Why did the city of Northglenn in Colorado suddenly stop local churches from gathering for activities in a public park every Tuesday and Thursday, when secular groups are still allowed to gather for activities?
The Center for American Law and Justice (ACLJ) will file a lawsuit in federal court to find out. ACLJ represents four church members.
ACLJ said the churches gathered to “worship, pray, study Scripture, and share meals in Christian fellowship” beginning in 2020. For over four years, there were no complaints.
But in the summer of 2024, the police chief told the pastors that he was shutting them down. Northglenn city officials and representatives from the churches held a private meeting to discuss the matter.
“[City officials] liked what the churches were doing, but they couldn’t do it in Northglenn. The city’s objection wasn’t to the size of the gatherings or any actual disruption. Their objection was to who the churches were serving and why they were doing it – because of their religious conviction to follow Christ’s command to serve ‘the least of these.'”
But who or what prompted this meeting to change things in 2024 in the first place? Regardless, the city made it clear that they wanted church activities shut down by enacting a resolution that bars groups of five or more from using park pavilions and outdoor spaces on a recurring basis.
The city issued criminal citations to some pastors and other individuals. From ACLJ:
When officers arrived, they didn’t just ask about group size – they specifically inquired about church membership, asking, “How many people are part of your church?” This reveals the true target: not group gatherings in general, but religious gatherings specifically.
ACLJ said other groups continue to use the park without penalty, including pickleball groups and fitness classes, which meet more than once a week.
The city’s own senior fitness program met at the park four times in three days – far exceeding any reasonable definition of “recurring use” – yet faced no consequences.
This is especially foolish of Northglenn, especially now that more courts are protecting the religious freedom on individuals and organizations.
The U.S. Supreme Court, for example, has protected the rights of Christian business owners to decline services for homosexual “weddings.” The high court has ruled that parents have to right to opt their children out of homosexual “indoctrination” in the classroom.
“Time and again, we’ve seen government officials attempt to silence or suppress religious expression – and time and again, we’ve defeated them in court,” ACLJ said. “The Northglenn case follows a familiar pattern: officials targeting religious gatherings while giving secular activities a free pass, using facially neutral rules as a pretext for religious discrimination.”
Photo credit: By City of Northglenn – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link
