Man Sentenced To 60 Days In Jail For Home Bible Study

[skidadl]

CHRISTIAN FINED & SENTENCED TO 60 DAYS IN JAIL OVER AZ HOME BIBLE STUDIES
Posted on July 6, 2012 at 3:32pm by Billy Hallowell

Video in link:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/chr...o-60-days-in-jail-over-az-home-bible-studies/


We’ve told you before about government regulations hampering home Bible studies, but this story is even more pervasive, perplexing and complicated than the others. Michael Salman, who lives in Phoenix, Ariz., has been sentenced to a startling 60 days in jail, given a $12,180 fine and granted three years probation for refusing to stop hosting Bible studies at his home. Why, you ask? He‘s apparently in violation of the city’s building code laws.

(Related: Calif. City Changes Zoning Code to Allow Home Bible Study After Couple Was Fined)

City officials claim that he’s running an operation that is reminiscent of a home church — but without the required permits. And according to Fox’s Todd Starnes, Phoenix court documents show that he violated 67 codes. Unless the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals grants an emergency injunction, he will be jailed as early as next week.

PHOENIX MAN ACCUSED OF BUILDING CHURCH IN BACKYARD TO BE JAILED
Since 2007, The Salman family has fought to say the building in their backyard is for private worship, but Phoenix officials say it’s run as a church, and not up to code. view full article
Naturally, Salman believes the court’s findings amount to a crackdown on faith and religion. The city maintains that the penalties are legitimate based on the zoning laws he and his family have violated. However, Starnes was apparently unable to reach the Phoenix prosecutor’s office, the mayor’s office or code enforcement to obtain further comment.

“They’re cracking down on religious activities and religious use. They’re attacking what I, as a Christian, do in the privacy of my home,” he said in an interview with Starnes. “If I had people coming to my home on a regular basis for poker night or Monday Night Football, it would be permitted. But when someone says to us we are not allowed to gather because of religious purposes, that is when you have discrimination.”



The building in question
Starnes goes on to provide an overview that recaps how the dispute first started between Salman and the city:

The long-running feud between Salman and the City of Phoenix culminated in the summer of 2009 when nearly a dozen police along with city inspectors raided their home. Armed with a search warrant, police confined the Salman family to the living room as they combed the property looking for violations.
Salman is the owner of Mighty Mike’s Burgers — and he is also an ordained pastor. He and his wife have been hosting Bible studies on their 4.6-acre property since 2005. The gatherings were originally attended by as many as 15 people.
In 2007, they received a letter from the city informing them that the Bible studies were not permitted in their living room because it was in violation of the construction code.
A few months later, members of the Phoenix Fire Dept. broke up the family’s Good Friday fellowship. As many as 20 people were in their backyard eating a meal when firefighters threatened to call the police – unless their guests left the premises.
Watch Salman and his wife discuss their legal battle, below:



And this was only the beginning. In 2008, the fire department came back again, and Salman ordered officials off of his property. The town then decided to ignore him — that is until he and his family built a structure in their back hard. The family, having secured the proper building permits, then moved the Bible studies to this new building.

It was then that the real drama unfolded. Officials came in and found 67 code violations. From a failure to post exit signs to a lack of handicap signs, Phoenix officials left no stone unturned. Now, the Christian Bible-study leader could spend some time behind bars — unless federal judges intervene.

Read more about his struggle on Fox News Radio.

 

[superpunk]

obey the law, stupid Christians.

 

[jeebus]

obey the law, stupid Christians.

Yep, we need more stupid laws to keep these Christians in their place. I mean the fanatical sons of b1tches were having BBQ with 15 people ON A SUNDAY! What were these criminals thinking?

 

[jeebus]

I am once again going to state my uber popular position, if it is your job to enforce that type of thing, you have chosen the job of a piece of sh1t.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Kingdom stored up in Heaven.

