Federal Judge Blasts Arizona City ban on Sound of Church Bells

Click to read full article from World Net Daily

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Bishop Rick Painter, sentenced for allowing church bells to ring

A federal judge in Arizona has struck down a Phoenix noise ordinance against  sounds generated by religious worship – settling one part of a dispute that erupted when city officials convicted a bishop and sentenced him to a suspended jail sentence and several years of probation because someone complained about the ringing of his church bells.
"Churches shouldn't be targeted and punished for ringing their bells as a public expression of faith that's been done for centuries," said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which worked on the case.
"The federal court has made the right decision by declaring that the city's noise ordinance violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments," he said.
The federal judge, Susan R. Bolton, ruled that the city's ordinance was being used to prohibit "sound generated in the course of religious expression," even while it contained an exemption for ice-cream trucks to blare their promotions.

The case had been brought by St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish, Christ the King Liturgical Charismatic Church and First Christian Church. The court earlier issued a temporary order and today made that permanent.
"It is ordered granting plaintiffs' request for a permanent injunction, and permanently enjoining Defendant City of Phoenix from enforcing the Noise Ordinance … against any sound generated in the course of religious expression," the order said.
"It is further ordered granting plaintiffs' request for a declaratory judgment, declaring that the Noise Ordinance … when enforced against any sound generated in the course of religious expression, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution."
The dispute heated up when Bishop Rick Painter of Christ the King was sentenced to jail and probation in June 2009 for violating the ordinance by ringing his church's bells.
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JMC Ministries Response

A Few years ago we heard the story of a pastor who was told not to ring the church bell to let people know that Church was starting. And that if he did he would be fined every time.  

Even being threatened with being fined hundreds of dollars each time he would ring the church bell. The pastor did it every Sunday.  He rang that bell and every time he received a fine for hundreds of dollars in the mail. He some how got the money to pay the fines and still every Sunday he would ring that Bell.

We see more and more Courts and even Govt officials starting to stand up and say this is wrong.  This judge ruled that they violated this churches rights to ring the church bell in this article and in our previous post we shared how our U.S Govt is filing an appeal against the Federal Judge's ruling that the National Day of Prayer is Unconstitutional.  

When our own Govt is seeing that this is wrong and taking a stand against it. Obviously it has gone too far the persecution against Christians and anyone who is religious.