Footnotes, Part I
House Church Meetings: A Legal Analysis, by Sean J. Gallagher

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1. U.S. CONST. amend. I. ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...").

2. George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States ... Preparatory to his Declination, 22 - 23 (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge, 1796). ("Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness.") DAVID BARTON, ORITINAL INTENT 319 (Aledo, Texas: Wallbuilder Press, 2nd ed., 1997). ("The Founders believed that religion and morality were inseparable from good government and that they were essential for national success. Consequently, the promotion of the principles of religion and morality was accepted as sound public policy."

3. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, V. 9, 229 (Charles Frances Adams, ed., Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854), (To the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts on October 11, 1798. "[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion ... Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.")

4. See supra note 1.

5. Marvin Olasky, Gore Woos Seeker Moms, The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 1999, at A18. (discussing Vice President Gore’s recent speech regarding the central role of faith-based organizations in addressing the ills of society. Vice President Gore is quoted as saying: "I believe that faith in itself is something essential to spark a personal transformation ... and to keep that person from falling back into addiction, delinquency, or dependency.")

6. Id., ("Avuncularly referring to faith-based organizations as FBOs, Gore pledged that such church groups 'will be integral to the policies set forth in my administration.'") See also supra notes 2 and 3. Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, V. 10, 297 (Jared Sparks, ed., Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840). (To Messrs. The Abbes Chalut and Arnaud on April 17, 1787, "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.")

7. Charles H. Wilson, ex ux, et al. v. Harry Layne, Deputy United States Marshal, etc, et al, No. 98-83, (U.S. Supreme Court May 24, 1999). Quoting from Semayne’s Case, 77 Eng. Rep. 194, 5 Co. Rep. 91a, 91b, 195 (K. B.).

8. Bernd G. Längin, Plain and Amish, An Alternative to Modern Pessimism 122 - 23 (Jack Thiessen trans., Herald Press 1994). ("...that all Amish congregations who built their own house of prayer departed from the true way, sooner or later. Church buildings are a sign of arrogance similar to buttons on Sunday jerkins or zippers on men’s trousers. ... On this matter they have adhered to the old ways even if conducting services in private houses within their community sometimes leads to problems.")

9. Acts 2:46, :42, 20:20, Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Philemon 2.

10. Judy Bradford, House of God, Church in Homes Offer Individuality without Hierarchy, South Bend Tribune, Feb. 6, 1998, D1.

11. Timothy C. Morgan, A Tale of China's Two Churches; Eyewitness Reports of Repression and Revival, Christianity Today, July 13, 1998, at 30. ("During the intervening 30 years, Xu evangelized, planted new house churches, and trained local church leaders, eventually creating what some call the Born Again Movement (BAM), which has an estimated 3 million followers independent of the official registered church in China. Spinoffs from BAM, one of the fastest-growing religious groups in China, have an estimated 20 million followers, nearly twice the size of the registered church, which was re-established in 1979.")

12. Id. ("This year, however, Xu will not be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of his mountaintop plea. Last December he was sentenced to serve three years in a "re-education-through-labor" camp in Henan. Chinese authorities arrested Xu, now 58, on charges of being a leader of a banned religious cult, disrupting public order, and spreading religious heresy about the imminent end of the world.")

13. State of New Jersey v. Robert J. Cameron, 498 A.2d 1217, 1226 (1985). ("It therefore meets in the humble residence of its minister, traditionally a practice of new congregations.").

14. Id. at 1226. ("One should therefore erase from the mind any image of, say, the Most Reverend and Right Honorable Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, M.C., D.D., 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England, plopping down Canterbury Cathedral in the middle of bucolic Somerset County, or of the Camerons' neighborhood being transformed into St. Peter's Square. We are talking about a few folks gathering at someone's home.").

15. Id. at 1219.

16. Id.

17. Id at 1226. The defendant, Robert J. Cameron, is a minister in the Reformed Episcopal Church, a denomination that includes, nationwide, some six or seven thousand adherents and 101 clergy.

18. Grosz v. City of Miami Beach, Fla., 721 F.2d 729 (11th Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 827, 83 L. Ed. 2d 52, 105 S. Ct. 108 (1984).

19. Id. at 731.

20. Id.

21. Jodi Wilgoren, Troubled House of Worship; Zoning: Council Bars Orthodox Synagogue from Residential Street. Rabbi Says Religious Freedom Suffered Blow, LOS ANGELES TIMES, July 9, 1997, at B1.

22. Id. ("Brian Cartwright, a Hancock Park resident who frequently jogs past 3rd and Highland, testified that the synagogue has "no discernible impact" on the neighborhood. 'How this could be disturbing to anyone remains a mystery to me,' he testified during the council hearing.").

23. Rabbi Yitzchok Leblanc-Sternberg et al v. Robert Fletcher et al, 922 F. Supp. 959 (S.D. NY 1996).

24. Id at 960.

25. Nichols and Keane v. Planning and Zoning Commission of the Town of Stratford, 667 F. Supp. 72 (D. Conn. 1987).

26. Id.

27. Valerie Richardson, Bible Study in Home Makes Woman Lawbreaker, WASHINGTON TIMES, August 12, 1999, at A3.

28. New Jersey v. Cameron, 498 A.2d at 1226. (Clifford, J., concurring, "The offensive effect of the group's conduct, as testified to at the municipal court hearing, amounted to no more than a complaint by one of Cameron's neighbors that singing could be heard from a distance of eighty feet away and that on one occasion a guest's car was parked in front of his house. The might, majesty, dominion, and power of the State of New Jersey are marshalled to combat these conditions, through enforcement of a zoning restriction against churches in a residential zone, in order to stifle the religious activities described above.")

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Copyright (c) 2000 S. J. Gallagher