Neighbors complain about local church’s joyful noise. Can they kick them out?

As a Christian, I think this neighborhood should be able to decide not to have a church.

by Ian Huyett

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When the City of God decided to rent a building from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for its weekly church service, they thought the deal was a win-win.

Residents of the district, however, are less than satisfied. They say that the church pollutes their neighborhood with its noise, with its signs, and with the traffic it attracts. “I don’t want anything happening here on Sundays,” said resident Azin Ehsan. “We have so much noise during the week, we just want it to be quiet. They should find a better venue.”

Resident Sidonie Smith, who is happy to have a church in the neighborhood, makes a good point about these complaining Californians. “Nobody complains when John Adams [Middle School] has football games. I don’t hear about people writing letters about what a nuisance that is but suddenly, the church for an hour makes a different noise and the community is in an uproar?” Smith asked. “We can’t have a double standard about noise in the community.”

The City of God service at Grant Elementary School. Credit: Christina House, LA Times.
The City of God service at Grant Elementary School. Credit: Christina House, LA Times.

In Bowling Alone, political scientist Robert D. Putnam pointed to America’s declining church attendance as an indicator of its plummeting social capital. Americans are simultaneously attending church less and becoming less communal, divorcing themselves form their neighborhoods and instead feeling that, in Ehsan’s words, “I don’t want anything happening here… we just want it to be quiet.”

Yet should it be legally wrong for a secular neighborhood to shoo a church away?

One fairly common objection to libertarianism is that, without any restrictions on property rights, a homeowner might sell his property to a new strip club, thereby imposing a negative externality on his neighbors. In response, community-minded libertarians will typically affirm that localities can make agreements to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

This community-based response is a good one. Because externalities are economically subjective, it must likewise be applied here.

I would personally prefer not to live next to a strip club. I would also be perfectly happy living next to a church. Yet other people might have the opposite preferences. In order to protect my right to act upon my preferences, I must affirm the rights of others to act upon their own.

This is a solution that, in this case, ought to satisfy both secular and religious libertarians.


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