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Richmond Cal. Community Center now allows religious meetings
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Religious groups cannot be excluded!
The Alliance Defense Fund is reporting that the city of Richmond (California) has agreed to eliminate its ban on religious and church activities in its community centers after receiving a letter from ADF attorneys urging the city to cease the implementation and enforcement of its unconstitutional policy. ADF attorneys sent a letter to the mayor on behalf of Pastor Ralph Lopez after he was told by a city official that he could not rent the city’s community center for a Bible study because of a policy forbidding religious uses of the facility.
On Sept. 30, Lopez contacted the supervisor of the Richmond Recreational Department to rent the Point Richmond Community Center for Sunday morning Bible studies. The meetings were to include discussions and teaching on practical, moral, and social matters, including personal well-being, marriage, finances, and social responsibility. The community center is available for use by the general public, but Lopez was turned down because city policy did not allow churches to meet in its community centers.
Lopez immediately provided the supervisor with a decision issued this summer in the lawsuit Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, a case filed by ADF attorneys on behalf of a Christian group in the same county (Contra Costa) regarding a similar public access issue. In the decision, a federal district court determined that Contra Costa County officials could not prohibit a church ministry from accessing public library meeting rooms just because they considered its scheduled activities to be “religious services.”
In response to the ADF letter, the city has eliminated the religious prohibition against church and religious services at Richmond’s community centers. It has also been cooperative with Lopez as he has begun the process of applying to use the community centers.
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