Inviting a confrontation with city officials, the senior pastor at a venerable Long Beach church vowed Friday to defy a prosecutor's order that he block homeless people from sleeping on the steps and grounds of his church.

Failure to disperse the 15 to 20 people who camp between the sidewalk and the First Congregational Church of Long Beach's walls may result in a fine of $1,000 a day, Deputy City Prosecutor Sayge Castillo warned in a recent letter.

Leaning back in a couch in his church office Friday, Senior Pastor Jerald Stinson shook his head and said, "The city's threats are ludicrous. We're not going to do what they want us to do. Allowing these people to sleep on our property is, for us, a religious act."

Stinson said his church, a Long Beach historic landmark with a history of social activism, has found legal support for its actions in a federal court ruling that allowed a New York City parish to shelter homeless people outdoors.

In 2002, a federal appeals court upheld the right of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Midtown Manhattan to allow about 20 homeless people to sleep on its steps without fear of being rousted by police.

The three-judge panel determined that the church was helping the needy out of a religious belief and thus protected by the 1st Amendment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-church20jan20,1,4154052.story?track=rss

This seems to contrast with what many churches do. How nice to see a Pastor who actually associates with the poor and needy, as opposed to building ever-larger edifices to their own egos.

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