Illinois church wins first round of religious liberty court battle
- Apr 7, 2008 - comment
CARLINVILL, Ill.—Carlinville Southern Baptist Church “can do everything we want in the new facility except use it for worship,” according to the church’s First Amendment attorney, Daniel Dalton.
Dalton, a religious liberty rights specialist from Michigan, made the statement following a March 20th U.S. Federal Court ruling that allows the church to remodel a former Wal-Mart store to accommodate the growing Southern Baptist congregation.
“It was actually a great day for us when the Federal Court in Springfield entered an order allowing us to continue renovating the building and to utilize it for offices, a day care center and other things,” Dalton said. A decision on more complicated First Amendment issues that will allow the church to also worship on the property will probably come later this month.
As it has done in many communities, Wal-Mart built a new super store in Carlinville, a community of 6,000 residents located between Springfield, IL and St. Louis, MO. and attempted to sell their old building. After six months, Wal-Mart had been unable to sell the property so Carlinville Southern, having experienced significant growth the past few years, purchased the 60,000 square-foot building.
The former Wal-Mart property was zoned commercial by the City of Carlinville which allowed uses as an “auditorium” defined “as part of a church, theater, school or recreation building.” At the time, however, churches were only being allowed in areas zoned “R” for religious or rehabilitative, even though two other churches in town were already located in property zoned commercial.
The church applied to have the property rezoned “R” but was denied because the church is tax-exempt.
Carlinville Mayor Robert Schwab told the local news media the city has been ravaged by business closings and needs the revenue of a commercial enterprise rather than a church. “The city must look out for the economic interest of the entire community,” Schwab said.
The church attempted to meet with city officials to resolve the issue amicably, but instead the city filed a lawsuit in state court seeking an injunction to prevent the church from renovating the facility or moving any of its offices to the site. The church filed suit in Federal Court alleging violation of its First and Fourteenth Amendment rights as well as violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
RLUIPA is a federal statute intended to protect churches and religious institutions from discrimination and unreasonable burdens imposed by land use regulations. Courts have held that RLUIPA prevents governments from discriminating against churches just because they are tax-exempt and reduce tax revenues for a city – exactly what the City of Carlinville is posing as its reason for refusing to rezone the property.
Carlinville Pastor Tim Rhodus asked Christians to pray the matter will be resolved quickly so the church can expand its witness to the community.
“This is not about a building, and we’re not just trying to win a court case,” Rhodus told The Illinois Baptist. “We’re asking God for a spiritual awakening for our entire community. Everyone in this area is paying attention, and we need God to show-up in undeniable ways so that undecided masses recognize His power.”
This article is reprinted from the March 28, 2008, issue of The Illinois Baptist, the newspaper of the Illinois Baptist State Association.
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