A Phoenix bishop has been sentenced to jail for ringing church bells.
For years, the bells at the Cathedral of Christ the King have rung hourly from eight in the morning until eight at night. That was until recently, when Bishop Rick Painter was sentenced to a suspended sentence of ten days in jail and three years probation for violating a city noise ordinance. Neighbors complained the bells are too loud and ring too often. But Dale Schowengerdt of the Alliance Defense Fund says a local television station conducted an independent test to see how loud the bells were. "A local TV station did a story on it, checked the level, said it was barely above road noise, the sound of road noise -- so we're talking about just normal church bells," he points out. Schowengerdt admits the sentence surprised him. "The judge let them ring the bells twice on Sunday and certain other religious days, like Easter and Christmas," hr notes. "[But] if somebody makes a mistake and the church bells go off at some other time, he'll spend the ten days in jail." The attorney says Painter plans to appeal the case.
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