{"id":13,"date":"2010-03-16T13:19:31","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T13:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/arizona-town-reconsiders-zoning-prohibition-on-at-home-bible-studies.html"},"modified":"2010-03-16T13:19:31","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T13:19:31","slug":"arizona-town-reconsiders-zoning-prohibition-on-at-home-bible-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/arizona-town-reconsiders-zoning-prohibition-on-at-home-bible-studies.html","title":{"rendered":"Arizona town reconsiders zoning prohibition on at-home Bible studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Town Council in in Gilbert, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb of about 217,000 residents (and currently one of the fastest growing municipalities in America) is moving quickly <\/span>to change a zoning code that technically prohibits Bible study groups and other “religious-assembly uses” in single-family homes.<\/p>\n

Gilbert officials have received hundreds of critical emails <\/a>in the past few months, along with unprecedented media scrutiny, ever since the zoning administrator upheld a cease-and-desist order <\/a>issued to the evangelical Oasis of Truth Church <\/a>for its gatherings of about a dozen people at a pastor’s home. The town’s apologetic mayor and interim manager apparently worshiped with the group on Sunday, <\/a>in a show of support.<\/p>\n

The zoning change is expected to be discussed by the town council next week.<\/p>\n

In my own reporting, I’ve noticed that church-state conflicts play out a bit differently in communities than they do on a national scale, perhaps because people know each other and there are fewer factions to appease? Several years ago, I was surprised that Redwood City, a San Francisco suburb, had opening prayers at its City Council meetings<\/a>, but no one else seemed to bat an eye as long as different denominations each got a turn. <\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/p>\n


<\/span>*<\/span><\/span>Click here to<\/span> <\/span><\/span>subscribe to Belief Beat<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/a>and<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>click here to<\/span> <\/span><\/span>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Town Council in in Gilbert, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb of about 217,000 residents (and currently one of the fastest growing municipalities in America) is moving quickly to change a zoning code that technically prohibits Bible study groups and other “religious-assembly uses” in single-family homes. Gilbert officials have received hundreds of critical emails in the past few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nArizona town reconsiders zoning prohibition on at-home Bible studies - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/arizona-town-reconsiders-zoning-prohibition-on-at-home-bible-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arizona town reconsiders zoning prohibition on at-home Bible studies - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Town Council in in Gilbert, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb of about 217,000 residents (and currently one of the fastest growing municipalities in America) is moving quickly to change a zoning code that technically prohibits Bible study groups and other “religious-assembly uses” in single-family homes. Gilbert officials have received hundreds of critical emails in the past few…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/arizona-town-reconsiders-zoning-prohibition-on-at-home-bible-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-16T13:19:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Arizona town reconsiders zoning prohibition on at-home Bible studies - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/03\/arizona-town-reconsiders-zoning-prohibition-on-at-home-bible-studies.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Arizona town reconsiders zoning prohibition on at-home Bible studies - Belief Beat","og_description":"The Town Council in in Gilbert, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb of about 217,000 residents (and currently one of the fastest growing municipalities in America) is moving quickly to change a zoning code that technically prohibits Bible study groups and other “religious-assembly uses” in single-family homes. 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