>This news report appeared in the AARP Bulletin (September 2009):

One man’s joyful noise is another’s aural pollution. Ask Bishop Rick Painter of the Cathedral of Christ the King in Phoenix. He has been convicted by the city on two counts of disturbing the peace for ringing his church’s bells.

“It’s upsetting, obviously, that something that started out as a civil complaint got picked up by the city and taken to court,” says Painter, 68. “Church bells were rung in this nation since before it was a nation.”

Painter and his congregation of roughly 100 worshipers moved to their present location in north Phoenix in 2007. The offending chimes–actually a 67-decibel digital recording played through four loudspeakers– started on Palm Sunday 2008.

Painter and a handful of irate neighbors have been at odds ever since. Following complaints, the bells were taken off a half-hour schedule and played once every hour from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Noise-absorbent foam was even placed in front of the speakers.

Still, police were eventually summoned and a report was filed. Painter was found guilty in June, and the bells now ring only for Sunday worship services. A religious liberties group, the Alliance Defense Fund, plans to appeal the conviction.

“Even ice cream trucks are louder than our bells,” Painter says. “The interesting thing is, the people who are closest to the bells are not complaining.”

When deciding the case, the presiding judge convicted Bishop Painter on two counts of creating “an unreasonably loud, disturbing and unnecessary noise.” Painter was sentenced to ten days in jail and three years’ probation. As an act of mercy (I guess), the judge suspended the jail sentence, but the bishop is still on probation.

With the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, the church has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city. The church claims that the city has violated the church’s First Amendment right to practice its religion unfettered. In the complaint, the church argues that the city’s noise ordinance has an exception for ice-cream trucks. The church is asking for the same treatment the city gives to ice-cream trucks.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Erik Stanley, the lawyer representing the church, said that churches should not be punished “for exercising their faith publicly:”

“No one should be sentenced to jail and probation for doing what churches have traditionally done throughout history, especially when the sound of the church’s bells does not exceed the noise level that the law allows for ice cream trucks.”

I say: “Amen to that.”

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Bishop Rick Painter, Church Bells

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