Marine Wins His Fight Against Religious Group’s Eviction Bid

When his landlords first told John Rogers to move from his Costa Mesa apartment because he wasn’t a member of their religious group, Rogers balked. And then he fought in court.

“I got a good reason for not wanting to move. My two boys started schools here and all their friends live here in the neighborhood. The fact of the matter is, it’s home,” Rogers said Thursday.

This week, Orange County Municipal Judge Christopher W. Strople agreed with Rogers that he and his sons may not be evicted by the landlords, Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc., merely because he is not a member. Strople rejected Wycliffe’s argument that its 56-unit apartment building at 719 W. Wilson St. should be exempt from state anti-discrimination laws because it is a religious entity.

Wycliffe, based in Huntington Beach, is the world’s largest Bible translation organization, and for 50 years has worked among people in remote areas whose languages are unwritten. The group has 5,500 workers, called members, in 42 countries, said Jack Clifford, Wycliffe housing coordinator.

Low-Cost Housing to Members

The translation organization has, among other investments, three apartment buildings in Orange County that it uses to provide low-cost housing to members.

The Wilson Street building was part of a 1983 gift from a donor. Since then, Wycliffe has rented apartments only to members and allowed for natural attrition of non-member tenants. The 56 apartments now house 18 non-members and 38 members, said Maurice Mandel II of Newport Beach, one of Rogers’ attorneys. Non-members such as Rogers, a Marine Corps sergeant who has lived in the building eight years, pay $610 a month rent for a two-bedroom apartment, almost double the amount for members.

Wycliffe sued to evict Rogers. In court, Rogers argued that he was protected by the state Unruh Civil Rights Act, which mandates that a business cannot discriminate on the basis of sex, race or religion. The apartment building, Rogers said, was a profit-making business and not a religious, charitable organization.

Legal Arguments

“Wycliffe claimed that what they were doing was the same as any church prohibiting people from coming on church grounds because (the building) wasn’t a business establishment,” Mandel said.

“Our feeling was that it was (a business establishment) because members of the general public were paying rent and that they were paying more rent than the group’s members.”

Wycliffe’s attorney, Terrence L. Calder of Santa Ana, said the group had argued for a religious exemption because all new tenants since 1983 have been members.

The ruling only pertains to the Costa Mesa building and not to two apartment buildings the organization owns in Huntington Beach, which are occupied by members only.

Wycliffe will wait for non-members to move because “we don’t have a whole lot of choice now,” Calder said.

The organization, sometimes referred to as “the alphabet-maker of the world,” has catalogued 5,103 languages, some of them spoken by fewer than 100 people.

Group’s Central Principle

“To accomplish Christ’s mission,” the organization’s central principle says, “the Gospel must be given to every man in the language he understands best. No group is too small or too insignificant, and no language is too hard.”

Critics have charged Wycliffe’s overseas arm, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, with proselytizing and using Protestantism to promote capitalism. The institute was accused in 1981 by a Colombian guerrilla movement of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency, but the group denied the accusations.

Rogers, 33, a gunnery sergeant stationed at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, said he is happy his four-month ordeal is over. It began when he received a 30-day notice to leave the premises Dec. 6.

“I had to fight everybody in the world,” he said.

At first, he said, he couldn’t find an attorney who would “touch” a church group. So Rogers rummaged through bookstores and bought legal handbooks on tenants’ rights, landlord law and small claims.

“I found out that I didn’t think they were exempt. But thinking about going to court on it was kind of scary,” he said.

He said he filed discrimination complaints against Wycliffe with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which, according to Rogers, “did nothing.”

A department spokeswoman in Santa Ana said the case was reviewed and “was closed,” but she said she couldn’t comment because the complaint file was in Los Angeles.

Rogers, who is separated and lives with his two sons, ages 11 and 13, said he expects a chilly reception when he meets his Wycliffe neighbors. But the victory was worth it, he said.

“I’ve got nothing against the group. Most of the members are really nice people. But this was strictly a housing matter and I had to fight.

“I’ve never run away from anything in my life. If I did something wrong and they wanted me out, it would have been different. The real issue here for me is that this was my home. This is perfect for my needs in a neighborhood that I enjoy. I couldn’t afford to move out. This is my home.”