in World News Legal War Looming Over Town’s Decision to Attack Christian Meetings
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
This article originally appeared on WND.com
Officials order newspaper to remove ad promoting park meeting in act that is ‘utterly unthinkable.’
A new legal war is looming over a series of attacks by officials in a Massachusetts town on a pastor who wanted to arrange a time and location for some of his church’s members to meet for a Bible study.
Many of the details, including the town, the names of the officials and the pastor, are not being released immediately because the American Center for Law and Justice explains it has written a demand letter in the hope that the dispute can be resolved short of formal court action.
But the ACLJ charged that some of the town’s actions were “utterly unthinkable.”
Including officials’ demand that a local newspaper remove an ad promoting a meeting time and place in a park for the study.
The ACLJ explained the local government not only “blocked a church from using a public library’s community meeting room” but also ordered the newspaper to drop a church ad promoting a Bible study.
“Our client is a pastor. He requested the use of the community meeting room of his town’s library to conduct Bible studies for his church and to hold gatherings for grief support. The Massachusetts town policy for the meeting room makes clear that the meeting room is open for the public for informational, educational, cultural, and civic benefit. The meeting room rules also allow people to reserve the room for regular use, for example, a monthly reservation,” the ACLJ documented.
At first, the library director agreed to a pastor’s request for biweekly meetings, but then abruptly reversed course in an email, insisting that “legal counsel” said the rooms were NOT available for “recurring” events.