"Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, CA home for a Bible study - unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County."
I read an article on foxnews.com entitled "Couple Ordered To Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit"- you can see the article using this link : Click Here
This is another example of the spiritual decline in the US. There is a definite double standard these days in US society and in the government. If this case involved Muslims or some other group studying the Koran or some other religious book, this probably would not be happening. There would be an outcry about the separation between church & state, and about how the government should not interfere in religious affairs. But it seems when it involves Christians the tables are turned. What ever happened to the First Amendment right to freely excercise a person's religious belief's ? I suspect things will not get any better, only worse.
7 comments:
Kevin - Praise Him
Saw your blog on Blogger under missionaries.
Thank you for lifting up the name of Jesus.
Thank you for your service.
"I am here to hear the voice of God,
and then to follow and obey."
Amen. Trust and obey,
not think and decide.
Sometimes it is hard to understand how
All things work together for good.
So Lord, we give you thanks for
San Diego and the persecution.
Glory to you Jesus.
Be encouraged and trust Him.
We walk by faith and not by sight.
Give thanks in all things.
T.R.U.S.T. -
T.rue R.est U.nder S.alvations T.ests.
F.A.I.T.H.
F.orsaking A.ll I. T.rust H.im.
Ec 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
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2Co 5:18 And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
All things, even the challenges, the perseutions
and the adventures.
Adventure is a favorite word.
Websters - A Bold undertaking,
where hazards are to be encountered,
and the outcome is based on unforeseen events.
A unique experience in one's own personal history.
Often of a romantic nature.
Sounds like Jesus to me.
Missionaries and adventure.
Can you have one without the other?
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A. Amos, thanks very much for your visit to our blog and for your encouraging comments.
Adventure is definitely the correct word for when you step out in faith and join God in what He is doing. It is an adventure of love to walk with God, and to be used as His instrument & servant in His work. But we need to step out of our comfort zone and our own logic and our ways of doing things, and let God stay in front and lead the way. He is mightily at work in the world, and He is looking for more faithful servants to join Him.
Take care and may God bless you, for His glory.
Like many things; there is usually more to the story.
Putting aside that it's a bible study group, let's just suppose that you had a neighbor who had a dozen or two people over every night....along with all their cars...parked up and down the street in front of your house...each night.
No neighbor that I have would mind if I had several people over for a social event, but they would object to my having the social events all the time. So would I.
And I imagine you would too.
Dear Jay, thanks for leaving your comment. You are correct, many times thereis more to the story, and that is why I took the time to read some local news reports about this incident (for example: www.10news.com/news/19595677/detail.html)
You said that they were having these get-togethers "every night" and "with a dozen or two people" ; the story shows that the Bible study was help 1 time per week (every Tuesday), and that there were 10-15 people. It also said that they parked on the pastor's property most of the time, but occasionally they parked in the cul-de-sac street. So it wasn't every night, just once a week. I find this totally reasonable, and I disagree that this would bother me. I would be very pleased if our neighbors would have a Bible study every week in their home, and would probably offer for them to park in my driveway if need be.
But the main problem is the reaction of the government. They asked them questions like "do you say Amen" or "Praise the Lord" doing these meetings, and then they deemed they were having a religious organization meeting at their house and is trying to fine them. Sad, very sad.
Actually, having a dozen cars parked in a cul-de-sac is even worse. What happens if a fire truck or ambulence has to get in there? I would be willing to bet this is exactly why the code is in place.
My thoughts, since we are only hearing one side, is that the description of the local agency enforcing the code may be a bit overblown (I'll refrain from saying outright fabricated). There are ways to accomodate both the homeowner's desire to host bible studies and the rights of all his neighbors. Maybe car-pooling. Maybe rotating among the participants to host the studies.
The manin thing is...I have a great deal of doubt that the practice of religion has anything at all to do with this. Religion does not grant excemption to following the same laws and codes that everybody is expected. For example; just because I would get a ticket for parking my car in front of a fire hydrant by my church, does not mean that the police are restricting my right to practice my religion.
What can we expect from the US.
People say certain religions are brainwashing our children, and our soldiers go over to other countries then we preach how our religion is better, when we can't even keep ours alive in the first place.
Dear Free, thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. The Christian religion our nation was founded on is definitely in decline in the US, while it is greatly growing in other parts of the world. I hope most people realize that it's more important to have a personal relationship with God through His son Jesus, than to have religion. Religion is man's way to try to reach God, while Jesus is God's way to reach out to us. Take care and God bless.
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