The City of (Fallen) Angels Discriminates Against Christians Again

 

Arthur,

Los Angeles Forbids Church from Holding Public Worship Service  Liberty Counsel is dragging the “City of Angels” back to court.  Five years ago, Liberty Counsel sued the City of Los Angeles for banning public worship services. We won that case. But the so-called “City of Angels” is up to its old tricks. In May, city officials forbade a church from holding a public worship service in order to appease the LGBTQ crowd. And that is a BIG mistake. The City of Los Angeles may not pick and choose which groups are allowed First Amendment rights of free expression or religious freedom. Our clients cannot be silenced for peaceful public expression of Christian viewpoints. We beat Los Angeles and California five years ago, and we intend to beat them again, but we need your direct financial help to win this case. Every donation made to our legal fund today will be DOUBLED by a special Challenge Grant.

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Earlier this year, our client, Harvest Rock Church, was excited to hold a “Mayday” public worship event in Los Angeles. The event was one of several scheduled coast to coast that were modeled after Peru’s #DontMessWithMyKids pro-life, pro-family, pro-God outdoor worship services. Harvest Rock and the Mayday LA organizers dutifully applied for a permit to hold their event on the much revered Hollywood Boulevard where literally thousands of public events have been held over the years.  However, city officials REFUSED to grant Mayday LA the permit. Instead, they told our clients that they could not hold their public worship service because there would be no room on Hollywood Boulevard for fire trucks and emergency vehicles. But the very next week, the city DID allow the LGBTQ “Pride Parade” to throw a massive demonstration with far more attendees on the exact same Hollywood Boulevard where Harvest and Mayday LA had been denied. Furthermore, Mayor Karen Bass not only allowed violent antifa anti-ICE protests on the same street, but she also encouraged everyone to join in the melee. She even defended those protests when they turned violent. But Christians seeking to pray and worship on a different date were banned! Don’t let “woke” city officials ban public worship! Support our legal fund today and have your impact DOUBLED by a special Challenge Grant. The City also told Mayday LA organizers that their permit application was denied because the City could not permit anything related to “freedom of speech” or “protests” — a ridiculous statement considering the city permitted “pride” events and violent antifa protests. In our 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court win in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, the High Court ruled that government entities may not discriminate against religious viewpoints. By denying Mayday’s permit because of its “religious viewpoint” while allowing LA Pride to speak on Hollywood Boulevard about similar topics from a different viewpoint, the Los Angeles permitting scheme treated nonreligious viewpoints more favorably than religious ones — a clearly discriminatory and unconstitutional censoring of religious expression.  The radical LGBTQ-supporting left keeps trying to silence opposing viewpoints. Liberty Counsel has won on this very issue many times, and we intend to win this fight too. We MUST defend Harvest Rock Church and Mayday LA, because if we do not challenge this latest act of tyranny against the church, the bullies will grow bolder, and more attacks will come against our religious liberty. Help us shut down the City of Los Angeles’ discrimination against Christians once and for all by supporting our legal fund. As I noted above, every donation made today will be DOUBLED in impact by a special Challenge Grant. My Gift For Liberty!

Mat Staver Founder and Chairman Liberty Counsel