by Stefan Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, USA (Worthy News) – Authorities in the most populous county of the United States have banned meetings of Church on the Beach, which had been holding public beach services for nearly two decades.
The decision by Los Angeles County has been challenged by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). “For 18 years, Church on the Beach has been faithfully serving its community by holding worship services on Redondo Beach with proper permits from Los Angeles County,” the advocacy group said in a statement obtained by Worthy News on Tuesday.
“Approximately 120 people gather every Sunday morning to worship in God’s creation, with many attendees specifically choosing this setting because they have had difficult or negative experiences in traditional church buildings,” the ACLJ added.
The group said its legal team sent a detailed demand letter to officials, outlining the “constitutional violations” of singling out one organization because of its viewpoint and discriminating against members.
“Our letter made it clear that the county’s actions violate well-established First Amendment principles as articulated by the Supreme Court in cases like Widmar v. Vincent and Lamb’s Chapel.”
The ACLJ warned that it had given Los Angeles County “until March 20, 2025, to provide assurances that this discriminatory policy will be ended and that churches will be free to use the beach under the same generally applicable rules as nonreligious gatherings.”
NO PERMITS
Yet the Department of Beaches and Harbors recently told the Church on the Beach that it would no longer issue yearly permits for “religious activities,” Worthy News learned.
Instead, the county reportedly announced that “grandfathered” groups would be allowed only six annual events, with $250 permit fees required for four.
It also is restricting the meetings to specific locations.
“The key fact: None of these rules apply to nonreligious groups. Even more concerning, a county official told the pastor that churches ‘don’t need the beach’ because they can ‘meet in a building’ – a statement that demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of both religious freedom and the specific ministry of Church on the Beach,” the ACLJ complained.
The Church on the Beach views its mission as reaching at least some of the county’s nearly 9.7 million people with the Gospel who may otherwise not attend worship services.
The ACLJ added that the “beach location isn’t merely a preference – it’s a crucial component of their ministry’s outreach to those who might never step foot in a conventional church.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
The United States has completed a secret nuclear security mission to remove roughly 30 pounds of highly enriched uranium from Venezuela, transferring the material from the country’s shuttered RV-1 research reactor to a secure U.S. facility in South Carolina.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Donald Trump on Sunday evening as Israel and the United States weighed the possibility of renewed military action against Iran, following stalled nuclear negotiations and a drone strike near a nuclear power station in the United Arab Emirates.
Evangelist Franklin Graham said Sunday that “God did a miracle” in Belarus after he held what organizers described as the largest evangelical Christian gathering in the country’s modern history and met authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Sunday that an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda “constitutes a public health emergency of international concern” after at least 80 people died and hundreds more were infected or suspected of infection.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar opened elaborate luxury government buildings to the public this weekend by personally removing fences surrounding the historic Carmelite Monastery in Budapest, the former office complex of ex-prime minister Viktor Orbán.
Israel confirmed Friday that it targeted Hamas’s de facto leader in Gaza in an airstrike that could mark the highest-level assassination attempt against the militant group since a ceasefire began last fall.
Dozens of students remained missing Friday after suspected Islamist militants attacked a school in Nigeria’s insurgency-ravaged northeastern state of Borno, officials and residents said.