OVO

James King, Catholic Church Sues City of Phoenix for Right to Ring Church Bells: In June, a Catholic bishop was sentenced to three years of probation and 10 days in jail (suspended) for violating a noise ordinance by ringing church bells in a Phoenix neighborhood. On August 24, city officials warned St. Mark’s Catholic Church, located near Van Buren Street and 30th Street, that it could be prosecuted “if St. Mark did not reduce the amount of times that it rings its carillon to the satisfaction of certain neighbors,” according to a complaint filed by prosecutors. [...] The churches are asking for nominal damages, declaratory judgment under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and a permanent injunction so they can ring their bells.

What King describes as ‘ringing church bells’ in his article are recordings that are played hourly.  There’s a different mental image invoked by a weathered bell tower and its sonorous chimes peeling down through history on the one hand and a recording on the other.  There’s no definition of what a religion is in US law – that’s what the Second Amendment does for us – so there’s no legal case for preventing hourly blasts of recorded bells because it isn’t a ‘real’ religious practice.  But it does seem reasonable to compel them to pipe down, in the interest of those whose freedom of religion includes a little peace and quiet.  The bishop fighting for the right to make his joyous noise may not know it, but he is laying the groundwork for any other religious group that wants to bomb their neighborhood with their own recordings.  Say, a Muslim call to prayer five times every day over concert-grade loudspeakers.   You don’t get one without the other.  Think of the “ear-splitting” sound of 4,000 mosques doing just that – five times a day – every day – in Cairo.  Or if Cairo is too far away, think of the problems caused by religious loudspeaker use in London.  Is this really a problem that we need to import to the USA?