491
submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A federal judge has ruled that a southern Oregon city can’t limit a local church’s homeless meal services.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke found that an ordinance passed by the small city of Brookings, on the southern Oregon coast, violated the religious freedom rights of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, KGW reported. He issued his opinion on Wednesday.

The 2021 ordinance limited the church’s homeless meal services to two days a week, and required a permit to serve free food in residential areas. It was passed in response to resident complaints.

The church sued the city in 2022, saying the ordinance violated its right to freely practice religion.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

What's amazing here is that a judge thinks feeding people is a religious belief.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 28 points 7 months ago

I don't see that as a stretch. Religions throughout history have held that we must act altruistically and help others, though adherents often don't respect that part of it all. For reference, I am a strict atheist.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

Religions throughout history have held that we must act altruistically and help others, though adherents often don’t respect that part of it all.

Yep. The Fourth Pillar of Islam is to give to the poor. The House of Saud couldn't give less of a shit about the poor.

Saudi Arabia has crippling poverty and people living in slums.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/12/23/vision-2030-and-poverty-in-saudi-arabia

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

Certainly makes more sense as a religious belief than not giving employees birth control.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 12 points 7 months ago

This quickly upset Rev. Lindley from St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, who said feeding people is an essential part of their faith.

"That's the way we express our faith: by caring for people who are on the margins, especially people who are hungry," he said.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/brookings-church-wins-lawsuit-city-serving-free-meals/283-23539b57-8b1d-4fb7-b9a9-4d06c8242e97

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 12 points 7 months ago

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Luke 14:13-14

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Luke 10:30-37

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19-20

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth

John 3:17-18

I would argue NOTHING is more central to Christianity than helping the homeless. And that's before we start getting into comparative religion and finding that almost every religion emphasizes enlightenment coming from giving compassion to those that have nothing

[-] BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 11 points 7 months ago

It absolutely is if you follow the word of Christ. Unfortunately, most self-proclaimed Christians reject the word of Christ.

this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
491 points (99.4% liked)

News

23360 readers
1918 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS