Legal News

Ringing Arizona: The Curious Case of a Church and its Bells

By Ashby Jones

There are some stories that just have it all, and this one, straight outta Phoenix, fits the bill. Religion, the Constitution, annoyed townspeople, an indignant bishop — all the makings of a great blog post.

Here goes:

It starts with a church in Phoenix called Christ the King Church. Prior to May, the church rang its bells every hour on the hour, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Despite all that is wonderful with hourly dinging-and-donging, some of the neighborhood’s residents got annoyed and asked a judge to shut down the racket.

The judge did just that — and a little more: He convicted the bishop, Rick Painter, on two counts of creating "an unreasonably loud, disturbing and unnecessary noise." Painter in June was given a suspended sentence of ten days in jail and three years' probation on June 3.

The judge restricted the chimes at the church to no more than 60 decibels for two minutes on Sundays and specific religious holidays. (The bells’ volume has been registered as emitting 67 decibels at the nearest property line. By comparison, a whisper is 30 decibels and a normal conversation runs from 60 to 70 decibels.) Click here for the story, from abc15.com, on Painter’s conviction.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Painter wasn’t pleased by the conviction. "We're expressing our religion we glorify God by the bells," he said.

Now comes word that a collection of churches — Christ the King and two other Phoenix churches — have filed suit in federal court against the city for violating its First Amendment right to practice its religion unfettered. They argue that Phoenix’s noise ordinance has an exception for ice-cream trucks. They're asking for the same treatment. Click here for the complaint. Click here for the story, from Courthouse News Service.

The lawyer for the churches, Erik Stanley, said churches shouldn't be published "for exercising their faith publicly."

"No one should be sentenced to jail and probation for doing what churches have traditionally done throughout history, especially when the sound of the church's bells does not exceed the noise level that the law allows for ice cream trucks," Stanley said.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 09, 2009 (boomark / email).