No Pets, Food or Christians Allowed in the Library

I'd like to believe that this incident in the Bay Area is an aberration, but quite frankly, it's about par for the course here.

A Christian ministry filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after being barred from meeting at a library due to the facility's policy of forbidding use for "religious purposes."

"The library flagrantly violated the ministry's constitutional rights," said Joshua Carden, counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which brought the suit against the Contra Costa County, Calif., Board of Supervisors and several library officials on behalf of Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries.

"It's unbelievable that, after years of equal access litigation in this country, a library would exclude Christians from a public forum," Carden said.

Hattie Hopkins, leader of Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries, a Christian outreach ministry based in Sacramento, asked her coordinator to reserve a free public meeting room at the library branch in Antioch for May 29 and July 31.