The Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in the Columbia County city of Grovetown apparently believes that his religious mission to spread the word of God means that he can ignore local laws and ordinances. The church had planned to put up a sign lit by 19,000 LEDs and though the city nixed that plan, the church decided to erect the sign anyway.
As often happens in cases like this, what started out as a dispute over law that might mean economic loss for a religious institution (the church paid $15000 for the sign) gets exploited as a case of “religious persecution”. “We still have the freedom and the right to proclaim the good news of God, and that’s all I want with this sign.” proclaims the pastor of the church Sonny Serigney, as if the city were just trying to restrict his freedom of worship.
Central Savannah River Chapter 