One of the specious arguments that the New York City has repeatedly made is that it is “subsidizing” churches by allowing them to meet in the public schools.  That argument runs something like this:  Because it would cost a lot of money for a church to hold its worship services, in say, Madison Square Gardens or the Ritz Carlton in Battery Park than in a NYC public school, that difference is a subsidy to religion.  We have repeatedly countered that deficient argument by pointing out that the NYC school officials set the rate and that it is a uniform rate that all community groups pay.  The only money changing hands is from the pocket of the churches to the hands of the school district. Religious groups receive no special discount or preferential deal.

After listening to pastors speak at a press conference in Albany, I now realize that there is another argument that shoots down the “subsidy” nonsense.  Factually, the churches are subsidizing the NYC schools, not the other way around!  The NYC school officials tell only part of the story, and do not admit or reveal that churches have voluntarily spent large amounts of money to help the public schools!

For example, churches have banded together to paint the interiors of at least 16 NYC public schools.  The churches brought in volunteer labor that painted classrooms, hallways, cafeterias, etc., during July and August when school was out of session.  These Christians volunteered hundreds, if not thousands of man hours for free to the public schools.  The improved appearance of the school maintains the physical facility, but also creates a better environment for students to learn.  I have never heard any NYC school officials talk about how all of this volunteer labor offsets the alleged “subsidy” the public schools “give” the churches by allowing them to pay the permit fee to meet in the schools.

And this is not the only example.  New Frontier Church, a predominantly Korean church meeting in a public school in the Chelsea area of Manhattan, donated computers and air conditioning units to the schools.  Another church in Staten Island leaves its musical instruments and sound equipment for the teachers and students to use during the week.  There are other examples like these of churches donating directly to the schools, not in some subversive way to “convert” students or officials, but to be good neighbors.  The Christians who painted the NYC schools during the summer were simply doing good deeds to bless the schools, without gaining any opportunity to “convert” kids (painting schools in July and August when the schools are closed means the kids are not there).  I commend the churches for doing this, and I chide the school officials for not mentioning any of this when they make their dubious claim that NYC is “subsidizing” churches.

Also, I listened on Monday to pastor after pastor describing what their churches do for the communities.  Rather than acting secretly to ”take over the public schools,” as conspiracy-minded secularists claim, these Christians move into neighborhoods full of crime, drugs, poverty, hunger and gang violence and reach out to those in need.  These churches do not take money from the government, but use their own money to help those in need – getting people off of drugs, teaching them to read, helping them to parent their children and strengthen their marriages, etc. And these church members send their kids to these schools, too, because they are part of the community.

Let’s imagine if those churches totally disappeared after the school officials evict them from the schools.  It would cost the NYC government millions of taxpayer dollars to duplicate the programs that these churches operate all with private donations and volunteers!  So NYC is getting a really great return on its alleged “investment.”   By allowing motivated Christians to meet in vacant school buildings, NYC and its people receive far more in return. And this is not even mentioning the intangible benefits the City receives by public schools that are easier to operate because of increasing numbers of people whose lives and familes have become stabilized and filled with hope by churches loving them and teaching them from the Bible.

When one looks at the complete picture, I think it is more accurate to say that the NYC churches are subsidizing the NYC public schools more than the schools are “subsidizing” the churches by allowing them to meet in the school buildings for their worship services.

The New York Senate Monday approved the bill 52-7 that would compel New York City to rescind its policy banning private religious worship services in the public schools when school is not in session. The bill had overwhelming bipartisan support, and now moves to the New York Assembly.  I joined hundreds of Christians and their pastors from New York City as they visited state lawmakers to urge them to support the bill.  I accompanied them to answer questions by the lawmakers and their staff about the Bronx Household of Faith case and to assure them that they would not be “defying the court” by passing the bill.  The decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals last June only ruled that it was constitutionally permissible for NYC to have its anti-worship service policy, but that the Constitution did not require it.

The NYC school district is taking this bill seriously, because I ran into School Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who had been lobbying lawmakers to defeat the bill.  The NYC School Chancellor is not going to travel to Albany unless he is concerned that the bill would pass.  Unfortunately, Chancellor Walcott clings to the obsolete arguments that every other major school district and most courts in the nation have rejected, that schools must promote “separation of church and state” by singling out religious groups and banning their worship services from the empty school buildings.  The government does not endorse religion by simply allowing religious groups to meet in public schools on the same terms and conditions as every other community group.

