When Lester Smith read an article naming New Bedford, MA as the least “Bible-minded” city in America, he felt God’s call to start a Bible study for fellow residents of his senior living community in New Bedford. He figured that the community room in his apartment complex would be a perfect spot for this study, since other residents had reserved the room for bingo nights, card games, family gatherings, and even political meetings. Lester was excited to hand out flyers advertising the event to fellow residents. He assumed there wouldn’t be any problem with this, since he had handed out flyers for other gatherings before and building management had even printed them for him.
But when Lester approached the management to reserve the community room, he was told that it was not available for a Bible study and he could not advertise his event because God and the Bible were “sensitive topics.” Moreover, distributing flyers would supposedly violate the community’s “no soliciting” policy.
These explanations didn’t add up for Lester, so he reached out to MFI to see if we could help. We concluded that this situation was a clear violation of the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination against tenants based on their religious beliefs. Living facilities can’t have a double standard for secular and religious events on their property; if they allow non-religious residents to reserve space, they can’t deny that same space to other residents just because of their faith.
We immediately sent a letter to building management stating that if they did not allow Lester to host his study and advertise it on the same terms that other residents could host and advertise their events, we would take legal action. After some communications with their attorney, the management agreed to our demands.
Next week, Lester will host his first Bible study in the community room. He looks forward to sharing God’s Word in a community that desperately needs it!
If you or someone you know is experiencing similar religious discrimination, contact us! We may be able to help.
Please continue to support MFI so that we can help keep the door open for people like Lester to share their faith.
