did you hear about the pastor in arizona who was arrested for holding a bible study in his home?

Yes. And Christian persecution begins to increase in the "free" USA.

Who else will they come for before you realize it may be time to act?

Divorce is a sin, and is even reiterated as such instantly interior the Gospels (the position as homosexuality get not even a aspect out interior the Gospels). No pastor i understand of any the position has ever run afoul of regulation or been accused of a hate crime for examining the Sermon on the Mount in public or condemning the divorced. What makes you imagine the guidelines suddenly replace because the state ought to not deny a wedding ceremony license to some per their genders?

As usual you guys don't tell the whole story. This pastor built a church that seated 140 people in his backyard and held sevices on a regular basis. He had a sign out front with the name of the church. He was told when he got the permit for his 2000 sq ft building specifically that it COULD NOT be used as a church since it wasn't zoned for one. This was in a residential area with no on street parking. He created a mess and a dangerous situation every time he held services at his house. He was told REPEATEDLY that this was against the zoning laws of the city and that he needed to move his church to a properly zoned area. He refused and continued having services in his improperly built church. He was arrested. He was NOT arrested for holding a simple bible study... he was arrested for breaking zoning laws even though he had been REPEATEDLY warned that he would be arrested and fined.

Here, read this article for all the facts and not the biased, inflammatory story Fox news printed.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/arizona-news/2012/07/11/p...

This guy Pastor Salman is a thug and does whatever he wants to. This has been going on for years and it's about time the city did something about it. All he had to do was comply with zoning law, which he was repeatedly warned about, yet he refused each time.

"The city’s conflict with Salman began even before he and his wife decided to build the game room onto their home, when concerns about the use of the property were beginning to emerge. Salman’s addition was approved by the city with the caveat that the property not house a business or church, among other uses.

The reason: Specific zoning and safety requirements would otherwise apply. Such concerns include adequate parking, emergency exits, Fire Department access and other measures intended to protect the safety of large numbers of people who might congregate there.

When city officials discovered Salman was using the game room as a sanctuary, prosecutors initiated a civil action against the Harvest Community Church, resulting in a fine of about $180,000, Carreon-Ainsa said."

“When we talk about (Neighborhood Services Division) investigations and the thousands every year, very, very few of those cases turn into criminal cases,” Carreon-Ainsa said. “We had the option of filing another set of civil cases. Why would we do that if a person consistently disobeys the law and we’ve tried the civil avenue and that doesn’t cause him to change his behavior? We then look for another tool in the toolbox, and in Phoenix, it’s a criminal case.”

"Salman was sentenced to six years in prison in 1993 for shooting into an occupied home in Phoenix a year earlier. The victim told the judge that she felt one of the bullets from Salman’s gun go through her hair and barely miss her head, according to court documents.

A witness in that case told prosecutors that Salman had used a gun to threaten a man in a Paradise Valley mall one month before he was indicted in the shooting, that Salman had participated in other drive-by shootings and that he carried a gun in a concealed holster."

I doubt that.

He may have been approached by the police because of complaints by the neighbors that he was operating a church or school out of a home in a neighborhood zoned as residential.

You can't run a restaurant or a nightclub or a hospital in a residential neighborhood. Nor a church nor a school.

He might have refused to comply with zoning laws. He might have defied a court order to comply with zoning laws. Or he might have engaged in criminal behavior toward the police when they responded to the pleas of his neighbors--to please enforce the law and keep their neighborhood from becoming his church parking lot.

So the pastor who ran a bible study in his home may have been arrested.

But he was not areested for holding a bible study in his home.

He wasn't arrested for holding bible studies.

He was arrested for violating zoning regulations, after *repeated* warnings to stop, which he ignored.

Why do you think laws don't apply to you just because you're a christian? Using a *home* in a zoned residential area to hold regular weekly meetings with 20 people is against the law. He was *told* it was against the law and warned to stop several times. He ignored the warnings and continued to hold the meetings. He got what his actions merited.

ANYONE holding regular meetings of 20 people in their residential-zoned home would face the same consequences. He doesn't merit any special treatment because his meetings involved religion.

Peace.

p.s. watched the video about it -- they guy had a full-on church meeting room, with dais and pews, inside his house, and had a cross and sign out front. He was running a full-on church in a residential area, which is *illegal.*

The problem was not the bible study. He was not arrested or charged for that. Instead, he was charged with violating the occupancy laws of the city of Phoenix. If you want to hold services in your home, you have to follow certain safety standards. He violated them.

It's the same reason that forces churches to have lightning rods: the laws demand the safety measure.

No. But I found some links and read about it. http://www.examiner.com/article/social-media-ablaz...

It's an outrage and it won't be tolerated. Someone will have to pay for this, surely. It really defies all logic.

Morbo the Derperator- What about people who have parties every week? I'd rather have this guy in my neighborhood than some of the pesky noisemakers I've dealt with in the past.

Isn't this kind of BS the reason we left England?

I don't think he was even a pastor. Him and his wife had a weekly bible study and it grew in numbers so much that they all contributed to build a small building in back of his house to hold their meetings. The city said that the building is a church and must be built with church building codes which is very expensive to do. He refused on the grounds that it is not a church and continued to have his bible study so they arrested him and fined him $12000 dollars. Ridiculous isn't it?

PS.. It was on Fox news. They report what others dont. They are a christian network.

It was a zoning violation, too many people. I think it sounds ridiculous, but he should have checked before having a mass meeting. The law's the law.

Only it wasn't for that - it was for use of an unsafe building.

Maybe go read the article, instead of parroting some garbage you heard.