We are praying for quick action by the state Assembly, so that the bill can go to Governor Cuomo and he can sign it into law, so the 60 or so churches will not have to leave the NYC schools after next Sunday, February 12.  This is not over yet.

Back in 1990, the Supreme Court decided that laws prohibiting use of the hallucinogenic drug peyote did not violate the freedom of religion of Native Americans who ingested it as part of their religious ceremonies. Many outside of the legal community thought this was the right result because of concerns that drug abusers might pretend to have religious beliefs in an attempt to circumvent bans on illegal drugs. But most religious freedom lawyers were very concerned about this case (Employment Division, Dept. of Human Services of Oregon v. Smith) because of the rationale the court used to justify its decision. In brief, the Court determined that as long as a law neutrally applies to everyone, the fact that it doesn’t make exceptions for religious people or churches doesn’t violate the Constitution – even though the law may prohibit them from doing something their religious beliefs require.

This rationale seems to work fine in extreme cases like use of illegal drugs or human sacrifice. But it would also allow local governments to prohibit use of wine for communion if alcohol consumption was outlawed in a particular town or county. A neutral law could even require a church to refrain from discriminating based on sex when hiring clergy members.

So when a Christian school in Redford, Michigan fired a teacher who was a commissioned minister, the federal government sued the church. (You can learn more about the facts of the EEOC v. Hosanna-Tabor Church case here). Government lawyers argued that a Christian school is no different than any other community group like the Lions Club or Jaycees. And as long as laws prohibiting discrimination based on disability or some other protected class neutrally apply to everyone, the fact that the Christian school is also bound by them doesn’t violate that school’s religious freedom. The federal government relied on the Smith peyote case to support its position, and a court of appeals in Cincinnati agreed.

But the Supreme Court reversed that opinion in a remarkable 9-0 decision. It severely limited the holding in Smith and said that even a neutral law violates the religious freedom of a parochial school if it results in “government interference with an internal church decision that affects the faith and mission of the church itself.” Because the Christian school in that case treated its teachers as ministers responsible for the spiritual health of students, the government could not apply laws prohibiting discrimination to the school. Doing so would have affected the faith and mission of the church itself.

This is a very positive development for religious freedom and churches. Government officials have increasingly subjected churches and their various ministries such as schools, daycares, and homeless outreaches to more and more restrictions. They’ve attempted to enforce secular laws against churches in an effort to interfere with how they carry out their religious mission, who is responsible for doing so, and whom they will serve. For instance, a local government sued a religious homeless shelter in Idaho because it required those taking advantage of its free services to attend Bible studies and other religious activities. And New Jersey government officials are attempting force a church to allow its facilities to be used for same-sex “marriage” ceremonies.

Till now, government officials have relied on the Smith peyote case to support restriction of freedom because the laws they are enforcing neutrally apply to everyone. They can no longer do that now that the Supreme Court has handed down the Hosanna-Tabor decision. Any law that interferes with a church’s internal decisions about its faith and mission is unconstitutional as applied to that church. If your church is being subjected to enforcement of such a law, contact us here at the Alliance Defense Fund – 1-800-TellADF, or speakupmovement.org.

When I was in NYC last weekend, I learned about a huge inconsistent way that NYC public schools treat churches.    Churches may not meet in public schools, but public schools can meet in churches!   As you know, NYC does not want churches and other religious groups meeting in public schools because they are concerned that impressionable youth will be confused and wrongly think that the public school endorses the church meeting there on Sunday mornings.

So it greatly surprised me to learn last Sunday that the NYC Department of Education rents Roman Catholic schools to hold public school classes!  On Sunday morning, I learned about P.S. 133 in Brooklyn, a public school that meets in a Catholic parochial school building.  I was so surprised to learn of this, that I walked over to the school to see it for myself. This building has large crosses extending from the edges of the roof, yet NYC public schools hold classes there for children of all faiths.  I talked to the priest at the Catholic church next door, St. Thomas Aquinas (I was there as Mass was ending on Sunday).  The priest told me that the archdiocese rents many Catholic school buildings to the NYC public schools because they need additional space to conduct public school.

