A South Carolina pastor is currently serving jail time after his church repeatedly violated the city’s noise ordinance.
The sentencing is a culmination of a dispute that stretches back two years between the Rehoboth United Assemblies Church and residents in the surrounding area due to the noise originating from the house of worship, reports KHOU.
Local police officers were called to the church more than fifty times due to noise complaints, saying that the sound caused by musical instruments could be heard in the neighborhood during early mornings and late evenings. Some neighbors have recorded the episodes to serve as evidence for their complaint.
Back in June, officials granted an order prohibiting the church from using loud instruments and amplifying devices between the hours of 8 PM and 8 AM. Even after that injunction, police officers had been called to the church for complaints that the services were too loud.
After two years of dispute and documents showing the church violated the injunction several times, a three day trial against church pastor Johnnie Clark ensued.
The trial ended with the jury finding him guilty of unlawful sound amplification. Clark will be serving two weeks behind bars.
Over time, the church paid fines several times for multiple violations of the city’s ordinance. After this recent verdict, Clark will be required to pay money as well as serve time.
Clark’s wife, Harriet expressed her disbelief, saying, “I can’t believe it, jail time, for serving God, what’s next?”
Harriet Clark is also a pastor at the church and last Thursday led a church service without her husband for the first time in 30 years.
“They are trying to tell us how not to worship,” Clark said. “We have church at 7:30, so what, does that mean we only have 30 minutes to worship?”
Thomas Borders, a church member for over 20 years, believes that their rights are being violated because they cannot praise God the way they want to, and that the problem sits with the city’s noise ordinance. He explains that because the ordinance is not specific, it’s up to the neighbors to decide what is or what is not a nuisance to them.
Clark says that the only solution to the noise problem is to soundproof the church, which would cost a lot of money.
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