When can a church no longer be used as a church? When the city says so. The Elijah Group of Leon Valley can not use its church building for worship according to city zoning. The Elijah Group had purchased an existing church building that had been used for worship since 1996 but now the city of Leon Valley says that the congregation can only use the building for a day care or as a counseling center. The city has rezoned most of the its areas to block churches.

According to Lori Windham of The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty the senior counsel who is handling the case:

“This little town has decided that churches don’t help it produce revenue, they don’t produce property tax or sales tax revenue, and so they have excluded churches from 12 of the 13 districts in the city.”

A federal judge agreed with the city so now the case is being taken to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A ruling is expected later this year. Here’s more info on the situation.

Response: This is one of many similar cases where cities want to limit or even block churches in their jurisdictions because they do not produce taxable income for the city. Years ago churches were considered as assets to any community but that is no longer the case all across America.

Many cases like this have arisen particularly in California where land is at a premium. This case it surprising to me since it is in a small town in Texas. It does show that the secularization of America is progressing even to the so-called Bible belt and small town America.

Now that many cities all across the country are finding themselves standing in ‘red ink’ we can expect these type of cases to explode. Especially this will be increasingly the case since America is supposedly entering a ‘post-Christian’ era where organized religion is no longer as important as it use to be to most Americans.

I’m still praying for a new awakening to reverse this unfortunate trend.            *Top

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