California City Lifts Discriminatory Policy on in-Home Bible Study Gatherings
By Sarah Wagner – July 30, 2024
A California city lifted its ban on in-home Bible study gatherings after a legal group said the policy was discriminatory.
Manhattan Beach, California, issued a zoning violation notice to a resident after he held Bible studies in his home on Sunday mornings.
According to the legal group American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the resident “received a notice from the City of Manhattan Code Enforcement notifying him of an alleged zoning violation: establishing a new religious assembly use without a permit” in April.
The city informed the man that “he could not hold a gathering in his home for any religious purpose or activity without a permit.” While religious gatherings were condemned, others could host large gatherings to watch movies without receiving zoning violations.
The resident told city officials that his “takeaway from the meeting is that any amount of people in my house, assuming no noise or no valet parking, that is meeting to discuss religion or even to watch a religious service on the television is in violation of city code. However, if I were to have a party with any amount of people, then I am not in violation of city code.”
After the city did not respond, ACLJ reached out to the city, declaring that regulating religious gatherings in homes in a different manner than non-religious meetings “constitutes discrimination and violates federal law.”
The city later admitted in a letter that “typically sized home gatherings, whether for a bible study, seder, or other religious purpose, or for non-religious purposes, are permitted in the ‘RS’ Residential Single-Family zone in which your residence is located.”
“These types of typical, non-commercial gatherings, regardless of the nature, would be subject to the generally applicable rules, such as noise and signage regulations, but would not require any type of zoning permit or clearance,” the letter added.
A similar issue arose in Weare, New Hampshire after city officials demanded a site review plan before a pastor could use his home for a religious gathering.
Grace New England Church was founded as a home church by Pastor Howard Kaloogian.
Kaloogian received a “Cease and Desist” notice in October 2023 demanding that he “immediately stop any assembly regarding Grace New England Church. This Cease and Desist will remain in effect until a site plan is submitted, reviewed and there is a decision made by the Town Planning Board.”
“Your Cease and Desist letter, on its face, targets religious speech, expression, and assembly, but leaves comparable secular activity untouched,” legal organization First Liberty Institue wrote in a letter to zoning officer Tony Sawyer, adding, “Just as it would be ludicrous for the Town of Weare to impose a ‘Cease and Desist’ upon the assembly of its citizens at someone’s home for a birthday party for a 10-year old with his friends, a neighborhood Super Bowl party, or a gathering of local residents to read the latest New York Times bestseller as a part of its weekly book club, so it is equally unjustifiable under the First Amendment for the Town of Weare to insist that Pastor Kaloogian, and others, desist from religious assembly in his home.”
