OC Couple Threatened With $500-Per-Meeting Fines For Home Bible Study

An Orange County couple has been ordered to stop holding a Bible study in their home on the grounds that the meeting violates a city ordinance as a “church” and not as a private gathering.

OK the issue

• The Fromms hold a Bible Study that meets regularly on Sunday Mornings and Thursday Nights.
• The Bible Study can include as many as 50 people.
• The Fromms do not think this is a "church", " just to be able to have friends over to read the Bible” (with folding chairs and traffic cones)
• The city defines a "church" as “a regular gathering of more than three people”.
• The city is requiring that this "church" according to local law get a conditional use permit which would require some if not all of the requirements on all local churches.  Handicap access, environmental reports, and traffic reports are some of these requirements.  I suspect that they also have regulations relating to fire codes.[1]  

Honestly I think that this Bible Study is being a little disingenuous.  When I have friends over I don't have folding chairs and traffic cones on hand.  I do not have as many as fifty people over regularly twice a week, including Sunday mornings.  This sounds like a church to me, but it does not matter what it sounds like to me.  The city of San Juan Capistrano has given a definition albeit a strict one.  A minimum quota of three people would stamp out a home bible study that did not involve meeting twice a week with folding chairs.   

Now there was another case similar to this.  In 2009, San Diego County tried to get a Pastor to apply for a permit for his 20 person a week bible study, because of parking issues.[4][2][3]  More bullet points:

• Pastor David Jones is the Pastor of South Bay Community Church with hundreds of members.
• Pastor David Jones held a Bible Study in his home every Tuesday Night
• This Bible Study included an average of 15 people with six additional cars to the neighborhood.  
• San Diego County defines a "religious assembly" as “religious services involving public assembly such as customarily occurs in synagogues, temples, and churches.”

Jones contended that his 15 people in his house did not count as a "religious assembly", after all he pastored a church.  Ultimately the county agreed with him and rescinded their requirements.  It did not help that their investigator asks some unconstitutional questions.   

OK this is part land use issue and part religious freedom issue. As a land owner, you have a responsibility to those on your land beyond to a certain point.  If you have hundreds of people, you may have a responsibility to install sprinklers.  Their lives are partly your responsibility.  How much is your responsibility is defined by your local, state, and federal laws.  Fifty people is a lot of people for a twice a week gathering.  This is the size of the congregations of most churches.  The case in San Juan Capistrano is larger than the one in Bonita, San Diego County.  I would tend to agree with San Juan that this family has certain responsibilities to their city and their "friends".  However these laws across the country never had the house church movement in mind.  Oops, I meant Home Bible Study.