A widow who lives in a Minnesota apartment complex
funded by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development was
told that she could not pray, read her Bible or have
private discussions of a religious nature in the commons
area of the complex.
The incident allegedly occurred at the
Osborne Apartments
in Spring Lake Park, Minn. — near Minneapolis.
Ruth Sweats was was having a casual conversation with
another resident about the Bible when a social worker
interrupted the conversation and told her that she could
not talk about religion or the Bible in the commons
area.
The social worker then told the widow that the
apartment complex receives funding from the federal
government and therefore she did not have First
Amendment rights because HUD does not allow religious
discussions in public areas of the complex.
Sweats contacted Alliance Defending Freedom — a legal
advocacy group that immediately
sent
a letter to the senior living
complex urging them to reconsider their actions.
“Government funding should not be misused to ban a
widow’s prayers,” said ADF legal counsel Matt Sharp.
“The private decision of senior citizens to discuss
their faith, read the Bible, and pray is private speech,
and no law requires this privately owned independent
living facility to restrict the religious expression of
these members of America’s greatest generation.”
The apartment complex manager did not return calls
seeking comment.
The ADF said Osborne Apartments is free to allow the
residents to engage in religious discussion and prayer.”
The letter also explains that “HUD does not prohibit
discussion about religion in the facilities to which it
provides funding” and that federal court precedent has
established that “simply because the government provides
a benefit with public funds does not mean that all
‘mention of religion or prayers’ must be whitewashed
from the use of the benefit.”
Alliance Defending Freedom also suggested their
actions may have violated federal and state
anti-discrimination laws.
“The right thing to do out of respect for the senior
citizens—many of whom fought or saw their spouses fight
in wars to defend our nation and the freedoms upon which
it is built—is to remove the ban on religious expression
in the commons area…,” the letter states. “We hope that
this letter will clear up these issues and that you will
do away with this terrible policy.”