X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • WilliamJenningsBryan
    True Christian™
     
    • Jan 2007
    • 9384

    #1

    Couple Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

    It's hard to say when Jesus will get around to punishing the officials in San Juan Capistrano, California – or just what that punishment will ultimately be. We know from past experience that Jesus has been partial to earth quakes, torrential rains with accompanying mud slides, and massive forest fires as punishment for the egregious sins of Californians. While I prefer God's justice to be dispensed swiftly, my faith trusts the Iron Fist of Jesus to prioritize for maximum impact.

    Probably with equal outrage in this case is my guess that San Juan Capistrano allows mooselimbs to wander around their city with their obnoxious hijabs without a permit. If anything, citizens should be fined for NOT holding Bible (KJV1611) studies in their home.

    California City Fines Couple for Holding Bible Study in Their Home
    Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:36am by Madeleine Morgenstern

    A southern California couple has been fined $300 dollars for holding Christian Bible study sessions in their home, and could face another $500 for each additional gathering.

    City officials in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. say Chuck and Stephanie Fromm are in violation of municipal code 9-3.301, which prohibits "religious, fraternal or non-profit" organizations in residential neighborhoods without a permit. Stephanie hosts a Wednesday Bible study that draws about 20 attendees, and Chuck holds a Sunday service that gets about 50.

    The Fromms appealed their citations but were denied and warned future sessions would carry heftier penalties. A statement from the Pacific Justice Institute, which is defending the couple in a lawsuit against the city, said Chuck Fromm was also told regular gatherings of three or more people require a conditional use permit, which can be costly and difficult to obtain.

    "How dare they tell us we can’t have whatever we want in our home," Stephanie Fromm told the Capistrano Dispatch. "We want to be able to use our home. We’ve paid a lot and invested a lot in our home and backyard … I should be able to be hospitable in my home."

    According to the Dispatch, the Fromms live in a neighborhood with large homes and have a corral, barn, pool and huge back lawn on their property, so parking and noise aren’t a problem.

    "There’s no singing or music," Stephanie said. "It’s meditative."

    The Dispatch reported a code-enforcement officer gave the Fromms a verbal warning about the meetings in May, then returned to issue citations in June and July. According to the paper, the city’s code-enforcement department is reactive, meaning they only respond to complaints.



    "Imposing a heavy-handed permit requirement on a home Bible study is outrageous," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute. "An informal gathering in a home cannot be treated with suspicion by the government, or worse than any other gathering of friends, just because it is religious."

    "We cannot allow this to happen in America, and we will fight as long and as hard as it takes to restore this group’s religious freedom."

    Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
    brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.
    ...and get off my lawn
    sigpic
  • Mary-Yves Lapierre
    Forum Member
    • Apr 2010
    • 189

    #2
    Re: Coupe Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

    What a sick place this California is! I am praying for the days Jesus dumps them all into the oceans!!

    Comment

    • Ezekiel Bathfire
      Pastor for Diversity and Tolerance
      Christ's Rottweiler
       
      • Jan 2008
      • 22875

      #3
      Re: Coupe Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

      Whatever next? The war against Christianity continues unabated as Obama laughs from the nest he usurped in the White House! Does "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." mean nothing?

      We The People will establish religion where and when we want and Souls are to be saved whether they want it or not! The godless in society set bad examples for our children and are no better than whoremongers and drug dealers!

      M't:10:28: And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
      sigpic


      “We must reassert that the essence of Christianity is the love of obedience to God’s Laws and that how that complete obedience is used or implemented does not concern us.”

      Author of such illuminating essays as,
      Map of the Known World; Periodic Table of Elements; The History of Linguistics; The Errors of Wicca; Dolphins and Evolution; The History of Landover (The Apology); Landover and the Civil War; 2000 Racial Slurs.

      Comment

      • Isaac Fisher
        Forum Member
        Forum Member
        • Aug 2011
        • 270

        #4
        Re: Coupe Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

        But... I want to pray!

        I need to calm down.

        Comment

        • Brother Temperance
          Senior Usher
          True Christian™ missionary to the Unsaved Kingdom
          A very nice young man
          True Christian™
          • Sep 2006
          • 15621

          #5
          Re: Coupe Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

          No doubt, if they'd wanted to hold a reading group on 1970s Italian Marxist theory, a weekly queer orgy, a hippy meditation circle or a one-legged lesbian terrorist training cell, they'd be receiving state funds from Big Government in the name of "diversity". Equal rights? What about my equal rights, eh?
          O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it--for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.



          God being truth, justice, goodness, beauty, power, and life, man is falsehood, iniquity, evil, ugliness, impotence, and death. God being master, man is the slave. Incapable of finding justice, truth, and eternal life by his own effort, he can attain them only through a divine revelation... he who desires to worship God must harbor no childish illusions about the matter, but bravely renounce his liberty and humanity.

          Comment

          • Mary Etheldreda
            Gushing for Jesus
             
            • Sep 2011
            • 23775

            #6
            Re: Couple Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

            "There’s no singing or music," Stephanie said. "It’s meditative."

            What are they? Quakers?
            Hello, my name is Mary. I hope to fellowship with you! That is, unless you don't listen to church authority (Deuteronomy 17:12); are a witch (Exodus 22:17); are a homosexual (Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:24-32); or fortuneteller (Leviticus 20:27) or a snotty kid who hits their dad (Exodus 21:15); or curses their parents (Proverbs 20:20; Leviticus 20:9); an adulterer (Leviticus 20:10); a non-Christian (Exodus 22:19; Deuteronomy 13:7-12; Deuteronomy 17:2-5;Romans 1:24-32); an atheist (2 Chronicles 15:12-13); or false prophet (Zechariah 13:3); from the town of one who worships another, false god (Deuteronomy 13:13-19); were a non-virgin bride (Deuteronomy 22:20-21); or blasphemer (Leviticus 24:10-16), as God calls for your execution and will no doubt send you to Hell, and I have no interest developing a friendship with the Spiritually Walking Dead.

            Comment

            • Bible Student
              Master of Biblical Study and Ancient Languages
              With Jesus now.
              True Christian™
              • Dec 2010
              • 2474

              #7
              Re: Couple Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

              Originally posted by Mary Etheldreda View Post
              "There’s no singing or music," Stephanie said. "It’s meditative."

              What are they? Quakers?
              How big is that house? Do they actually have enough closets for 20 - 50 people? I doubt even the Vanderbilt mansion has that many closets. Where are those people supposed to pray?
              Matthew 6:6 -- But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy doore, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
              I think we are being too harsh on the civil authorities. Apparently they are godly men who knew of Matthew 6:6 and realized the house did not have enough closets for the people attending Bible Study and Sunday services.
              YiJC, BS

              II Peter 1:4 -- Whereby are giuen vnto vs exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might bee partakers of thy diuine nature, hauing escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

              Comment

              • Johny Joe Hold
                Mayor of Freehold
                 
                • Feb 2010
                • 12529

                #8
                Re: Couple Fined for Holding Home Bible Study

                In city-speak, this is a "planning and zoning" issue. The house is in a residential neighborhood zoned for housing only. It is not zoned for businesses or churches.

                In Freehold we don't have those kind of zoning restricitions, and that place should not either. We have a phrase, "Open for Christian Church use," in both the code for residential and business areas.

                Just in case anyone asks, I put that phrase in there myself.

                JJH
                Isaiah 24:1-3 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty (2)...as the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. (3) The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken his word.

                Comment

                Working...