Vintage Church of New Orleans says strict noise restrictions are impeding its ability to worship.
A Southern Baptist church plant in Louisiana has filed an appeal challenging enforcement of a noise ordinance that parishioners say hinders their ability to worship.
The Liberty Institute, a religious-liberty watchdog group based in Plano, Texas, filed an appeal Feb. 5 on behalf of Vintage Church of New Orleans, one of a number of Southern Baptist church plants post-Katrina temporarily worshipping in a tent on the church parking lot during a building program.
Neighbors started complaining about noise soon after the tent meetings began Aug. 5. The following weeks featured regular calls from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, two criminal summons and a threat of “physical arrest” if church leaders didn’t keep the noise down.
The church filed a lawsuit Dec. 10 claiming they did their best to accommodate the sheriff’s demands, but in the end church leaders stopped using sound amplification altogether, a move that “greatly impeded Vintage Church’s ability to worship God.”
A trial court ruled Dec. 22 that the sound ordinance “does not impose a substantial burden” on the church’s religious exercise and turned down its request for an injunction to block its enforcement.
Judge Adrian Adams
“Somewhere I read that, ‘We should love thy neighbor,’” Judge E. Adrian Adams, a former law clerk elected to the bench in 2014, said in the hearing transcript. “I do believe that each part — the church is trying to do its part to comply, as well as the Sheriff’s Office and the Jefferson Parish — they’re working together, but at some point there are rules that need to be followed, lines that need to be drawn. And, I’m here to give some guidance.”
The judge said it appears the problem would be solved if the church moved its starting time to a later hour. Church leaders say that is unworkable for a number of reasons, defending their “religious obligation to meet in their community for worship, including musical worship, and to preach the Gospel and minister to those in the community.”
The appeal to the Louisiana’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals claims the trial court “abused its discretion” in its decision. The church alleges “a campaign of intimidation” against the church that is causing “irreparable harm” to their worship.
The plaintiffs “now have to decide whether to continue to have religious worship and preaching while facing the constant threat of arrest and fine or whether to stop having religious worship and preaching in the community,” the appeal says, violating the congregation’s “sincerely held religious belief that they are called to worship and preach at 3927 Rayne Street.”
“It is discriminatory — as well as ridiculous — that Jefferson Parish is demanding that Vintage Church remain below 60 dB while power tools, construction noise, and demolition noise are permitted, even though they are much louder,” said Justin Butterfield, senior counsel for Liberty Institute. “We are confident that the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal will vindicate Vintage Church’s rights under federal and state law.”
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