailboxes were on our property adjacent to the street, with no sidewalk separation. It was an inconvenience, but not illegal to park in front of a rack of mailboxes. She got off work about the time we were beginning our hour book study meeting. We had an attendance of about 18 (fice cars) plus ourselves. I can see where 49 visitors on a weekly basis would cause hard feelings and a conflict with zoning regulations.