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.
There’s a number of people who might have stayed religious if their religion actually focused on helping people and wasn’t full of hypocrites.
My 2 best friends are really heartbroken lately and have greatly reduced their participation at their church due to much of the money going to a few select families of higher ups for things not even remotely mission related.
They’ve donated 10% of their income for years and worked on many projects and events, but it makes them feel like crap to see things run inappropriately.
I’m not religious and would generally refer to myself as agnostic, but it sucks to see them get hurt spiritually by their church, as that’s kinda the opposite reason as to why it exists.
They finally woke up, which is great for them. Now they will experience a period of trauma as they re-evaluate their lives and identities. It’s a hard process but they will be happier on the other end than before starting this journey.
Not necessarily. I’ve been through this and it’s a lot … a loss of community, loss of friends, nevermind the exhaustion from having your mind in conflict for months/years before you actually leave. And then having to develop new community and new friends without the history you had with the old.
I had the extreme misfortune to be born a gay person in the late 1970s to future Trump voters. I have extreme personal experience on this subject. It is traumatic, it is hard. But you come out of it with a far stronger sense of identity than most people develop and those you surround yourself with are by choice rather than by default.