Unsettled Christianity

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July 12th, 2012 by Joel

Michael Salman should not be hosting religious meetings in his home

I’m not against it – I’m just against lying and using the Faith as protection. Salman made headlines this week and sent the Christian community in a tizzy… Seriously, if Christians today read Mark, they wouldn’t ask about the rest of the story, they’d just assume Jesus was dead.

Anyway, Salman and others have suggested that he was arrested for holding church in his house. That’s not really the rest of the story…

Salman purchased a 3,000 square foot house at 7601 N 31st Ave. in Phoenix for $705,000 in December, 2005.
It sits on 1.4 acres–not almost five, as many reports say. Aerial photos at Google Maps show neighbors close on both sides.
In 2007, Salman began registering the Harvest Christian Fellowship Community Church with the State of Arizona at that address as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization.
On the church website, he represents himself as being an ordained pastor.
His front yard holds two large crosses and a reader board similar to what you might see in front of many church buildings
In 2009, he built a second 2,000 square foot building right behind his house.
On his permit applications, he listed the building as a game room.
He has in fact been using it for weekly religious meetings.
The city asked him to bring his church building up to code. They want 67 things fixed–lighted exit signs installed, exits on more than one side of the building in case of fire, and so on.

Here’s the skinny – Salman lied about the building, cheated on the city ordinance, and stole your trust. Just because someone says that they are persecuted does not mean that they actually are.

Post By Joel (9,268 Posts)

Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).

Website: → Unsettled Christianity

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