RIVERSIDE, CA — The First Amendment will become the focus of a pending lawsuit as New Vision Church sues the City of Desert Hot Springs for not allowing its members to worship in a public facility.
The issue at hand is Desert Hot Spring’s City Resolution No. 92-3 which says, in part, that “regular scheduled religious and/or denominational services are not permitted on City premises.” City officials, including city manager Robert Wilburn, told Pastor Robert Taylor of New Vision Church that because of the city regulation, the church must be denied permission to use the city’s multi-service center for its Sunday services.
Because of the city regulation, the Pacific Justice Institute http://www.pacificjustice.org decided to handle the case based largely on First Amendment grounds. Brent David Grider, affiliate attorney for the Pacific Justice Institute, is lead counsel for the case.
Speaking about the city’s actions against the church, Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, said, “This is a clear, on its face hostile action against religion and religious institutions.”
“It’s unusual in this day to see discrimination blatantly spelled out in a city ordinance,” commented Grider about the city resolution.
The stage for the lawsuit was set during February of last year when Taylor began looking for a public building that his church members could continue worshipping in. The lease of the church’s current location was ending and not being renewed. For the sake of the members who didn’t want to drive far for church, Taylor had searched for a location close the current church but couldn’t find a place.
Since space was at a premium in the city, Taylor sent a letter to the city requesting permission to use the city’s multi-service center on Sundays starting March 1, 1998, and continuing through Aug. 30, 1998. In the letter, Taylor told the city that the church was prepared to pay the deposit, rental fees, and to furnish any insurance coverage that the city may require.
Even though the city’s own ordinance said that “not for profit” clubs and organizations may use the city’s facilities for a discount rate and that meetings should be non-exclusive of any religion, New Vision Church was denied use of any public facilities.
After Taylor was denied this request, he asked to be placed on the agenda for the city council meeting so that he and city officials could discuss the issue. Later in Taylor’s complaint to the court, however, he said that someone from the city told him that the issue was “nothing that the city council wanted to talk about.” Taylor then went to speak to Wilburn, but Wilburn had told him that the city’s refusal to rent its facilities to the church was “already settled.”
Because of these events, the Pacific Justice Institute has begun a full scale federal litigation. “The wheels of justice have begun to turn,” said Dacus. “The system in now in action.”
Dacus said that the Pacific Justice Institute and New Vision Church will be suing the city for five main violations of the law. The laws that were allegedly violated include the free exercise clause, free speech, right of assembly, equal protection clause, and due process.
Dacus believes that this case has the potential to widely impact the defense of churches from government hostility to religion. He and his group plan to represent the church free of charge until justice is achieved.
“This action by the city is the epitome of state discrimination against religious institutions,” said Dacus. “That is why it’s so crucial that we not allow this church to be shoved back to the ‘back of the bus.'”
WorldNetDaily attempted several times to contact the city of Desert Hot Springs, but none of the calls were returned.
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