 

[Cythim]

This is about economics, not worship. Those people are going to be in a real church now instead of their own personal one and the church will shame them out of some money.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

If they have been telling him since 2007 to stop and he defied them the entire time. He has around 40 people come over to his house every week and has already had an appeal rejected by the 9th district court.

What does he expect?

 

[Hoofbite]

If they have been telling him since 2007 to stop and he defied them the entire time. He has around 40 people come over to his house every week and has already had an appeal rejected by the 9th district court.

What does he expect?

Divine intervention?

 

[jeebus]

If they have been telling him since 2007 to stop and he defied them the entire time. He has around 40 people come over to his house every week and has already had an appeal rejected by the 9th district court.

What does he expect?

I guess he would expect to be allowed to have a BBQ with 20 people over any sunday he wants. He is not doing anything unreasonable, and aparently the only reason it is illegal is because he is chrisitan

 

[superpunk]

If I invite 20 people over my house for a bbq and fuck up parking every week for my neighbors and just generally annoy everyone then yeah....people are gonna report me and the authorities are gonna step in.

He lives in a house not a church. We have zoning laws for a reason. Believing in a magic sky fairy doesn't make you above the law. If the magic sky fairy had any power whatsoever he'd step in and rescue this guy from the "persecution" he's facing from these heathens.

 

[skidadl]

Hey SP, the dude owns acreage and never parks in the street. So you are completely wrong in your point.

Christianity is a lifestyle that is lived daily. It's not a building. The laws cannot try to define what church is.

You have to go back to the codes to see what this group violated. Any idea what that was? Prolly not.

 

[superpunk]

The Phoenix prosecutor’s office said the violations were not about religious freedom, but about zoning and proper permitting. A lot of the dispute is whether a building in Salman’s backyard is a church or not. City says yes, Salman says no.

Salman has fought the battle in court but has been ruled against many times, most recently in 2010 where the court stated that the state is not prohibiting him from running a church or worship services at the location, but rather the state just requires Salman to abide by proper fire and zoning codes.

he's a fucking attention whore.

If you're having 40 people over once a week for worship that is a church. Play by the rules dickhole, like everyone else does. You don't get special exemptions for being a Holy Rolling Attention Whore.

 

[superpunk]

article about this ****** from 2008. He wants to build a giant church on his property, and is currently holding "church" throughout the week in a building that's not up to code. He's not being persecuted because he's a Christian he's an asshole who thinks the rules don't apply to him because he's a Christian, and he has the Great Commission to fulfill or some shit.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008...-his-backyard-his-neighbors-aren-t-buying-it/

His name is Michael Salman, he is the pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, and he's got his northwest Phoenix neighborhood in an uproar.

Not because of those YouTube sermons, although they've been a source of fascination for the neighbors who've Googled Salman — and the words "religious fanatic" have, in fact, been whispered about him.

And not because of his criminal record, though the neighbors have pored over the 15-year-old police report that led to his conviction.

The real problem is that Salman is intent on building a church in his own backyard — and not just any church, but a 4,200-square-foot building that will sit only a few feet from his neighbor's property line.

The plans generated lots of talk in the neighborhood. These houses aren't cheap — Salman paid $707,000, according to county records — and everyone was used to a certain bucolic feeling. Nobody liked the idea of church basketball games, loud Christian pop music, and a long line of cars coming in and out.

When, at a neighborhood association meeting, one neighbor told Salman he didn't like the plan, Andrea and Mike Julius watched Salman grow visibly angry.

It made a bad impression.

"It was clear at that point what we were dealing with," Andrea Julius says. "I don't want to say someone who seemed possessed, but not a cool-headed person."

"He gave us a lecture on the fact that all of us were going to make money on our property, and if we were true Christians, we ought to be willing to sacrifice a little bit," Woods recalls. "You can imagine, a few guys in the audience were all over him for that.

"That meeting is where the real animosity started. He made no effort at being conciliatory or cooperative. That really united the neighbors against him," Woods says. "He was his own worst enemy."

