Michigan Township Goes After Church Worship Band

I've had my complaints about church worship bands, but I've never called the city prosecutor on them:

The prosecuting attorney for Waterford Township in Michigan has been accused of spying on a church's activities and personally leading police raids on its worship band because he doesn't like "rock" music.

In a lawsuit filed by the Thomas More Law Center, Prosecuting Attorney Walter Bedell is accused of coordinating raids on Faith Baptist Church and its worship band in which uniformed police officers entered the church without permission or a warrant and accused band members of "disorderly conduct."...

Faith Baptist, which is headed by Pastor Jim Combs, has a congregation of 10,000 who attend services on three campuses. The police raids targeted the Waterford Township campus with 5,000 members, the lawsuit said.

The pastor contacted Thomas More in late 2007 after the raids developed. One happened during a Wednesday night youth service when uniformed police officers led by the prosecutor himself "burst into the church's sanctuary where the church's 'Praise and Worship' band was warming up," the lawsuit said.

"The prosecutor ordered the officers to take the names and addresses of all the young people on stage so that they could be charged with 'disorderly conduct,'" it said.

"The very next Sunday, Waterford Township police again raided Faith Baptist, this time during Pastor Comb's evening sermon. Officers were about to disrupt the services and remove the 'Praise and Worship' band members and order them to surrender their driver's licenses for personal information. However, an assistant pastor volunteered to bring the members to the police so as not to create an uproar among the congregation."

I've heard some church worship bands that should have been arrested, but I've never actually seen it done. If they were playing the usual contemporary praise chorus junk then I'd have to say the cops were doing the community a favor.