At least 43 pastors and church members have been arrested in New York for protesting against a ban on churches from hiring space in public schools to use as places of worship.
The protest was made after the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the decision of the New York City Department of Education to ban “religious use of schools on Sunday mornings or at other times the schools are otherwise unused ... because, in part, they could imply government endorsement of a particular faith.”
At least 60 churches in New York will now be evicted at short notice from their places of worship by 12 February 2012.
The decision could lead to the closure of any churches that can’t find alternative venues. It could also have wide-reaching ramifications for thousands of churches that meet in public schools throughout the US.
Critics of the Court’s decision are concerned that the school ban will eventually become a broader ban against religious organisations meeting in any state-funded building, including university auditoriums that house the worship services of larger churches.
Jordan Lorence, of the Alliance Defense Fund, said:
“Churches and other religious groups should be able to meet in public buildings on the same terms as any other community group.
“To drive out the churches based on a discredited, extreme notion of ‘separation of church and state’ benefits no one and harms people who need help most.”
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council noted that the decision would also “jeopardise a longstanding cooperation between cities and faith-based groups”.
“By disallowing some groups over others because … they are religious, Mayor Bloomberg has engaged in nothing other than viewpoint discrimination,” he said.
Links:
Christian Concern: Religious Freedom