After Salman's comment about their property values, the neighbors were asking, "Who is this guy?" It took only a simple background check to get everybody really talking.

Salman, they found out, had a prison record: He was an ex-gang member who'd done time for a drive-by shooting.

They learned, too, that even after getting out of prison and becoming a pastor, he'd been booked on a misdemeanor for impersonating a police officer. According to court records, a girl from Salman's fledgling congregation was fooling around with an older boy; at the parents' request, Salmon went over to the boy's house and pretended to be a cop to scare him.

That didn't sit well with the neighbors. Neither did a document that showed up on the county recorder's Web site. In 1994, Salman had filed paperwork claiming that he belonged to the Embassy of God. That meant, the document claimed, that he didn't need to follow United States law."

 

[superpunk]

The last page of that article is the real clincher. This guy is an asshole.

Immediate past president of the neighborhood association, she's lived in North Glen Square since 1947, in the same modest house. She's seen condos go up on the big arterial streets. She's seen the city foolishly approve a housing development down the street, only to watch the developer go broke before managing to finish four houses.

But she's never seen a controversy like the one surrounding Salman's church.

The association represents 1,400 households, she says. On this matter, they have complete agreement.

"We can't find anybody in favor it," Bettis says flatly. "Not one."

Both sides agree that the debate has gotten ugly — and, of course, each side blames the other.

Salman's evidence? When he accidentally let his incorporation lapse with the secretary of state, one neighbor grabbed the "Harvest Christian Fellowship" name and registered it for himself. Salman was forced to re-file as "Harvest Christian Community Church."

As for the neighbors, well, they say that after they complained about Salman's project, he responded by holding a worship service, complete with an public-address system, at nearby Mariposa Park.

"You could hear him from a mile away," Mike Julius says.

"It went on probably a good hour," Andrea Julius adds.

"It was a couple of hours," Mike Julius says, correcting her. "It was just bad."

The neighbors also talk about what happened to Wade Bonine, Salman's next-door neighbor and, not coincidentally, the guy with his house on the market. Bonine has been Salman's most vocal critic. His lawyer, Richard Lee, says Bonine was forced to request a restraining order against Salman after the pastor came to Bonine's front door appearing to be in an angry mood.

Lee says Salman "raised his fist and Wade closed the door on him." The judge granted the restraining order.

But there's some irony in just how much animosity has resulted from the church's building plans, for one reason.

Salman doesn't have the money to build anything. Not even the shell of the building that he first proposed and certainly not a building that would be wired for business.

Talking to him, it seems clear that his dream has gotten ahead of his church's finances. After years of searching, he found a home for his church — never mind that the church itself is now too small to support a big construction project. Salman currently has only about 30 members and, he admits, not much in the way of extra cash. Records show that he and Suzanne took out a $564,000 mortgage to pay for the house. It's hard to imagine, in today's credit crunch, that any bank would loan them enough money to begin new construction in the backyard — construction that will hardly increase the property's value to most potential purchasers.

But when the neighborhood dug its heels in, so did the pastor.

"The church is going to be built," he says. "Even if it has to be built one brick at a time."

How is that even possible?

"God will provide," he says. "God always provides. I don't know how."

A few weeks later, Salman calls to say that the neighbors are threatening to file a "nuisance" lawsuit against him should the city allow him to build. He seems shocked that, in the letter threatening the suit, attorney Tahan mentions his criminal record.

"I don't even hide that from nobody," he says. "It's part of my testimony. It's who I am."

But then Salman mentions something fascinating. He's been talking to the U.S. Department of Justice about the way the city twice broke up his worship meetings.

If the city does it again, Justice is going to help him sue the city, he claims. At minimum, they'll file a "friend of the court" brief on his behalf, he says. (Justice wouldn't comment, which is not unusual, given that the department generally won't say anything before it intervenes.) He's also been talking to lawyers at Center for Arizona Policy, the influential Christian activist group started by former gubernatorial candidate Len Munsil.

