Department of Justice Announces Place to Worship Initiative

I have a mixed reaction to this. On one hand certain city governments and their public schools such as New York City have shown open hostility towards religious groups that pay rent to use schools for their places of worship, which is wrong. However, I’ve also seen a small minority of churches and religious groups almost ruin it for other churches and religious groups in dealing with public schools. For instance, about 4 years ago, one church in Grand Rapids that met in a school kept on demanding that the school store all of their stage equipment and other stuff during the week. The school refused, but the church threatened them with a lawsuit. It became such a problem that the secular white liberals on the GR school board used this instance to create a ban for all churches/religious groups (including our church) from using their school buildings. Thankfully, the religious liberal Black and Latino board members voted against it so that it didn’t pass, but it served as a warning of how delicate the issue of religious liberty really is and how Christians really need to make sure their public posture isn’t about wielding power, but serving others.

I think that I’d almost rather lose the right to rent a place for a church building than have the US government deciding that they need to oversee and monitor whether or not we can do so or where we can meet. The latter course opens the door for all kinds of governmental ‘help’.