Pastors Protest in NY Because Religious Services Not Permitted at Schools

 By Vivi  VivenneFoley, CNN

New York (CNN) - Pastors and their congregants took to the streets of New York on Thursday to protest and to pray for Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse a ban on religious groups' use of public schools for worship service, scheduled to go into effect February 12.

"Throughout our history, schools have been used for all kinds of community service, including church service. Why, all of a sudden, they want to make it a crime?" asked Pastor Peter Kemp of Hope Chapel Church.

More than 200 people attended the protest outside a Bronx public school where Bloomberg was giving his annual State of the City address.

For two hours, protesters sang hymns, prayed and chanted "Freedom of worship!" while holding signs reading "Save the Church, Save the Community!" and "Closing Churches Embarrasses NYC!"

Pastor Jon Storck of Grace Fellowship Church said, "It's not just for us. It's for our communities that we minister in. We offer so much in the neighborhood, and we offer so much to the school that we meet in. The school doesn't want us to leave."

Storck was arrested for disorderly conduct along with 43 other people who linked arms in groups of five and left the secure, barricaded area to pray on the street, ignoring police warnings.

Jeremy Del Rio of 20/20 Vision for Schools believes that the ban will hurt low-income communities where most of the 68 congregations affected by the ban are located. "Mayor Bloomberg believes that children in New York City can't tell the difference between the church that rents the building on Sundays and the academic instruction that takes place Monday through Friday. New York is smarter than that. Our children are smarter than that. They know the difference."

The mayor's office declined comment.

The Department of Education announced the ban in December after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on a lower court decision that the state of New York has the right to ban religious groups from using public property.

Jordan Lorence, an attorney from the Alliance Defense Fund, which has been fighting the policy for two decades, said that all legal avenues had been exhausted and that the only way to stop the ban was for Bloomberg to use his executive authority to change the Board of Education policy and allow religious groups to rent space in public schools.

"We benefit the community. Why can't we meet like everybody else? Why do you think that empty school buildings are better than having churches that are helping poor people that are helping people get off drugs, get out of crime and tutoring students of all faiths?"

David Garcia, a former gang member who now Ministers at the House of Worship Christian Center, believes that troubled kids will be the ones most hurt by the ban: "In schools there's a lot of violence going on. There's a lot of killing. Gang slayings and all of that. And we are trying to make a difference in the schools. If they open the doors to other people to borrow the schools, why can't they lend the schools to the churches?"

On behalf of the Department of Education, the New York Law Department provided a statement defending the policy: "We view this as a victory for the City's school children and their families. The Department was quite properly concerned about having any school in this diverse City identified with one particular religious belief or practice."

adamfoxie*:


What’s missing in the above CNN report is that the issue is not as simple as stated.

There is a battle being waged in which people would like to ignore this countries’ constitution of  'separation of church and state'. There's  been a movement  that quietly  advocated for this.  Well, is not quiet anymore.  Openly now,  some politicians  and pastors advocate for amending the constitution and removing the article.  Or just ignoring like it wasn’t there, all for the benefit of  their particular faith. One of the reasons this article was inserted there is because the government is too powerful an institution to back a particular belief or faith
.
Government is supposed to be neutral in issues of faith because the people that the government  serves have different faiths or no faiths. Yet the government is supposed to be just and blind when serving its citizens. It’s not enough that religious institutions are subsidized by ‘all’  through the tax structure.  All you have to do is claim the benefit and you pay no taxes. I don’t even want to go there..But... 
it seems this not enough.


 Religious institutions are asking to blur the line even more by mixing the education of our children with religion.  This is not fair.  These individuals would now like to hold religious services at public schools.  Schools are supported by all tax payers (and Lotto players).  You can’t possibly open this door to all because once you open the door to one group you most open to all.  Including religions that these pastors and others don’t agree with. What is so hard to understand about that if you want fairness to all?  Well is not fairness what they are looking for but an easy inexpensive way to get their message across.


I hope the mayor hold its ground for the fairness of all.


Adam