Home Bible Study Banned....

[nathanm]

This deal in San Diego seems pretty weak trying to call this a church gathering if it's only 10 to 15 people showing up every week.  Even if people are chipping in a few dollars to help defray the cost of food, I don't see how the county could call it a "church".  If 200 people were coming every week, I'd be more skeptical of it being claimed as a Bible study.

My uncle's first church (he's an ordained Baptist pastor) only had around 15 folks in regular attendance.

[jiminy]

That's weak spin. The church invited people to his home to worship. Even if they walked to his home he is abusing zoning laws and trying to pass it off as religious intolerance. Your argument is analagous to the denturist saying his employees decided on their own to park on city streets. People have parked in front of my home to pick up their children daily for the last 30 years without incident and I've lived in the city my whole life so don't preach your "tolerance" to me. Its the abuse of the privilege we're talking about here.

Man, it absolutely IS religious persecution if we are saying that sports-watching parties and orgies are ok, but God forbid a group of people from a church gather at the home of the pastor for fellowship and *gasp* prayer.  No way can you justify allowing street-parking for anything but Bible studies.  That said, if the group meets weekly (or oftener) the pastor should consider periodically rotating the hosting amongst other members of the group.  That would be the neighborly thing to do.

[jiminy]

Finally, in our fair and pious city of Tulsa, a residential zoning does not bring with it the right to use your property for  "community services or similar usage."  You must apply for a special exception.  And a "place of worship" is a separate facility from a home. 

Definitions.  Title 42 of the Tulsa City Ordinances.  (Tulsa ordinances can be found here: http://www.cityoftulsa.org/our-city/ordinances.aspx.  True citations are cumbersome and not very helpful since you can not look up by citation. You can, however, search inside the document.)

Place of Worship: A facility or facilities used by persons to regularly assemble, attend,
observe, participate in or hold religious services, meetings, rituals, and other related
activities in reverence or veneration to a supernatural power, including but not limited
to a church, chapel, mosque, synagogue, temple and similar facilities.

The situation at hand seems to fit this description.  A group of 15 people regularly meet to venerate and study a supernatural power.  Thus, it is a place of worship.

I disagree.  I think the meaning is regarding the primary use of the facility.  e.g. There's a number of "work life" groups where I work that meet regularly, including a Christian group.  That does not make my work site a place of worship.

[nathanm]

There's a number of "work life" groups where I work that meet regularly, including a Christian group.  That does not make my work site a place of worship.

Sure it does. Your work is a place of business and a place of worship. (I'd argue that almost all places of worship are also places of business, but that's not really germane to the subject)

My (public) high school was also both.

Now, which is the primary use and whether the use being conforming or not depends on the structure's primary or secondary use depends on the law, but you can't say that a place is not a place of worship merely because other activities are conducted on the grounds. By that definition few churches would qualify as places of worship.

A megachurch I used to live down the street from was a school, day care, entertainment venue, sports complex, and a church. Ironically, it is used as a church fewer hours a week than any other use. That doesn't make it not a church. If it does, I'm sure the city and county would be pleased to hear this, as there are tens of millions of dollars worth of taxable improvements on that land!

Anyway, I think that religious use should be treated no differently than any other use. If it's legal to have 15 of your buddies over on a weekly basis to watch football, play baggo, or whatever else, it should be legal to have a bible study group. It seems some would like the religious use to be more tolerated than other uses.

Do keep in mind that many things that are not legal are not prosecuted simply because few cities have code enforcement officers patrolling every square inch of a city on a daily basis. Code enforcement is primarily complaint driven.

[custosnox]

was cruising snopes and came across this and thought I would share it

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/biblestudy.asp