Virginia County Giving Cowboy Church a Rough Ride
by Ed Thomas
May 12, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A farmer in Bedford County, Virginia, has received a notice of zoning violation from his jurisdiction for allowing a "cowboy church" to hold services inside a barn on his property. In response, the religious-freedom advocate law firm Liberty Counsel has warned County officials of the farmer's basis for a federal lawsuit. Garland Simmons allows The Cowboy Church of Virginia to hold a service every Thursday night in a barn on his 900-acre property. But a recent notice from Bedford County says the gathering is a code violation because Simmons' farm is not zoned for religious services and permits cannot even be issued to allow them. Simmons has 30 days to appeal -- but the only response thus far has been a letter from Liberty Counsel, written on behalf of the church's pastor, Raymond Bell.
Mat Staver, president and general counsel of that legal group, says the County policy targeting religious use, but allowing any other kind of barn activity, violates federal law.
"You can apparently use barns for all kinds of things. You can use a barn to have a dance to the tunes of Toby Keith or Reba," he suggests, "but a church service, reciting the Psalms of David or praise and worship with Casting Crowns, as an example, [is] prohibited."
Specifically, says Liberty Counsel, the County is violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, often referred to as RLUIPA. Staver says the measure was passed by Congress in 2000, just because of such indiscriminate prohibitions against religious gatherings.
"What we found leading up to that Act is that churches were having discriminatory zoning laws applied against them all over the country," the attorney explains. "Some municipalities were saying that churches could not even locate, you couldn't have worship in your home -- or if you already were located, you couldn't expand your ministry. So, as a result, the RLUIPA law ... was passed."
The letter, which alleges the County is also violating Simmons' First Amendment rights, demands officials withdraw the notice of violation and threatens a possibly federal lawsuit. The County, says Staver, is "treading on unconstitutional ground."
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
