This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, features an agreement reached between a Christian organization supporting Israel and the hotel that agreed to host a conference sponsored by the ministry, then backed out on the contract. Also, a California school district has reached a court settlement with a teacher that it fired because her Christian beliefs would not allow her to comply with policies involving gender pronouns and keeping secrets from parents. Plus, an Ohio church was back in court last week in its ongoing conflict with the city where it is located, with the church's opening its doors to the homeless being the central issue.
Christian ministry, Nashville hotel reach agreement
A Christian ministry supporting Israel had been planning a conference for a certain hotel in Nashville this coming week. But, the hotel announced it would no longer be the host site because of security concerns.
First Liberty became involved in representing the ministry, called, HaYovel; attorney Hiram Sasser stating, according to Nashville television station Fox 17: "What’s happening here is that because these protestors are protesting the event because it is supporting the Jewish people. For the hotel to cancel that, they’re adopting essentially the discriminatory intent of those agitators and those protestors..."
The hotel, the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel, according to the article at the television station's website, said that police had "told them they should cancel the event." In fact, the police department issued a statement, in which it said: "The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department did not advocate, in any shape or form, for the cancellation of the conference at the Sonesta Hotel. Any inference to the contrary is false. Equally false is the assertion in an on-line article that this police department voiced concerns about persons being in physical danger. In fact, members of the police department did, indeed, meet with hotel management at its request to talk about the conference. We let it be known that we were absolutely prepared to help the hotel create a safety and security plan, as we would with any of our city’s hotels, and offer additional support if needed..."
Last Friday, it was announced that a settlement between the ministry and the hotel had been reached. A joint statement, published by First Liberty, said, in part:
The safety and wellbeing of Sonesta’s team and guests is its top priority. While Sonesta determined it was unable to host the HaYovel event due to security concerns, Sonesta sincerely apologizes for the difficulty that this decision has caused HaYovel and its Nashville event attendees. Sonesta respects all humanitarian aid and advocacy groups in their efforts on behalf of people of all faiths, beliefs and backgrounds.
HaYovel appreciates Sonesta’s willingness to resolve this situation swiftly and to the organization’s full satisfaction. As previously announced, the Nashville event has been rescheduled to take place at Ramsey Solutions on May 20-22, 2024.
California teacher settles with school district that fired her
Jessica Tapia is a teacher on a mission. She had lost her job because she refused to keep secrets from parents about their children's sexuality and to lie to students by referencing them based on their so-called "gender pronouns," instead of biological reality. That is based on a press release from Advocates for Faith and Freedom, published on the Christian Newswire website, which stated: "...the Jurupa Unified School District Board approved a settlement agreement between Jessica Tapia and the Jurupa Unified School District to settle her lawsuit for $360,000. Last year, Advocates for Faith and Freedom filed a lawsuit challenging Jurupa Unified School District in the Central District of California after the wrongful termination of public school teacher Jessica Tapia for her religious beliefs."
Tapia is quoted as saying: "What happened to me can happen to anybody, and I want the next teacher to know that it is worth it to take a stand for what is right," said Jessica Tapia. "Across the country, we are seeing teachers' freedom of speech and religious liberty violated through policies that require them to forsake their morals. I want teachers to be confident in the fact that the best thing we can do for students is educate in truth, not deception. This is why I'm joining forces with Advocates for Faith and Freedom to launch Teachers Don't Lie, a resource that will be committed to giving a voice of truth to teachers. I am confident that we are making progress to ensure that no teacher has their faith violated within schoolhouse gates again."Dad’s Place Pastor Chris Avell began receiving pushback in November from city officials about his ministry, which allowed people — many of them unhoused — to enter the church at all hours. Dad’s Place filed a federal lawsuit against the city on Jan. 22.
On Jan. 24, Judge Zouhary entered an order barring the city from enforcing any alleged violations of zoning or fire codes without the approval of the court or without the church’s agreement. He also ordered the city to schedule a conference if the city felt there was an urgent safety issue that needed to be addressed.
The city in February agreed to drop 18 charges centered around zoning and fire code violations, while Dad’s Place agreed to “cease residential operations” and to seek proper building permits.
The article notes that on April 25, an early morning visit from the Bryan city fire chief resulted in further citations regarding a deficient sprinkler system; First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys said that the ministry had not been notified that was a problem.
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