Jailed for Bible Studies

Fox news has been abuzz with a story about a Pastor Michael Salman who has been jailed 60 days and fined for holding Bible studies in his home.  In this case, the home looks somewhat commercial with parking for 20 behind the structure.  However, Phoenix approved this as a private residence, but now wants to stop Salman from holding frequent Bible Studies on the premises.  Video can be found on foxnews.com on Kelly’s Court or read about it on examiner.com which says that comments are overwhelmingly against the city.  City of Phoenix cites traffic concerns and say that his house is an unpermitted church.  Many lawyers say Salman has a good case for civil rights violation since the First Amendment says, “ Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…or the right of the people to peacefully assemble…”  And considering that a lot of people have parties with more than 20 participants, it is interesting that Phoenix doesn’t go after Tupperware dealers or any other home party dealers.

It strikes me that the pastor doesn’t need a permit.  The city does in order to abrogate the right of Christians to gather.  And they will applyfor it in November.  Yet you see this with increasing occurrence, cities trying to restrict churches because somebody complained about the noise and Sunday is the only day they have to sleep in.  So city officials being city officials often think that sleeping in trumps freedom of religion. 

You know what is missing here?  No one appreciates our Constitution and the faith it is based upon.  They don’t understand it; they don’t much like it; they didn’t learn about it in school.  Because if they did, they’d be aghast.  The original concept of our republic stemmed from Christian Liberty.  That is, if God makes a unique relationship with each of His children, then that supercedes all else.  Who am I to stand in the way of another person’s walk with the Almighty, the Creator, and the One Who governs all providence? I’d be a fool to do so.  Hence each individual must have unalienable rights, Freedoms, given, not by the state, but by the Lord of All. This is not just a Christian belief but also a Judaic one as well.  If Freedom falls, any tyrant can come in to define what liberties and slaveries he thinks we may deserve.  Then the Constitution proceeds to define a republic, modeled somewhat on the representative government of the tribes of Israel of the Bible and the concepts of  Locke and Burke and others together with lessons from the failed experiment of the Articles of Confederation.  But all this thought about who should govern, how should they govern was heavily influenced by the Great Awakening that had swept the colonies in the 1740’s. John Adams, principle architect of the Constitution, was asked where the inspiration for it came from and he named 4 pastors of the day and their sermons.   We were a Christian nation in concept, even if not totally Christian in belief.  Say, did you learn this in public school? Or was your class like mine where they beat around the bush and no one knew why the Declaration and Constitution took the approach it did.

Thus the assault on Christian Liberty, just because there is a permit or code violation would have been a no-brainer for our forefathers.  They would have demanded the darned code or permit be changed pronto.  And concerning the business of defining Christian activity within the 4 walls of a building is preposterous.   Show me where in the Bible a Christian church is a building.  Jesus never told us what kind of a building to worship in, what day to worship, or even how to conduct a worship service.  His faith model was life’s activities and what your heart contains.  If then, God leads an individual to practice their faith inside a home or across the backyard fence or on the outskirts of the city dump, what is that to the government?  We the people hold our faith most dear and the lousy constructions of men—the government—answers to us.