This video editorial by Martin Bashir is amazing. He insightfully discusses the Bronx Household of Faith controversy in New York City, and with rapier-like prose, castigates Mayor Bloomberg for evicting the churches after February 12. You must watch this.
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Tim Keller, the noted Christian author and pastor of New York City’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church released a letter Wednesday condemning New York City’s order to evict churches that conduct worship services in the schools on weekends. The letter is filled with many wise thoughts, including this one:
A disproportionate number of churches that are affected by this prohibition are not wealthy, established communities of faith. They are ones who possess the fewest resources and many work with the poor. Redeemer has many ties with those churches and their pastors, and our church community invests time and resources to assist them to be good neighbors in their communities.
There is still time for things to change. Lawmakers in the New York Legislature are moving a bill that would overturn NYC’s harsh policy. Mayor Bloomberg could order school officials to lift the worship ban. And there are other things happening as well that we will mention soon. My firm belief is that churches and other religious groups will be conducting worship services in New York City public schools on Sunday, February 19. This unconstitutional and unwise policy must go.
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.
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.
