Christ Centered Gamer

Maryland city to church: Stop worship services or leave

ADF attorneys file suit against city of Laurel for discriminatory zoning practices

BALTIMORE – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Friday on behalf of a church against the city of Laurel, Maryland, after officials changed zoning laws to stop the church from holding Sunday worship services and serving the underprivileged in the community.

Full news release, quotes, and related media resources available at the following link:

http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10469

Case Name: Redemption Community Church v. City of Laurel

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

That's just ridiculous, and definitely an attack against religion from a government entity. I would have to wonder if the city would have made the same move if the faith were Islamic or Buddhist or Ba'hai... basically anything but a Christian faith.

If the Supreme Court doesn't declare this action unconstitutional (since I'm 95% sure it violates the 1st amendment) then I'd kinda shocked, but I wouldn't be super surprised either considering the direction the USA is heading in.

Main Street in Laurel is an historic district, and as a result the people there can be... well, snooty. The surrounding neighborhood has a lot of houses that have very heavy regulations on what sort of improvements one can do on them and they're incredibly strict, even to the point of making rules on the type of paint used, not just the color.

Laurel is also a weird beast because it straddles four counties: Prince George's, Montgomery, Howard and Anne Arundel. So in one part of Laurel you have Main Street, but go a quarter mile north and you'll find a Korean massage parlor (read: brothel). Go a quarter mile south and you're in the shopping district with an amazingly cool hobby store. Go a quarter mile west and it's almost rural in nature, and go a quarter mile east and you start getting into what some folks would call a "white trash" area.

Main Street is a bizarre little island in a Maryland town that has precisely zero unifying theme to it other than its own police department that, I think, has some jurisdiction in all four counties Laurel occupies, but I'm not certain of that. There aren't many churches in the Main St section (go figure) but the area around it has churches all over.

On Main Street you'll find a variety of businesses and shops, including a little storefront where, if you're into Witchcraft, New Age religion or whatever, you'll find whatever you want. No problem. I don't think it's due to any bias on the part of the local town ordinances though. They're just purely retail so don't do anything to differentiate themselves from other shops. (I wouldn't want them to go away anyhow. Everybody's got a right to sell what they want, and they also sell some gaming stuff )

I don't feel like I know enough to form an opinion about this business with the church that wants to set up there. It may be there's more to the story than we know at this point. Main Street is a bit elitist but as far as I know there's no particular angst against Christianity.