Interesting story out of Seattle today.

A local church was told by the government that it was operating illegally and that it needed to shut down.

I brought this point up yesterday, God may be above the law but church’s aren’t.

St. Jude’s Church did not apply for the necessary permits to operate and now the parish faces what could add up to $37,000 in fines.

The fines stem from the problem that the church decided that it didn’t need the permits and it had a religious obligation to the area to open.

The key thing here is that the church set up a tent city– they were not operating out of a building.

I don’t know about you, but the permit process seems completely legit to me– I don’t want to wake up one morning and find a circus tent next door.Washington State Rep. Mark Miloscia, a Democrat, is introducing a measure to make it illegal for cities to prevent churches or synagogues from hosting a tent city.

Miloscia points out that churches shouldn’t be unfairly restricted as they go about trying to save lives by providing some measure of shelter for people.

Saving lives is one thing, hosting a tent revival in my backyard is another.