We take it for granted that America is the land of the free. I grew up hearing, “it’s a free country”. Our founding documents assert that we have certain inalienable rights, our first amendment to the supreme overriding law of the land is the unabridged right to freedom of religion. It asserts that congress can make no law to limit that right.
Enter American communities such as Lake Worth, Florida, where they don’t pass laws against the free exercise of religion, they just regulate them to death.
In Lake Worth, Florida you need to have a business license to operate a church. This is similar to Ft Lauderdale, Florida to the south were they require a license to serve food to the poor.
But it gets worse. The city of Lake Worth not only demands that a church have a business license to hold services, to preach and to pray but they send code enforcement officers undercover to area churches to report on what is being said in those churches.
Similar to the KGB or Gestapo of years ago, these spies of the state are recording church meetings to see if there are any forms of speech that violate what is perceived to be hate speech or condemnation of state sanctioned activities.
According to Matt Staver, the Liberty Council lawyer representing Common Grounds Church in Lake Worth, Gerard Coscia, a city code enforcement officer, conducted a covert visit to the church’s weekly worship on Feb. 9 which he detailed in a case narrative and recorded via hidden video.
“I inspected the property and found the following violations: Business-rental property found without a current City of Lake Worth business license, specifically to operate as a church, or a house of worship,” Coscia’s narrative stated.
He documented how he observed “people holding what appeared to be Bibles or religious books as one had a cross on it” and “what appeared to be a ministry in progress.”
“I was approached by an unknown man with a cross around his neck,” he wrote. The officer wrote that he was “able to capture on my city phone a video which will be attached to this case file for future court presentation.”
A week later, Coscia returned to the church, handed his business card to the Pastor Mike Olive and told him, “This Sunday is your last Sunday,” according to WND.com.
The city then issued a notice requiring the church obtain a business license because they were operating a church in a business rental property without a Lake Worth business license.
Just as the case of an Arizona man holding a bible study without a license, so too having coffee and talking about Jesus or reading from the bible must be licensed by the state or the city.
Cities such as Lake Worth and Ft Lauderdale are finding ways to restrict the free exercise of religion, particularly religion they wish to silence. Tolerance is expected on the issues they tolerate.
Local governments are finding, much like universities, that they can create free speech and free religion zones though regulations. Regulations were meant to be used separate business from residential, industrial from farms to avoid sights, sounds and smells that might offend.
It is the nature of man to attempt to silence God. Ungodly governments of the past have burned bibles and martyred Christians to silence the preachers and prophets of God. Jesus, Himself was silenced because the Truth that He taught made the rulers of His day squirm. He challenged the leaders of His day on what they did to those who brought the Word of God.
We, like the Lord, will be told to be quiet when we preach the pure Word of God, we might be arrested and thrown into prison for His namesake. We should count it as gain when we stand for what is right and speak the truth in love.
It has been the way of the followers of Jesus Christ for a long time now.
