Last week the town of Gilbert, AZ made national headlines after officials notified residents Joe Sutherland and his wife, Leah, that they could no longer conduct Bible study classes in their own home. Town officials sent the couple a cease and desist letter informing them they had 10 days to discontinue conducting the meetings.
The ban prompted a response from the Alliance Defense Fund, (ADF) which filed an appeal with the city as the first step in its campaign to overturn a provision it described as illegal.
After the clash reached fever pitch, the city reconsidered. Yesterday, Mayor John Lewis and Acting Town Manager Collin DeWitt attended the Sunday worship services of the Oasis of Truth Church, saying had a wonderful experience and are glad that the members selected Gilbert as their home. Today they have issued this statement, titled Gilbert remains committed to religious freedom.
Town Council members expressed overwhelming support to expedite changes in the code. Mayor Lewis told church leaders that he will ask Town attorneys to include ADF and the Oasis of Truth Church in the review process this week of the proposed changes that will be presented to the Town Council on March 23.
Seeing Red AZ was seeing red when previously covering this. Thanks to the lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund, it appears reason has overcome foolishness.
Nice to have the law and a team of enforcers on your side! Happy to see this outcome. The town had no recourse but to reconsider its lunacy.
I hope that the Oasis Church and ADF adopt a “take no prisoners” position on this, otherwise the outrage will soon appear elsewhere until finally a town is successful in banning home religious assemblies.
By “take no prisoners” I mean be sure that the city officials and employees pay a personal price:
(1) Vote out of office the mayor and every councilmember
(2) Insist on the firing of every city employee who had a hand in bringing it to the point of a “cease and desist” order.
Only when people are made a public example and forced to pay a PERSONAL price (i.e. lose their jobs, income or power) will others be intimidated from doing likewise.
LD20er-Just for the record, this is the SECOND time I’ve heard of this in less that a year. There was an issue in San Diego recently involving a very simular sceneario. Apparently, these city officials continue their eggregious assault on Liberty. So, apologies aside, these city officials need to be relieved of duty, in my opinion.
Excellent decision. Very poor decision that precipitated the ADF’s involvement. Geesh! I will give Gilbert credit, they quickly responded to this absurdity and their press release speaks well of the Town’s constitutional beliefs.
I would also credit the people who, no doubt, melted down the phones and the email system telling off the council and the mayor. I agree that more stringent action is necessary and accountability should be applied. The idiot code enforcer should be the first to hit the streets. We need to elect people who will support the right to religious freedom, not just support one religion in this town.
[...] Seeing Red: ADF helps Gilbert, AZ reconsider home Bible study ban: Last week the town of Gilbert, AZ made national headlines after officials notified residents Joe [...]
I regret to say that sherrias is right in her contention that Gilbert is perceived as a “one religion” town. As a member of the church I believe she is referring to, I am keenly aware of why she feels that way. My most sincere wish is that we can repair that perception. The town government and their ludicrous decision, widely regarded as anti-Bible believers, hasn’t helped.
The Mayor and Town Council voted unanimously to approve the building of the Gilbert LDS Temple, and received the crowd’s applause for their votes. Not a single dissenting vote was cast, not even for appearances sake, since the community did have mixed reaction to the construction.
Ellsworth- there was no dissent since everyone pretty much knew it was a lost cause. Believe me, there are PLENTY of people unhappy with an LDS temple in Gilbert.
Hopefully that decision and and this most recent one will mean some changes come election time.