Unfortunately religion in America has been abusing and been allowed to abuse the first amendment and freedom of expression for years now.

They apply and abuse this in everything from being exempt from child abuse laws when it comes to neglect through faith healing, the Catholic church hiding and protecting paedophiles, right down to claiming exemption from certain planning laws.

Many don't realise just how much people get away with and receive biased legal standing because of misapplication of the freedom of expression

Let's try and be balanced shall we?

The amount of noise put out by the bells is measured at 67 dB from the nearest property line. Normal conversation is 60 dB. The referred to ice cream truck ordinance allows 70 dB from 50 feet away.

The reason that are suing is because one person complained and the Bishop was sentenced to jail time. They claim that the city is singling them out. It sounds extreme to me. One complaint and the Bishop gets a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail and three years' probation? Sounds extreme to me.

Your description is very biased, and wrong.
You would never make it as a reporter, except maybe for the Enquirer (Daily Mail as a UK comparison)


The large Catholic church here rings their bell every hour and has for as long as I can remember. Like Moe said, it is not that loud, and it only rings for a moment.
This is ridiculous.

Lynx, if you can be bothered to click downvote why can't you be bothered to respond like a grown up via the medium of speech?

Because you say the same things every time.

EVERYONE: DL doesn't like religion!

Ok, PSA done.

One of the most discomforting sounds in cities here after traffic is the 5 times a day 3-4 minute mosque prayers over loudspeakers. first one at 5am :(

and in the last 20 years hindus have been playing catch up - not every day but 5-6 times a year on important festivals.

i would celebrate when all them to silent prayer! God listens, and we have alarms, cell phones, computers and what not to remind us ...of the time.

but then there are rock concerts (this is what some of the religious people said ... wont elaborate )

A suspended sentence etc for the priest does not make sense unless he was warned of the same 3-4 times before.

I try to teach my kids that you can't always get what you want. I even sing it to them. But I guess we should now add the verse..."but you can always sue." Where does respect come in here? I don't think volume is the issue, really. We can all, and all do, put up with a lot of disrespectful s**t from people who really don't care what the person next to them wants. That church should be ashamed. I know people who've been wrongly arrested. Wah, wah. welcome to our legal system. "they're singling me out. boo hoo. doesn't the sound of my crying make a beautiful sound. all together now."

I don't even understand what you said. Please explain. Why should the church be ashamed?

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Churches have been ringing bells since there have been churches. This is nothing new.

This reminds me of the b***h that moved to Alki beach knowing what it was like, and THEN started b***hing and complaining to her friend in the city council and got parking rules changed, and zoning changed. It used to be a great neighborhood beach, now Alki is a piece of s**t.

Exactly. If they don't like the noise (which is less than legally allowed, btw), find a more remote place to live.

I was wondering how such a parking nightmare could have been created. Now I know. Thanks.

We had something similar happen near here: land near Zolder's race track (it used to be a Formula 1 track) was incredibly cheap, in part because of the noise of racing. Lost of people bought that land and built themselves a house there.

Move forward a couple of years and those same people who bought the land cheap sued the race track for noise. Lots of new laws later, Zolder can only have races in a very limited number of weekends, the noise output of the cars is strictly limited and the F1 has moved on to another track.

Now, in relation to the article, it seems to me that a similar exemption is in order (rather than banning the church bells from ringing at all): limit the noise at 70dB, just like the ice cream truck and make sure this exemption applies to all religious buildings.

The bells are already under 70db

I like the sound of church bells.

And you appear to really dislike opinions that don't fit in with yours.

My comment was polite, factual and on-topic

If you take exception to that then I really don't know what to say other then when you're a grown up you learn to accept that not everyone shares your views

As for me saying "the same thing every time", can you point me to a previous comment I've made regarding religions abuse of the freedom of expression clause?

Really, can you?

eh. I guess I thought they were suing for damages. I had to read better. whoops. Kinda out of it last night. oh well.