In Theory

Prayer announced five times a day by the muezzin in Muslim countries. Fireworks on the Fourth of July. Church bells on Sunday morning. These are the welcome sounds of community and culture.

Leaf blowers. “Last call” from the public announcement system of the local bar heard blocks away at 2 a.m. Planes with banners droning up and down the beaches. These are noise pollution. I hope there will be more, not less, enforcement of the “disturbing the peace” laws required for those who lack good sense and neighborly courtesy.

Free exercise of religion does not justify any and all behavior. For example, a group cannot gather in my front yard to sing hymns and then complain I have deprived them of their religious freedom if I ask them to go away.

The bishop and members of this Phoenix group have the right to come to their church and worship as they wish, but this does not include imposing hourly bell ringing and the electronic playing of hymns upon everyone in the area. Enjoying the peace and quiet of one’s own home is also an important spiritual value!

The municipal judge was right to limit the ringing of the bells to Sundays and church holidays.

The Rev. Dr. Deborah Barrett

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

I do not think this is a religious-freedom issue. I think the ruling was reasonable and fair to both the church and the community to allow the bells to be rung on Sunday and other church holidays.

There is no Biblical mandate to ring bells as a part of worship, but the Bible does tell us, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,” Romans 12:18.

It seems to me that this was an equitable and reasonable compromise that allowed both the worshipers and the neighbors to have a little peace.

Pastor Dwight Tomlinson

Liberty Baptist Church

Newport Beach

I once lived in an Austrian village where the church bells served as my morning alarm clock. I loved it. The difference, however, is that the church was there centuries before me or anyone else who decided to move into the listening zone of the bells.

The Phoenix cathedral joined the neighborhood. They were welcomed as neighbors and they should return the favor.

They are also being dishonest in claiming the bells are central to their worship. Though bells have become a beautiful part of Christian worship around the world, they are not a required part of worship any more than an organ or drums.

If the bells are central to their worship, I would ask how many of their congregants are gathering every 15 minutes to hear them. My guess it is only the neighbors hearing the bells.

The neighborhood has offered a great alternative in allowing the bells on holidays and for worship services. The church needs to rethink its role in the neighborhood and realize that they are there for the neighborhood, not visa versa.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor, said, “The church is herself only when she exists for humanity....She must take her part in the social life of the world, not lording it over men, but helping and serving them. She must tell [people], whatever their calling, what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others.”

Ric Olsen