Church ordered to stop praying, start drinking
By: Exhibit A
August 8, 2008
Authorities in a small California town are threatening legal action against a church unless its members stop worshipping God and start selling alcohol.
The Guatay Christian Fellowship is the only house of worship in Guatay, about 35 miles east of San Diego. But county authorities discovered that when the building was converted from a country-and-western bar in 1986, the owners never got an updated permit. So while the venue can legally be used for boozing, partying and loud music, it can’t be used for prayer.
Church officials say they can’t afford a new permit, which would cost $10,000 in legal fees and thousands more for required environmental studies. They have filed a federal lawsuit against the county, claiming that requiring them to become a bar violates their freedom of religion.
But Deputy County Counsel Eliot Alazraki insists, “We can’t give them a pass just because they’ve been there for a long period of time…It’s not like we have a choice as to which ordinance we can enforce.”
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
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You people have severely distorted the story. You left out the part about the park having hundreds of violations that threatened the safety of the residents that the County made the park clean up. You also left out the fact that the park owner’s lawyer came up with the distorted figure for costs. It’s clear the park owner is trying to provoke a fight between the church and the County to deflect the blame away from him.