Southern Baptist Church Keeps Neighbors Awake With Its Loud Rock Music

Rob Wilton, pastor of Vintage Church in New Orleans

Vintage Church of New Orleans is fighting an injunction by Jefferson Parish that requires that it not exceed 60 decibels of noise. The church is meeting in a tent while constructing a permanent building, and after neighbors complained of the noise of their rock music, the local government issued the injunction. After a district court judge refused to lift the injunction, the legal battle has now moved to the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal. One neighbor told the local newspaper, “My daughter’s a nurse, works a 13-hour shift, and she couldn’t get to sleep. This has been going on for four months. It’s frustrating. I’m not the only one complaining. We all can hear it. [Other neighbors] are complaining, too” (Time-Picayunes, Dec. 15, 2015). If the church would forego its imitation of the world’s music and sing hymns accompanied by non-electric instruments, it probably wouldn’t be having this problem and wouldn’t be offending its neighbors and having to spend money on legal fees.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 19, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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