For 30 years, Don Hart fed the homeless in Dallas.
“I feel like it’s God’s appointment,” he said.
With his BIGHEART Ministries, he fulfilled his calling, helping
clothe and counsel the crowds who came to him for a meal.
“It grew, grew, grew… until we were feeding thousands of
people,” he said.....
In 2005, the city of Dallas passed an ordinance, requiring
organizations feeding the homeless to get the city’s approval,
provide bathrooms, and meet a list of public safety
requirements.
Hart said he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to
comply.
“It kept getting worse, until finally police were coming out,”
said Hart.
One day, Hart-Ball remembers seeing a dozen police cars.
Officers, she said, began questioning the volunteers.
“They’re ready to take us to jail – for what? Praying for
people? Scrambling eggs?” said Hart-Ball.
Hart filed a lawsuit against the city, which stretched out for
almost seven years.
Finally, Thursday morning, a judge ruled the city’s ordinance
violated Texas law protecting Hart’s religious freedom....
This Easter Sunday, he says, will mark the resurrection of his
ministry.
He and his daughter plan to be back on the streets, serving the
homeless.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis ruled that the city's ordinance
amounts to a violation of Big Heart's and Rip Parker Memorial's
rights under the Texas
Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which bars state and local
government a government from doing anything that might
"substantially burden a person's free exercise of religion."
But the victory is a narrow one. The city's homeless feeding
ordinance remains intact, except where it concerns the plaintiffs
and, by extension, other groups who feel a religious duty to serve
the underfed. Those of you who simply feel sorry for the unhoused,
without the backing of religious conviction? Drop those plans to
hand out sandwiches on a street corner. You're better off just
volunteering at The Stewpot, unless, of course, you enjoy six-year
legal battles.
