City spies a church and demands it obtain a business license; Church’s attorney will be on FOT this Tuesday

Compiled from OneNewsNow.com:

After sending a city spy to report on church activities in order to collect incriminating “evidence,” the City of Lake Worth in Florida is now demanding that church property owners obtain “business licenses” to avoid foreclosures, hundreds of dollars in daily fines and ultimately shutting services down.

Worshipers at Common Ground Church in Lake Worth, Fla

After being informed about the local government’s “KGB-type harassment,” Liberty Counsel issued a letter to the City of Lake Worth. Attorneys with the Christian nonprofit legal organization are demanding that it retract what they are calling a baseless order requiring all churches in the area — some of which have been pillars of light in their communities for nearly a century — to close their doors.

In addition to the threatened fines and licensing demands, the City has allegedly been taking park in a “KGB-type” investigation of Common Ground Church, sending one of its employees to spy on the church and meticulously record its worship services in hopes or documenting and video recording violations.

Tuesday on Faith On Trial, one of the Liberty Counsel attorneys representing the churches, Richard Mast, will join Deacon Mike Manno and Gina Noll to discuss this case.

Liberty Counsel obtained a statement recorded and prepared by the city “spy,” which attorneys say “reads like a report from behind the Iron Curtain describing illicit activity.” Here is how it reads:

“I walked back to the Coffee Bar and was able to visualize … what appeared to be a ministry in progress,” the City spy wrote in the report, which then listed off various observations. “[This included:] Someone speaking from a podium … A (sic) overhead TV or projection with [S]cripture verse on it … Rows of people sitting in chairs on both sides like a gathering setting … People holding what appeared to be [B]ibles or religious books, as one had a cross on it." 

In the report, it is noted that the church activities were captured on video on the “city phone” and that the recordings would later be used “for future court presentation.”

Join Deacon Mike and Gina Noll for a lively discussion of this issue Tuesday at 9 a.m. (CDT) and re-broadcast at 9 p.m. on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM; 88.5 & 94.5 FM and streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com