The Christian Post
> U.S.|Tue, Nov. 01 2011 06:43 PM EDT
Ore. Pastors Speak Out About
Churches Meeting in Public Schools
By Jeff Schapiro
| Christian Post Reporter
Many churches, especially start-ups, rent public school
facilities on weekends in order to house their worship services. While
opponents to these arrangements say that religious organizations have no
business holding services in a government institution, the pastors of these churches
say their presence is in the best interest of the community.
Willy
Burns, pastor of Southside Community Church in Newberg, Ore., said his
congregation met in a public elementary school for three years, and during that
time they had a few “scares” from school board members who complained about the
church's presence but had a good experience overall.
“To
say that churches that are renting the facilities are being supported by the
schools is nonsensical,” Burns said in an email to The Christian Post. “If any
group wants to come in and rent the facility they may, and I think that is a
real win for the school district, especially given the harsh economic times we
live in where schools are being hit hard and teachers are being cut.
Meanwhile,
Michael Gaffney, pastor of Ascent Christian Church in Prineville, Ore., said
his congregation meets in a local high school auditorium because the cost of
rent is a good alternative to being “handcuffed” to a mortgage payment. Renting
from the school allows his church to reserve more of its money for ministry, he
said, and all of the rent money goes toward the high school's auditorium and
theater program.
Gaffney
doesn't want the church to have a mortgage, because, "like it does in a marriage, it becomes a
stressor on the church, and then sooner or later, usually sooner, the church
finds itself in a position where it has come to serve the building rather than
the building serving the church.”
Eight
out of 10 of Oregon’s
largest school districts are currently renting their facilities to religious
groups, but not everyone is happy about it, according to The Associated Press.
In
September, Gladstone, Ore. resident Wilford Bearden became upset after he
received a flyer inviting him to a church service at a nearby middle school. He
later contacted the school district's officials to complain.
"I
don't think it's something that schools should be doing," said Bearden to
AP. "I think the general public would probably be appalled as I am that my
tax dollars are promoting religion."
The
Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a group of non-theists out of Madison,
Wis. that fight for church-state separation, says it is unfortunate that the
U.S. Supreme Court has rendered decisions that continue to allow churches to
meet in schools.
“Start-up
churches often take advantage of low school rental to establish themselves,”
says an article on FFRF's website. “They obtain a prominent site for a new
church, collect church donations on public property, and use their savings to
eventually buy their own tax-free buildings. No wonder many taxpayers are
concerned!”
But
Steve Crampton, general counsel and vice president of legal affairs for Liberty
Counsel, told The Christian Post Monday, “It is a sad commentary on the state
of our nation and our so-called 'tolerant' society, that when churches seek to
exercise the same rights as any other community group to use the facilities at
our public schools – on the same basis, same terms as other groups – they are
singled out for this kind of hostile treatment.”
The
Liberty Counsel, founded in 1989, is a non-profit legal group
dedicated to promoting religious
freedom and defending religious rights. Crampton said, under a pure
interpretation of the law, churches in American shouldn't fear being excluded
from public schools, but said they should be concerned about a growing
hostility toward Christians in our society.
“It's
as if we've gone from sort of a privileged status, as the First Amendment
religion clauses make clear, to really being almost second-class citizens
because we belong to a Christian church today,” he said.
He
also said he is afraid that some school districts might close off access to
their facilities for all community groups, in order to avoid lawsuits from both
churches and organizations like the FFRF. When that happens, he said, “the
whole community suffers.”
"Groups
like ours exist to, on the one hand, protect the churches free of charge, but
on the other to render defenses to school districts, free of charge, when
they're sued by the left on these baseless grounds,” said Crampton.
Patrick
Bowler, lead pastor of Valley Life Church in Lebanon, Ore., told CP via email
that, despite what others argue, his church is not an opponent of the state.
His congregation has volunteered to help the local school district with tasks
like landscaping, trash removal and providing food to hungry children in the
district.
He
said his church, which has met in Lebanon High School for the last five years,
has given the district tens of thousands of dollars in rent and doesn't expect
to receive any preferential treatment.
“As
believers in a God who humbled Himself and set aside His glory to live among us
and to die for us to close the gap between himself, a holy God, and ourselves,
a broken people, how could we posture ourselves as entitled to anything?” he
asked.
“Jesus
would have us love the city, and that is increasingly what we want to do.”
