I cover a lot of religious liberty issues here and at the National Catholic Register. I’ve got to admit, this is one of the more… interesting religious liberty lawsuits filed in recent memory.
A lawsuit was filed last month in an Indiana state trial court by a Christian youth camp which objects to a zoning board’s approval of a large dairy farm nearby. The complaint (full text) in House of Prayer Ministries, Inc. v. Rush County Board of Zoning Appeals, (filed 5/16/2016), alleges that the 1400 cows and three large waste lagoons on the farm will expose campers to noxious odors and harmful air emissions that will “interfere with Harvest Christian Camp’s thirty-year mission and ability to provide a safe, healthy, and Christian rural setting for thousands of children and teens to be educated, enriched spiritually, and enhanced by the outdoors….” This, the complaint alleges, amounts to a substantial burden that violates the camp’s rights under RLUIPA, the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First and 14th Amendments and the state constitution’s equal privileges and immunities clause. RLUIPA Defense blog reports on the case.
Yup. This Christian Youth Camp wants the court to affirm that it has the religious liberty to not smell like crap. I don’t particularly remember the commandment “Thou Shall Not Smell Like Horse crap.”
Although they do say cleanliness is next to Godliness.
Something tells me that in a time when judges decided that religious institutions have to take part in providing abortifacients, most judges are full of crap anyway.
