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http://www.azcentral.com/community/nort ... 04-ON.html
A Phoenix church leader has received a suspended 10-day jail sentence for violating a city noise ordinance because of his church's bells.

Bishop Richard Painter says he'll appeal.

The bells at the Cathedral of Christ the King at 29th Avenue and Greenway Road in northwest Phoenix normally chime at the top of every hour from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Neighbors said the bells are too loud and ring too often.

In addition to Painter's sentence, the judge on Wednesday restricted chimes at the church to no more than 60 decibels on Sundays for two minutes and on specific religious holidays.

Painter has retained attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund to pursue legal options to defend his rights.

Here, a man threatened the nearby Reformed Church with a lawsuit for doing the same thing. He worked night shift and the bells constantly woke him up during the day. The man stated that it wasn't the church's duty to keep time for the neighborhood. Word of the threat got out and the neighbors signed a petition to stop the bells except for church-related services. The church board caved.

I, as an atheist, live in a very catholic, very rural village in Germany. My bedroom is overlooking the main street and the church is about 500m away. Several of my neighbours are farmers and keep dogs, chickens and roosters, which are making noise from time to time. The farmers drive down main street with their tractors. The teenagers here ride mopeds and scooters (a necessity, since they are not yet allowed to drive cars and the next town with the highschool is 10 km away, the next village is 5 km away and the terrain is very hilly. Busses only stop once every hour or so). There is a part time garage across the street (I get along well with the owner, who occasionaly lets me borrow one of his car lifts if I need to work on my truck).
I'm working a lot of nightshift, but who am I, the city guy, who moved to this village, to tell the people there how to run their lives?
Usually I'm sleeping like a log anyway, no matter what noise exists outside. Only if they have a parade or religious procession, with the village brass band playing right beneath my bedroom window I wake up.

Jan

BlueLion wrote:In addition to Painter's sentence, the judge on Wednesday restricted chimes at the church to no more than 60 decibels on Sundays for two minutes and on specific religious holidays.

The judge just opened this up to one heck of a 1A appeal by overly restricting the church and limiting them to an absurdly low sound level that is well below what is gauranteed to be the ambient noise level.

Sounds like the local NIMBY's found themselves a new cause

I am not a big church fan but I do like to hear the bells, gives the city character.

Soon we will all live in white boxes all the same size driving 10 horsepower electric cars. No one will have anything to complain about anymore but then again no one will ever be happy either.

Airfoilsguy wrote:I am not a big church fan but I do like to hear the bells, gives the city character.

Soon we will all live in white boxes all the same size driving 10 horsepower electric cars. No one will have anything to complain about anymore but then again no one will ever be happy either.

But no one will be sad either, as we will all be mentally monotone. Anyone showing happiness or sadness will be and be considered sense offenders, and after that well, just watch that movie with Christian Bale, Equilibrium. I learned from that film that Police in the future will use Airport Tugs and old blank Black Chrysler K-Cars with only light bars.

Anyways, Jail time, for church bells? I'm not exactly what you call religious, but I must admit, the result of this case does not impress me one bit. First off, how getting those Church Bells to 60 dB is rediculous. 30-40 I hear is the average background sound level we can hear at an average house! I personally think it would be more reasonable to have the bells go off at more reasonable times (i.e. 9AM, then every 3 hours until 6PM or something similar) with no Jail time than this kind of BS!

Jail time is harsh.

On the other hand, I don't think many religions require that bells be tintinnabulated (I made it into a word.), so it would be respectful to quit ringing them. I couldn't stand them ringing at college.