A church located in the state of Arizona has filed a lawsuit against the City of San Luis, accusing officials of blocking its charitable food distribution to individuals and families in need. The whole “we’re the government and here to help,” line is one of the scariest things you can ever imagine hearing, especially when you understand that they don’t really plan to help anyone other than themselves by usurping power and authority.
First Liberty Institute, a conservative legal firm, in partnership with law firm Snell and Wilmer L.L.P. filed a complaint and request to have a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, representing Gethsemani Baptist Church.
Senior counsel for First Liberty, Jeremy Dys, spoke with CBN News and said the church, which is led by Pastor Jose Manuel Castro, is located very close to the southern border we share with Mexico and has been serving folks in that locale for a very long time.
“Here’s a church that has, for the last 25 or 30 years, been present in that community and caring for its people by handing them food when they need it,” Dys stated, point out people all over the area have benefited from Gethsemani Baptist Church’s ministry.
The attorney said the house of worship recently found itself in the crosshairs over truck deliveries that reportedly violate city codes in the church’s zoning district. According to AZ Family, local municipal codes state commercial vehicles over one-and-a-half tons cannot be in residential lots.
An incident last summer in which a truck hit a fence outside a nearby home and neighbors complained reportedly sparked code enforcement, according to AZ Family. The church purportedly covered repairs, but the situation has devolved.
Increased tensions have led the church to pause food outreach and take legal action.
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First Liberty said that the City of San Luis has “issued [two] fines and threatens criminal charges for parking transport trucks in the church’s parking lot.” Dys stated that this turn in the relationship between the city and the church has left them stunned, as they previously had been on very friendly terms.
“The church has done what it has always done and so there’s really been no change on the end of the church,” Dys remarked in the interview. “They’ve just been simply trying to care for people in their community.”
Dys then revealed the election of a new mayor might be what is causing the new struggles between Gethsemani Baptist Church and the city of San Luis, a fight that is now forcing the church to halt its food outreach program. People are now missing out on much needed help to have basic necessities for survival, all because the city government wants to flex muscle and target a Christian organization. You see, this is how charity is supposed to be done. Not welfare programs, but through private entities and individuals.
The government feels threatened by that, as it means justification for hiking taxes and creating wealth distribution programs get tossed out the window. It destroys their agenda, in other words.
“What changed, it seems, is the mayor … was elected to office and very promptly kicked the church out of the city’s warehouses,” Dys continued during the conversation with CBN News. “They had been using their warehouses for storage of food until they could move it to their property to hand it out.”
He said the battle seems to be based on the church’s use of a semi-truck to deliver the food for outreaches. Dys said ordinances preclude the church from having the truck on the church’s property, despite the outreach unfolding there since 1999 purportedly without significant incident.
Dys also charged that Gethsemani Baptist Church is being “singled out” and ticketed while at least one other establishment is allowed to receive food deliveries in a similar manner. A press release states, “the church and its pastor cannot afford the city’s heavy fines and fear that more citations could result in the pastor going to jail.”
“It’s only this church that is being singled out ticketed and fined for trying to feed the hungry,” he went on to say, revealing the pastor of the church is deeply concerned these charges could intensify. “The church has been forced to suspend their ministry until this lawsuit resolves the problem.”
The attorney then said he’s hopeful that the lawsuit will pave the way for the church to restart its food bank ministry to individuals in the community who desperately need help.