Pennsylvania Town Issues Citation Against Local Churches Providing Food, Counseling to Community

Religious Freedom, , ,

Public officials in the Philadelphia suburb of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, recently issued a citation against two churches operating ministries in their community.

NPR affiliate WHYY reports that the churches were cited for violating the city’s zoning code by offering free meals and providing mental health services.

The Pottstown Zoning Officer reportedly cited an Episcopal church and a United Methodist church for the violations.

“Violations” listed on the citation include:

  • Providing free counseling and support for families.
  • Providing soap, razors, toothbrushes, deodorant, toilet paper, phone chargers, and canned goods to the public.
  • Providing weekly buffet style meals for the public.

The citation draws from the city zoning code that defines a church as “A building wherein persons assemble regularly for religious worship and that is used only for such purposes and for those accessory activities as are customarily associated therewith.”

The citation gave the ministries 30 days to apply for a zoning permit with the city or cease and desist these services.

If the churches failed to do so, they could be fined up to $500. The Episcopal News Service reports that the churches do not intend to stop the programs or apply for additional permits.

Churches should not be threatened with fines simply for giving food and basic necessities to the needy.

Stories like this one underscore why it is so important for states to safeguard the free exercise of religion.

In 2016 the Arkansas Department of Health told a Carroll County food ministry that it could not serve soup to the homeless unless the soup was “prepared in an institutional kitchen and served in the same building.”

Fortunately, a religious freedom restoration law the Arkansas Legislature passed in 2015 helped protect that ministry.

Last year the Arkansas Legislature voted to place the Arkansas Religious Freedom Amendment on the 2022 ballot. If passed, it would enshrine many of the same religious liberty protections from the 2015 law into the Arkansas Constitution.

You Can Learn More About the Arkansas Religious Freedom Amendment Here.

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Abortionists Drop Lawsuits Against Arkansas’ Pro-Life Laws

Abortion, , ,

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade, abortionists are dropping lawsuits against pro-life policies that Arkansas has enacted over the years.

On July 6 attorneys representing Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services — Arkansas’ only licensed abortion facilities — filed a motion asking the federal district court in Little Rock to dismiss their lawsuit voluntarily against Arkansas’ Act 309 of 2021.

Act 309 prohibits abortion in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother. The law has been tied up in court since May of last year.

On July 7, Planned Parenthood filed a motion to dismiss its lawsuit over the state’s decision to stop paying Medicaid reimbursements to the abortion provider.

In 2015 Governor Hutchinson ordered the state to quit providing Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood clinics after a series of undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs and tissue harvested from aborted babies. Planned Parenthood has been working to reinstate the funding ever since.

The ACLU also filed a motion on July 5 asking the federal court in Little Rock to dismiss its lawsuit against a group of pro-life laws the Arkansas Legislature passed in 2017.

The laws are Act 45 of 2017 prohibiting certain surgical abortion procedures that dismember a living unborn child; Act 733 of 2017 prohibiting abortions performed due to the baby’s sex; Act 1018 of 2017 requiring abortionists to report abortions performed on any girl under the age of 17 to law enforcement in case the girl turns out to be the victim of sexual assault; and Act 603 of 2017 requiring aborted fetal remains to be disposed of according to the Arkansas Final Disposition Rights Act of 2009.

These good, pro-life laws have languished in federal court for the past five years.

Since June 24, facilities in Arkansas have stopped aborting unborn children, and state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has certified that abortion is prohibited in Arkansas except in cases when the mother’s life is at risk. In other states, groups like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have sued to keep abortion legal in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn Roe. In Arkansas, however, abortionists appear to be backing down in court for the time being.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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