MONTGOMERY — A bill making it a felony to disrupt a church service in Alabama advanced out of the House Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security on Wednesday.
Under House Bill 363, sponsored by State Rep. Greg Barnes (R-Jasper), anyone who enters church property with the intent to riot, harass, or disrupt the service would be charged with a Class C felony and face up to five years in prison on a second offence.
Though not mentioned in Wednesday's committee meeting, the bill comes after rioters disrupted services at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, to protest local Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Several committee members asked about disruptions or arguments among church members or visitors that arose from disagreements during the service.
“I’m Pentecostal. If I came to the Baptist church and I said, 'Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Run this House!' Now that's disrupting the service… Tell the preacher, 'That ain't the truth, preacher,'" State Rep. Thomas Jackson (D-Thomasville) said.
State Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) also asked, "So if a visitor gets into an argument with somebody who's in the church, that becomes a Class C felony?"
Katie Lang, with the Alabama District Attorneys Association, said the law would apply only to people who entered a church with the intent to disrupt.
"You have to come with the intent," she said. "If you're there visiting on a particular Sunday morning and yell 'heresy,' that would not meet the elements of this statute because you have to come with the intent to obstruct."
She said the burden of proof to show intent would be on the prosecutor.
State Rep. TaShina Morris (D-Montgomery) asked to reduce the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.
"Even though we hear temperatures may rise within the church, we know what brought about the bill," Morris said. "We're just going to act like we don't know, but we know what brought about the bill, so why not just make it a misdemeanor so if someone is arrested, it's not taking so much time and money to prove themselves innocent when they get to that level?"
She added, "I just think that a lot of times we just come with a lot of these bills based off of emotions and based off of feelings or things that we've seen on TV… It's going to hurt the people that you actually see on a regular basis… So why not just make it a misdemeanor instead of a felony? Because it's not going to go the way that you see something on TV."
Committee chairman State Rep. Allen Treadaway (R-Morris) said the bill aligns with current federal law, which also makes it a felony.
The bill received a favorable report from the committee and now moves to the House floor for a vote.
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