More Defiant Church Members Fight Eviction
More congregation members locked themselves into an Inglewood church Wednesday to resist attempts to evict them.
About 30 church members started camping out Monday night at the All People’s Lockhaven Christian Lighthouse Church in anticipation of the eviction, and 30 more joined them Wednesday, the day ownership of the property officially shifted to a Fullerton church lending organization.
The Church Development Fund loaned the church $70,000 in 1982. In exchange, the church agreed to sign over the deed to the three-acre property, valued at $2 million, and to remain a Christian church.
Six months later, the Development Fund canceled the agreement and took the first steps to acquire the church property, claiming the congregation’s newly adopted practice of speaking in tongues fell outside the organization’s definitions of accepted Christian practices.
The two have been fighting over the issue for more than a decade. A recent court decision gave the property to the lending organization.
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