Editorial: Evicting religion

Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City commanded headlines for several months last year. But a smaller, yet no less important, protest in the Big Apple recently went largely unnoticed by the mainstream media.

In mid-January, more than 200 pastors and church members gathered to sing hymns and say prayers outside a public school in the Bronx in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg was giving his State of the City address. Forty-three were arrested, including several pastors and a city councilman.

They were protesting two things. First, a New York City Department of Education decision to ban religious groups from renting space in public schools for Sunday services — even though the schools would otherwise sit unused on Sunday mornings, and even though the churches currently pay to use the space.

Second, they were protesting a similar decision by the city's housing authority, which sought to prohibit churches from using community centers in public housing projects. In both cases, only religious groups would be subject to discrimination, with non-religious community organizations allowed access to the facilities.

After the protests (and meetings with lawyers representing the churches), the housing authority agreed to allow churches to continue using space at housing projects. But the Department of Education dug in its heels and is still refusing to budge.

If New York lawmakers can't find a legislative fix, approximately 60 congregations will be out on the street as of Feb. 12.

The decision is unfortunate for many reasons. It will harm the communities in which these churches operate, particularly low-income areas in which churches are on the front lines of battling crime and poverty. The congregations also provide service to the schools they rent from. For example, one purchased an air conditioning unit the school uses, another painted the school building, and a third leaves its worship instruments at the school so children can use them during the week.

The schools don't want the churches thrown out. The decision is purely ideological and comes from an out-of-touch city department that clearly doesn't understand how these congregations function in their communities.

The city's Department of Education justifies its decision by saying it is protecting "impressionable youth" from associating a religion with their school. Yet city policy still allows schools that lack classroom space to rent from synagogues or churches.