Thursday, February 9, 2012
Churches no longer welcome in NYC schools
You might already know that New York City public schools can no longer be the venue for "religious worship services," a decision that forces several dozen churches out of their longtime homes. They will be kicked out, in fact, on "Darwin Day." After criticizing the Second Circuit's failure to grant equal access as guaranteed by the Supreme Court in the past, Christianity Today offers a nuanced take on the reasoning:
"When worship services are performed in a place, the nature of the site changes," Judge Pierre Leval wrote. "The site is no longer simply a room in a school being used temporarily for some activity. The church has made the school the place for the performance of its rites, and might well appear to have established itself there. The place has, at least for a time, become the church."
As a point of law, Leval's argument is untenable, straying widely from what the First Amendment means when it bars "establishment of religion." But as a point of Christian theology, Leval is on to something. There is something special about God's people coming together in worship. Worship does change the nature of a place. Christian traditions may differ on theological specifics, but we all agree that when we worship we participate in God further establishing his eternal kingship in this world.
As the magazine's editors would acknowledge, this may be an important point to consider for congregations making decisions about their worship space, but it shouldn't be of concern to a federal judge.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/02/churches-no-longer-welcome-in-nyc-schools.html
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There seems a certain imbalance in what government does and does not get to consider in dealing with religion. Maybe this is necessary, but it does strike me as curious. For example, people have made the point that the contraceptive mandate is too narrow, because even though, say, Catholic hospitals hire non-Catholics and serve non-Catholics, nevertheless Catholics think of them as "religious." In the case of New York City school buildings, though, the religious idea is that worship changes the nature of the place in which it is held, but that is not supposed to have any legal significance. So Catholics believe, and get to use it as an argument with the government, that a Catholic hospital is a truly religious organization. If somehow in New York City it was an advantage to religious groups who wanted to use school buildings that worship in a space changed the nature of that space, then they could use that as an argument against the government. However, if the belief works in favor of the government's case against allowing worship in school buildings, the government doesn't get to use it.
By the way, didn't we have a discussion on MOJ of a case in Canada where a religious group was using a hotel meeting space to hold religious services? I believe in Canada (and France) it would be forbidden for religious groups to hold worship services not only in government buildings, but also in public places like hotel ballrooms and other spaces available for rent.