From a longtime reader and pastor, who I’ve recently promoted to my “pastor guy” (or should that be “preacher man”?):
Jonah –What’s not mentioned in the story is that over the last twenty years, it’s gotten progressively harder to build a church of any sort in any location other than unincorporated/unzoned areas. I’ve been involved in some half-dozen new church starts over the last two decades, and sat through many zoning hearings, requests for variances, and community meetings, in all of which you’ll meet many “neighbors” (most of whom don’t even live within a stone’s throw of your proposed project) who will object to “possibilities” such as child care centers, day cares, food pantries, letting homeless people sleep in your structure, feeding activities from soup kitchens to even potluck suppers.
In many cases, the only way to use optimal properties (donated and or strategically located) is to promise, in writing, not to do many/most of the activities I’ve listed, and there’s still pressure to promise “not to get bigger” or not to add worship services and still promise to strictly control parking, often well beyond what the zoning officially calls for.
And I can only go by the older clergy and church folk I’ve worked alongside who shake their heads in bemusement and say “it didn’t used to be like this!” My sense is that they’re correct, and that neighborhoods and communities used to welcome churches, whether Methodist or Baptist or Disciples of Christ, let along more atypical faith groups for an area, but nowadays my sense of “normal” is that putting in a worship space is an uphill fight, not infrequently lost, hence the growth of sprawling megacomplexes out beyond the growth fringe, and beyond zoning control.
All of which is to say, the one area I can have some sympathy for Islamic leaders is that it can be hard to build a mosque, but let’s not make it just about their faith — it’s about a growing cultural bias against faith in general, with some very specific policy outcomes. Not that I’d expect the NYT to front page that kind of interpretation.
Update: From a reader:
Jonah, Your “pastor guy” isn’t from the South, I take it. Down here, deciding on the right color of carpet is the biggest obstacle.
Speaking of new churches, the Obama economy is leading to growth in the area of store-front churches. With so much retail space empty and without prospects, owner try to recover something by letting a church operate in the old palce at thr strip-mall, either with a very cheap monthly lease, or as a tax-deductible charitable contribution.
True enough “pastor guy” is not from the South.