During the march, I mentioned all of this, and a woman in the march said that she has worked as a substitute teacher in P.S. 182 in Jamaica-Queens, and that public school conducts classes not only in a Catholic school, but in a Jewish yeshiva!  I was not able to confirm that as I was with P.S. 133, but I have no reason to doubt her words.

I want to be clear that I think it is perfectly fine for the NYC public schools to rent private buildings, even from religious groups, to conduct public schools.  I do not object to that.

What I do object to is the school officials inconsistent reactions:  They oppose a church meeting in a school for a few hours on Sunday morning because a child who happens to be walking by might be confused.  These same officials have no problem with busing school children to a building with crosses on top of it (and who knows what other architechtural features inside that indicate it is a Catholic school).  I am sure the school officials explain to any “confused youth” that the public schools are merely renting the Catholic or Jewish buildings, and that the government does not endorse Catholicism or Judaism by meeting there.  Those children are required by state law to attend public school, which is far more significant than a child wandering by a public school on a Sunday morning when he or she is not required by state law to enter the building.

The school officials are blatantly ”straining the gnat, and swallowing the camel.”  And we could point to further inconsistency over the fact that NYC school policy allows students to conduct worship services in public schools during the school day when students are there.  NYC knows how to accommodate private religious expression in other context, and seems to forget all that it knows when a church seeks to rent a school building on the weekend.

Thousands of Christians, pastors, other people of faith joined together Sunday afternoon to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to express their opposition to Mayor Bloomberg’s plans to evict the churches meeting in the public schools after February 12.  People began gathering around 3:00 pm at Cadman Plaza Park, near the Brooklyn (southern) end of the Brooklyn Bridge.  And they were a diverse lot.  The Hispanic Pentecostal pastors arrived together wearing their distinctive white windbreakers.  Pastor Dimos Salebarrios from Infinity New York Church in the Bronx brought many from his church that meets in a community center connected to a housing project.  Pastors from the Park Slope area of Brooklyn and from lower Manhattan came with members from their church.  But they were all dwarfed by the large contingency of Koreans who came from New Frontier Church in Chelsea.  It was like a large number of reinforcements had come, like when the Elfish soldiers arrived at Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers to help the soldiers of Rohan. Reporters and television camera crews set up impromtu interviews all over the park.

Councilman Fernando Cabrera and several of the pastors held large yellow banners urging support for equal access to the government buildings, as they started down the hill towards the walkway across the Brooklyn Bridge.  The weather was sunny but cool, and the winds picked up as we walked across the bridge.  Curious joggers and strollers stopped to see this group chanting and holding signs saying things like, “Don’t Make My Church Homeless.”

The walk ended with a rally set up on a stage right next to City Hall in lower Manhattan.  A worship band led everyone in Christian songs.  People cheered as pastors and City Councilmembers spoke about how the churches have been good neighbors meeting in the schools and have helped both the schools and people in the surrounding neighborhoods.  One pastors explained how churches had preached the Gospel to gang members who came to Christ and left the gangs.  Whether one agrees or not that people need to give their lives to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, all should agree that it is a good thing for the community when gang members leave their lives of crime and turn to become law abiding citizens.  The pastors and politicians told more stories of churches aiding the poor, helping children with their studies in after school programs, etc.  The government cannot duplicate with a tax-funded program a highly-motivated group of Christians that want to help their neighbors of the community where they meet.  It does baffle me why Mayor Bloomberg and school officials would prefer empty school buildings to allowing these Christians to help the City.

For much of the march across the Brooklyn Bridge, I walked with Bob and Jeannie Hall, one of the pastors of Bronx Household of Faith, and his wife.  They were some of the founding members of Bronx Household of Faith, who moved to the University Heights area of the Bronx 40 years ago to start the church.  As we gazed across the many marchers in front of us passing under the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge, Pastor Hall commented that he never dreamed that his little church and the decisions that they made to pursue the lawsuit, would result in this effort that is affecting all of New York City.  We are still praying that on Sunday, February 19, churches and other religious groups will still be meeting in the public schools of New York City.