The San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association is facing a potential legal battle for telling a local church it couldn’t rent its venue for a Christmas show because it’s religious. The religious rights law firm First Liberty Institute has taken the case, calling it a violation of California state and federal laws.
Last May, Awaken Church, a Christian megachurch with campuses across San Diego County, contacted The Rady Shell, managed by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association, about renting the shell as the venue for the church’s planned Night of Christmas event. The symphony’s director of venue rentals said the church could have either Dec. 2 or 3, depending on the date chosen by another renter who had expressed interest in the same weekend.
However, after several attempts by church leadership to follow up and secure the date, the symphony’s director told the church by email that the Symphony does not “have a policy on renting this venue to religious organizations. Until we have time to consider this internally, we have decided we must pass on this rental and any other potential rentals to religious organizations.”
