The church, on Airport Road south of Williams Lake Road, is suing the township, accusing officials of using police to raid the church to quiet its worship, which is in violation of the First Amendment right to freely exercise religion.
According to the lawsuit, uniformed Waterford police officers raided, without a search warrant, arrest warrant or on any other legal authority, detained Pastor Mark Kerr, interrogated him and seized his driver’s license.
Township Supervisor Carl Solden denies any harassment, saying the issue came down to a simple noise complaint. The Waterford church’s suit is a counterclaim that follows one filed in Oakland County Circuit Court in February by one of the church’s neighbors, Timothy Carlson. Carlson’s suit seeks a court order reducing the volume of rock music and other songs practiced and played as part of the worship service.
The Waterford case is the latest high-profile skirmish in metro Detroit between churches and local governments, which have butted heads over everything from zoning and taxes to traffic and noise.
In January 2004, the Al-Islah Islamic Center in Hamtramck sought city permission to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer over loudspeakers. Many residents in the once largely Polish and Catholic community objected. But a majority ultimately voted to keep a law allowing the prayer broadcast and the ringing of church bells.
To members of Faith Baptist Church in Waterford, it's a matter of singing God's praises to heaven.
To a church neighbor and local police, it's a matter of peace on Earth.
The church, on Airport Road south of Williams Lake Road, is suing the township, accusing officials of using police to raid the church to quiet its worship in violation of the First Amendment right to freely exercise religion.
"Uniformed Waterford police officers raided ... without a search warrant, arrest warrant or on any other legal authority, detained Pastor Mark Kerr, interrogated him and seized his driver's license," according to the lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in Detroit. The actions of police have had a chilling effect on worship, the suit claims.
But Township Supervisor Carl Solden denies any harassment, saying the issue came down to a simple noise complaint.
"We're trying to get this resolved in a reasonable way," he said.
The Waterford church's suit is a counterclaim that follows one filed in Oakland County Circuit Court in February by one of the church's neighbors, Timothy Carlson.
Carlson's suit seeks a court order reducing the volume of rock music and other songs practiced and played as part of the worship service.
"When you can hear the noise, inside a residence across the street with the doors and windows closed, it's too loud," said Carlson's lawyer, Andrew Paluda. "Our suit has nothing to do with religion. It's about noise."
The Waterford case is the latest high-profile skirmish in metro Detroit between churches and local governments, which have butted heads over everything from zoning and taxes to traffic and noise -- but which also have long associated with each other.
For example, the Detroit City Council begins each meeting with a prayer led by members of various faiths. The Oakland County Board of Commissioners begins its meetings with an invocation, typically by a commissioner, and has observed moments of silence to mark things such as the deaths of former commissioners.
And a recent survey by the Grand Rapids Press notes that about 75% of local governments in southwest Michigan begin their meetings with a prayer.
Noise complaints, however, are not new when it comes to houses of worship.
In January 2004, the Al-Islah Islamic Center in Hamtramck sought city permission to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer over loudspeakers. Many residents in the once largely Polish and Catholic community objected. But a majority ultimately voted to keep a law allowing the prayer broadcasts and the ringing of church bells.
Members of some churches have tried to use the power of local government to hamper competing congregations, said Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists.
"What's happening is the religious are beginning to annoy the religious," Johnson said.
Johnson's group sued the City of Detroit last year after the city helped rehabilitate three churches along Woodward as part of a facade improvement program. U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn ruled the program constitutional, except for repairs to church signs or to stained-glass windows containing religious symbols.
Johnson's group is appealing.
The City of Southfield lost a case last year against Lighthouse Community Church of God, brought under the Religious Land Use and Institutions Persons Act, a 2000 federal law preventing local governments from zoning out houses of worship.
After the city paid an undisclosed sum to settle, the church sold the property to the city and moved to Redford Township.
"Churches, pretty much, don't want to go to court," said Dan Dalton, a Royal Oak attorney who represented the church in the Southfield case. "The cities have, for the past 200 years or so, said, 'We'll tell you where you can be because we don't want to lose tax base.' "
Churches are exempt from property taxes that fund local governments.
Local governments have other issues with churches as well.
In 2001, Pontiac police raided Grace Centers of Hope, a church-run homeless shelter in the downtown area, looking for felons. What they found were a few people with misdemeanors.
The city also has been strict with building and occupancy codes for the homeless center's thrift store and programs it runs from homes it has rehabilitated on Seneca Street, said Pastor Kent Clark, the center's chief executive officer.
"Government has been telling the church to back off for a long time in America," Clark said. "We have marching orders from our God to look after the widow and the orphan."
1 comment:
As a member of Faith. It is not "rock" music. We play contemporary Christian music that is played on Christian radio stations across the country. We have done everything we can to appease the anti-church neighbors (whom by the way moved into the neighborhood after the church was built and we were playing our music) from closing all doors (even on hot days), and posting signs about being coureous to our neighbors. By the way, there is an international airport 2 miles down the road. I wonder which is louder, our music from outside of a building, or jet aircraft at takeoff????
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