Interestingly, this month, the church has started holding its Sunday-morning meetings — Salman won't call them services — at the house. The meetings are in defiance of a letter from the city's legal department, which specifically bars the church from meeting on-site until construction is complete.

Salman seems to realize that if the city shuts those meetings down, it may be the best thing that's happened to his little congregation. He says he's not trying to goad the city into action, but he can't help speculating about what would happen if it did.

"Maybe they'll get so angry that they'll do something stupid," he says. "Like put a cease-and-desist on us holding worship there. Eventually, the city can pay for the church!"

The thought is so appealing he can't help but repeat it.

"The city may have to pay for our church to be built," Michael Salman says. The excitement in his voice is unmistakable.

He's basically the Westboro Baptist Church.

 

[skidadl]

I'd be interested in hearing about what codes he violated.

If he's blocking traffic or whatever then that needs to be stopped. From what I understand he parks all of the cars on his property. Also, it appears that he filed the proper paperwork when he build his entertaining area, which is a separate building.

It seems that he went through the proper channels and then the city decided that hey didn't like what was going on so they retroactively changed the rules because they felt he was operating a church. The dude contends that he is not running a church.

I only know one side of the story and some of the other side. I'm trying to get the whole story before I make a judgement. You know, thinking it thru like an intelligent person. Dare I say...free thinking...

 

[superpunk]

I'd be interested in hearing about what codes he violated.

If he's blocking traffic or whatever then that needs to be stopped. From what I understand he parks all of the cars on his property. Also, it appears that he filed the proper paperwork when he build his entertaining area, which is a separate building.

It seems that he went through the proper channels and then the city decided that hey didn't like what was going on so they retroactively changed the rules because they felt he was operating a church. The dude contends that he is not running a church.

I only know one side of the story and some of the other side. I'm trying to get the whole story before I make a judgement. You know, thinking it thru like an intelligent person. Dare I say...free thinking...

Let me sum it up for you from the article.

Dude started a church. Got about 70 church people in it. Too big for a house anymore they start looking for a church but dont have enough money.

They team up with another church. Dude pisses off the church they merged with. Board of directors votes to oust him, then has to go get a forcible detainer to evict him from the courts.

Dude's congregation is cut in half but he buys this house with property thinking he can build a church on it.

Dude pisses off his neighbors at a neighborhood meeting to discuss the church.

Dude tells his neighbors he has a permit to begin construction. Dude starts construction.

OOPS! Dude lied! He didn't have a permit after all!

Aforementioned pissed off neighbors complain, City Hall shuts down construction. Dude needs to submit plans, play by the rules.

Dude keeps having church in his shed. Aforementioned pissed off neighbors report this, shed building is not up to code for fire and safety. Not allowed to meet there.

This dude is continuing to antagonize his neighbors and the city in hopes of winning an RLUIPA lawsuit, detailed in the article;

Woe to any city that makes a wrong move. RLUIPA allows for churches to sue in federal court if they're denied building permits — and not only can they win damages, but also attorney's fees. Weinstein cites a case in Florida in which a town was recently forced to pay $2 million to a church it had stopped from construction.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Don't feed the troll.

 

[Theebs]

Peter Griffin did this effectively but in time also ran into problems.

There is much to be learned from Peter Griffin.

 

[cmd34]

Peter Griffin did this effectively but in time also ran into problems.

There is much to be learned from Peter Griffin.

The Fat Man is rather wise.

 

[skidadl]

Here's the deal, it seems that this dude is being punished for operating a church within his home. It is being treated as commercial use. His punishment is being given based on this.

Having a bible study is the same thing as any other gathering. Example: India families have weekly gatherings with meals cooked in that garage and festivities all over the place. The pray to their Hindu gods or whatever. You shouldn't be able to stop a group like this by labeling them commercial.

Having the government define what a church is, is a terrible idea. I get it that some do not like religion being practiced. Cool, that's awesome, but why would ANYONE with sense want more governmental involvement in the private lives of citizens?