Quote:
Originally Posted by Leadbone1
Totally agree! I understand the need for deed restrictions and I am glad they are there for the most part. But deed restrictions that violate your constitutional rights cannot stand. The first amendment guarantees you the free exercise thereof with regard to your religion. It doesn’t say except if a deed restriction doesn’t like it! If there is a deed restriction with regard to a cross in your yard it should be with regard to the size of it, not whether you can have it or not. Obviously we would not want someone putting a 15 foot high cross in their front yard. Common sense needs to be applied
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That's a contradiction. You can't have it both ways.
If YOUR interpretation of "freedom of religion" means you can put a white cross on your front yard, then YOUR interpretation must ALSO mean you can put a 15-foot-high cross in your front yard.
Freedom means lack of restrictions. Either you have it, or you don't.
In the case of the Villages, you are restricted, in most of the neighborhoods. There are some neighborhoods that allow it, some that don't expressly forbid it and it's therefore left up to the homeowner.
You don't get to have freedom of religion (within reason). If there are conditions on your freedom, then it is not freedom.
On the other hand - you also have rights - which are not freedoms.
You have the right to argue this with the ARC when they tell you that you have to remove the cross. They have the right to maintain that the cross is a lawn decoration and make you take it down. You have the right to maintain that the cross is a religious symbol and you want to leave it up.
But remember if you leave it up, it means EVERYONE in the neighborhood has the right to put up THEIR religious symbols in THEIR yards. And you might not end up liking what you see.