(AgapePress) - A Pennsylvania county is being sued by a church that was denied a tax exemption for a building it owns which is used as a food distribution point.

Several years ago, the Grace Covenant Church in Lewiston began its "Hands of Grace" ministry. As part of that ministry, the church constructed a building on its property which is used to warehouse donated items and to distribute food to needy families. Every month the ministry distributes food to 500-600 needy families. Since 1999, the church has distributed 150 tons of food to the hungry.

The local taxing authority denied tax exemption to the church building because, in their view, the church's activities did not constitute "religious worship."

Eric Stanley with Liberty Counsel is providing legal assistance to the church.

"The taxing authorities believe that this building, which warehouses the foods and which is where people come to get food distributed, is not a place of religious worship," Stanley explains. "The church disagrees -- as a matter of fact, the pastor even quoted James 1:27, which says that religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress."

So the battle boils down to a disagreement over religious worship, he says. "The reason we filed the lawsuit was because we believe that the government has no right and no ability to decide a tax-exemption case based on a disagreement with a church over what is religious worship. That is the church's province to define."

Liberty Counsel is suing the county on the church's behalf claiming a violation of constitutional rights. Stanley says the legal battle has not hampered the church's food distribution efforts.

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