Posted on 05/12/2006 8:23:08 AM PDT by DaveLoneRanger
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The North Carolina-based owners of an apartment complex say they will allow residents to continue holding their weekly Bible studies while they review whether the sessions violate the Fair Housing Act.
The owners of Heritage Court had told residents this week to stop holding the Bible studies in a common area and instead hold them in a private apartment. The complex is privately owned by One Management of Raleigh, N.C., but many residents have their rent subsidized by federal vouchers.
The course reversal comes after Attorney General Henry McMaster said his office would investigate whether the owners committed "religious discrimination" in having the Bible studies ended.
"We felt like it would help diffuse the situation a little bit" to allow the sessions to continue, at least for now, said One Management Vice President Jenny Petri. "We have had a situation where our property manager got phone calls at home calling her a devil worshipper."
She pointed out that the residents have not yet missed a Bible study session. The next one is scheduled for Monday.
Petri said she hopes to have a response soon from the Department of Justice on whether the sessions are allowable.
McMaster announced his investigation Wednesday, joining other officials in the state who had challenged the apartment owners' interpretation of the law.
Some of the 20 or so people who turned out for an hour each Monday night for worship, singing and fellowship said the sessions were important.
"We were really into this Bible study. It was a sharing time. Now we can't do anything spiritual. That's the pits," said Sara Bryant, who lives at Heritage Court with her husband, Bob, before the owners decided to allow the sessions to continue.
William Dudley Gregorie, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's field office director for South Carolina, said the Bible studies are likely OK as long as permission was also given to any other religious group who wanted to use the area.
"In other words, if you let one, you have to let all," he said.
U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., planned to send a letter to the apartment complex management telling them the Bible studies can legally continue.
The owners had told residents they were free to hold the studies in their own homes. But they worried the crowd had gotten to big to fit, even if Joyce Harvey followed through with her offer to roll her hospital bed to one side so more chairs could fit along the wall.
"It's just not going to be accessible. I'm afraid some people will drop out - that they'll think it's too crowded or too much trouble," Marilyn Conley said. "But we're going to try to hold it together."
Yeah but you can bet your ass that if the residents had been conducting studies of Islam and reading the Koran, and all of that demonic nonsense, that there would few if any protests from the apartment owners.
That might have something to do with the fact that when you oppose Islam, you pay with your life if they get their hands on you. Christians are considered a pushover.
what response would a gathering of illegal aliens or homosexuals in the common area get ?
WTH....this is a PRIVATE Apartment complex....even if they DO get federal vouchers.....so what!!!!
Not only that, but the electricity to run the lights came from a power plant, whose employees drive to work on highways that were subsidized by federal transportation dollars. Of course, inane Federal rules must apply!
If I were the apartment complex management, I would plan to send a letter to U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C. telling him to legally KMA and take his opinion about what I can do on my private property and stick it where the sun don't shine.
I would then remind him that the first amendment limits HIS activities in the House, not mine. It says CONGRESS shall make no law , not "apartment complex management".
Oh, but you say many residents get federal vouchers to subsidize their rent? They do? They're getting free rent and they're bitching about it?
Fine. Just send them to to the door marked Apartment Complex Management to turn in their keys. They've got 24 hours to move out -- make that 23 hours, 59 minutes.
Anyone who insists that government permission is necessary for such a thing is either a completely mindless sheep, or just plain old evil.
WWDD? (What would Dagny do?)
More critically, if any group (quilting club or book discussion group) is allowed to use the facilities, so can religious groups of any type.
Jude Law as Hank and Gwyneth Paltrow as Dagney
-PJ
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