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NATIONAL ENQUIRER - January 5, 2009
PRAISE THE LORD & PASS THE BOOZE
Rebuilt church shut down because it's licensed as a bar
HELL-BENT bureaucrats told parishioners they couldn't pray in their tiny chapel - but it was fine if they drank booze in their church!
The rural congregation took over a dilapidated building 22 years ago, shelling out tens of thousands of their hard-earned dollars to turn it into a place of worship.
But county officials said they'd just discovered the building had originally been granted a permit as a country-and-western bar.
It was licensed for drinking, music and dancing - but not prayer!
So the bureaucrats from hell cast the shocked congregation into the wilderness - threatening to switch off the church's electricity and fine them $2,500 a day if they continued using the building to worship.
For six months, parishioners took turns holding services in their homes, and the pastor used an ironing board draped with a cloth as an improvised pulpit.
But the small congregation in Guatay, Calif., fought back like David against Goliath, taking San Diego County to court - where a federal judge decided their constitutional rights had been violated.
He said they could re-open, and they celebrated by advertising their own "Happy Hour" every Sunday morning!
"Praise the Lord, we're back in our church," relieved pastor Stan Peterson told The ENQUIRER.
"We prayed for the county lawyers and for the judge to receive God's wisdom, and he answered our prayers."
THE PASTOR AND HIS 50-MEMBER
congregation were stunned in May when they got a letter ordering them to shut the church because they had no permit to worship.
"I told them we had music and singing, like the permit says, but nothing stronger than Welch's grape juice passed our lips at communion," said the 63-year-old pastor.
"It made no difference. They'd known all about us for years. These officials were just plain boneheaded.
"All we wanted was to be able to pray in peace. But suddenly they start threatening us. They scared us with their tactics, and we were excluded from our own church."
To make matters worse, county officials demanded the church remedy 67 "violations" before they could use their sanctuary again - mostly trivial infringements like an electrical socket without a cover. It took $40,000 to fix up the building - "a lot of money for a small church," said the pastor.
Outraged San Diego lawyer Pete Lepiscopo took up the fight on behalf of churchgoers on a no-fee basis - and is now suing the county for damages.
"You can't let a church exist for nearly a quarter of a century and then just throw them out," he told The ENQUIRER.
"One time the church had to hold a funeral service for a murdered 18-year-old kid outside in a parking lot. It was horrible."
The county tried to justify its heavy-handed approach by claiming it couldn't pick and choose which laws it upheld.
But Lepiscopo fires back: "The county was riding roughshod over the constitutional rights of the congregation. This shouldn't happen in America!"
If you would like to help the church with its staggering debt, please see their Web site:
guataychurch.com
(Article written by: John Cooke)
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