Good news for churches meeting in schools
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/23865

ChurchCentral.com - Louisville,KY,USA
According to the New York Times, the city has long opposed using school
buildings for worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of
church and state. ...

Good news for churches meeting in schools

by Rebecca Barnes, editor 18 Nov 2005

The worship space wars in New York City have ended with a victory for the
Bronx Household of Faith that meets at Public School 15. According to the
New York Times, the city has long opposed using school buildings for
worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of church and state.
In fact, the same judge who ruled against the church meeting at a public
school in 1996, Judge Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court in
Manhattan, reversed her ruling this week in accordance with a 2001
decision
by the Supreme Court, which found that religious teachings on school
premises were no different from other secular lessons about "morals and
character development."

The city attorney plans to appeal this ruling. But to the rest of the
country, Middle American, anyway, and to evangelical Christians in
particular, many of whom meet for church every week at public schools or
movie theaters, the 10 year battle for a small church in the Bronx appears
ludicrous.

Jordan Lorence, the congregation's attorney, and senior counsel for The
Alliance Defense Fund, told WorldNetDaily, ""It's a simple, common sense
principle that took over a decade and multiple court rulings for the New
York City school board to understand," he said.

"Almost everyone in America but the public school system of New York City
understands that the government doesn't endorse everything it allows,"
Lorence also said.

The implications of the big victory for the small church may ripple across
to the West Coast where Rev. Ken Hutcherson has been battling for ground
in
a public school where Antioch Bible Church now meets. Most recently he has
been targeted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Members
of that group testified before the school board last month that having the
church in the building of Lake Washington High School interfered with the
school mission, according to GayWired.com.

But even in Middle America, the debate pitting church and state in the
public schools, has reverberated. One irate parent in Thedford, Neb.,
wants
a school superintendent there sacked because a church group is encouraging
students to join their congregation. According to The North Platte
Telegraph, an abstinence and drug-free program got way out of control for
young cornhuskers when they were given a free "Book of Hope" at school and
encouraged to come to church.

Forget about the peer pressure to drink, do drugs, smoke or have sex, the
peer pressure to worship God was way out of control. The board won't fire
the superintendent, seems he was on his way out anyway, with retirement
plans at the end of the year.

Good news for churches meeting in schools
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/23865

ChurchCentral.com - Louisville,KY,USA
According to the New York Times, the city has long opposed using school
buildings for worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of
church and state. ...

Good news for churches meeting in schools

by Rebecca Barnes, editor 18 Nov 2005

The worship space wars in New York City have ended with a victory for the
Bronx Household of Faith that meets at Public School 15. According to the
New York Times, the city has long opposed using school buildings for
worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of church and state.
In fact, the same judge who ruled against the church meeting at a public
school in 1996, Judge Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court in
Manhattan, reversed her ruling this week in accordance with a 2001 decision
by the Supreme Court, which found that religious teachings on school
premises were no different from other secular lessons about "morals and
character development."

Good news for churches meeting in schools
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/23865

ChurchCentral.com - Louisville,KY,USA
According to the New York Times, the city has long opposed using school
buildings for worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of
church and state. ...

Good news for churches meeting in schools

by Rebecca Barnes, editor 18 Nov 2005

The worship space wars in New York City have ended with a victory for the
Bronx Household of Faith that meets at Public School 15. According to the
New York Times, the city has long opposed using school buildings for
worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of church and state.
In fact, the same judge who ruled against the church meeting at a public
school in 1996, Judge Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court in
Manhattan, reversed her ruling this week in accordance with a 2001 decision
by the Supreme Court, which found that religious teachings on school
premises were no different from other secular lessons about "morals and
character development."

The city attorney plans to appeal this ruling. But to the rest of the
country, Middle American, anyway, and to evangelical Christians in
particular, many of whom meet for church every week at public schools or
movie theaters, the 10 year battle for a small church in the Bronx appears
ludicrous.

Jordan Lorence, the congregation’s attorney, and senior counsel for The
Alliance Defense Fund, told WorldNetDaily, ""It's a simple, common sense
principle that took over a decade and multiple court rulings for the New
York City school board to understand," he said.

"Almost everyone in America but the public school system of New York City
understands that the government doesn't endorse everything it allows,"
Lorence also said.

The implications of the big victory for the small church may ripple across
to the West Coast where Rev. Ken Hutcherson has been battling for ground in
a public school where Antioch Bible Church now meets. Most recently he has
been targeted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Members
of that group testified before the school board last month that having the
church in the building of Lake Washington High School interfered with the
school mission, according to GayWired.com.

But even in Middle America, the debate pitting church and state in the
public schools, has reverberated. One irate parent in Thedford, Neb., wants
a school superintendent there sacked because a church group is encouraging
students to join their congregation. According to The North Platte
Telegraph, an abstinence and drug-free program got way out of control for
young cornhuskers when they were given a free "Book of Hope" at school and
encouraged to come to church.

Forget about the peer pressure to drink, do drugs, smoke or have sex, the
peer pressure to worship God was way out of control.

The board won’t fire
the superintendent, seems he was on his way out anyway, with retirement
plans at the end of the year.

*****************************************************************
Posting and reading from alt.politics.usa.constitution OR alt.education

You are invited to check out the following:

The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm

American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]

HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the U.S. and a couple from overseas as well]

***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************

Good news for churches meeting in schools
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/23865

ChurchCentral.com - Louisville,KY,USA
According to the New York Times, the city has long opposed using school
buildings for worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of
church and state. ...

Good news for churches meeting in schools

by Rebecca Barnes, editor 18 Nov 2005

The worship space wars in New York City have ended with a victory for the
Bronx Household of Faith that meets at Public School 15. According to the
New York Times, the city has long opposed using school buildings for
worship, viewing it as a violation of the separation of church and state.
In fact, the same judge who ruled against the church meeting at a public
school in 1996, Judge Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court in
Manhattan, reversed her ruling this week in accordance with a 2001 decision
by the Supreme Court, which found that religious teachings on school
premises were no different from other secular lessons about "morals and
character development."

The city attorney plans to appeal this ruling. But to the rest of the
country, Middle American, anyway, and to evangelical Christians in
particular, many of whom meet for church every week at public schools or
movie theaters, the 10 year battle for a small church in the Bronx appears
ludicrous.

Jordan Lorence, the congregation's attorney, and senior counsel for The
Alliance Defense Fund, told WorldNetDaily, ""It's a simple, common sense
principle that took over a decade and multiple court rulings for the New
York City school board to understand," he said.

"Almost everyone in America but the public school system of New York City