Homelessness is an epidemic in this country. While the causes of this problem are complex and numerous, one thing that is clear is that more and more Americans are finding themselves in dire financial conditions with seemingly nowhere to go, no one to help them.
It is in this moment, when people are in most desperate need, Pastor Chris Avell and his church, Dad’s Place, step in to offer a helping hand. Dad’s Place operates a 24-hour church that seeks to care for both the spiritual and physical needs of the hurting and vulnerable in its community. If you are someone who has nowhere to go or no one to love or care for you, Dad’s Place offers you a place to take refuge and invites you to be part of its family.
To Pastor Chris, Dad’s Place is simply living out the Bible’s commands to care for the “least of these,” and in doing so, it has created a community to those who are so often ostracized by our society and shown love to people who have perhaps never experienced it before.
Unfortunately for Dad’s Place, the City of Bryan and its Mayor Carrie Schlade have decided to criminalize rather than applaud and support this noble work. Last November, city officials posted a sign outside of the church charging it with violating city ordinances and ordering it to cease its 24-hour ministry or face criminal penalties.
For Pastor Chris, the choice was simple: his faith compels him to care for those in his church, so he refused to comply with the city’s demands. This refusal resulted in the city launching a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and disparagement aimed at shutting down the church, putting Pastor Chris in jail, and forcing those seeking refuge in the church back on the streets.
Over the last six months, Pastor Chris and Dad’s Place have been subjected to multiple criminal charges, surprise fire inspections by the city, and an ever-moving goalpost from the city as to how the church can comply with the city’s ordinances. While paying lip service to concerns about the health and safety of those staying at the church, the city has weaponized its ordinances against the church with the goal of taking away one of the only places the Church’s congregants have ever felt safe. Dad’s Place has worked diligently to address each and every concern raised by city officials, but it is clear the city will never be satisfied.
The city has also made an intentional effort to destroy Pastor Chris’s reputation and turn the community against the church. The city has falsely suggested that the Church is a hotbed of criminal activity. There is nothing the city will not say or do to put an end to Dad’s Place. Pastor Chris has gone above and beyond to ensure that everyone at Dad’s Place is safe.
Remarkably, the Mayor has gone so far as to say that Dad’s Place isn’t a church at all, but more like a residence. In fact, Dad’s Place is acting exactly as church is supposed to act — and as churches for millennia have acted — by taking care of those who need help the most. Unilaterally declaring a church a residence simply to exact ever-shifting administrative hurdles and impose dubious criminal penalties against its pastor may be convenient for a mayor, but the Constitution requires more.
The First Amendment — and a wealth of federal law — guarantees the right of churches across the country to live out their faith unabated from interference by a hostile government. That’s why First Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit against the city and on behalf of Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris.
Compassion should never be criminalized, nor should any pastor ever face the choice between living out his faith or sitting in a jail cell. If we are to make any progress towards solving the problem of homelessness sweeping the nation, the church must be free to be the church and to help the hurting and desperate in the way only a church can.
Ryan Gardner is counsel for First Liberty Institute, a non-profit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom.
First Published May 11, 2024, 4:00 a.m.
