Pastor's permit denial inspires Independence Day rally

James Fisher | The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — A pastor's plan to lead Sunday-morning services near the boardwalk here has evolved into a rally "in defiance of tyranny" and defending the principle of religious liberty after Rehoboth's city manager denied permission to have the services because of what he called church and state issues.

At 9:30 a.m. Thursday — Independence Day, as busy as the tourist season gets at the beach resorts — the Rev. Robert Dekker, pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lewes, Del., intends to give a sermon on the beach at the end of Rehoboth Avenue.

That came about after Dekker said he asked Rehoboth officials in late May for permission to lead Sunday morning services for eight weeks at the nearby public bandstand. Rehoboth City Manager Greg Ferrese turned him down.

"I cannot mix church and state," Ferrese's email reply to Dekker said. "I trust you understand."

But Dekker said Tuesday that he didn't understand — and didn't think the principle of church-state separation should lead to the denial of his request.

"We believe that we do have the liberty to proclaim the Gospel," Dekker said. "This whole concept of being silent and backing away, it doesn't fit."

Dekker met with Ferrese in person about his permit application, which sought permission for events Sunday mornings from June 9 to July 28. Ferrese was kind and polite but did not change his mind about the denial, Dekker said.

Word of the rejected application spread at Dekker's church, which Christian Hudson, a Sussex County property developer, occasionally attends. Hudson, working with Dekker, proposed an event meant to reassert the right to lead a peaceful worship service on public property, scheduling it for the morning of July 4.

Hudson heard Dekker mention the permit rejection two weeks ago in a Sunday sermon, and he said it spurred him to arrange Thursday's event.

He points out the city allows a group of churches to lead sunrise services on Easter at the public bandstand and said the denial seemed a clear-cut case of wrongly denying a group access to public facilities because of the content of their speech.

"You can't prevent any group from using public property for religious services," Hudson said. "And if atheists wanted to do something and were prevented solely because they didn't have a religion, I'd be standing with the atheists. They have as much right to the public square."

Hiram Sasser, director of litigation at the Texas-based Liberty Institute, said the controversy sounded like a cut-and-dried "facilities access" dispute, something the Supreme Court issued key rulings on during the 1990s.

All of the rulings granted religious groups access to facilities they'd been denied, he said.

"Every time, the government loses. It's actually fairly rare now to see a case like this, to see a government say, 'You can't use our facilities because of the religious nature of your speech,' " Sasser said. "For the most part, when the city's attorney gets wind of it, these kinds of issues just melt away."

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The Rev. Tom Flowers, pastor of St. Polycarp Catholic Church in Smyrna, Del., said he was surprised to learn Dekker's request had been rejected, in part because a conference of Catholic churches has had annual prayer services on the sands in Rehoboth Beach for years.

"It's not consistent with what has been a tolerant attitude on the part of the city," Flower said. "It just seems confusing."

Dekker wrote back June 30 to City Hall seeking a permit for the July 4 rally, saying he planned to "celebrate freedom on our nation's birthday" with an event to include "music, prayer, testimony and preaching." On Tuesday he got permission from Ferrese's office for that one-time event.

Ferrese did not return calls for comment about the original permit's denial, but the city manager's office provided a copy of his July 2 letter to Dekker allowing the planned rally.

"I have every expectation that the event will be well managed and peaceful," Ferrese wrote, reminding Dekker he and the attendees still had to follow town laws during the rally.

Religious activists have latched on to the saga as a clear instance of spiritual expression trampled upon. Glenn Beck, the conservative radio and Web talk show host, interviewed Dekker with Beck telling him, "Thank you for standing up and having a spine." He also appeared Wednesday on the Fox News show "Fox & Friends" to discuss the rally.

He's uncomfortable being held up as a defiant figure, he said, but he believes it's important for him to speak.

"I'm not really protesting," Dekker said. "You'll not find ugliness in what I'm going to be doing. ... But if it is the city's policy that we can't preach at all, I'm not abiding by that for this rally."