Cities and towns shouldn’t be so quick to oppose a ministry locating within their borders, contends Rev. Ben Johnson, the senior editor of the Acton Institute.It’s because the religious congregations in the United States, some 344,000 of them, have a total economic impact of up to $4.8 trillion.
Johnson pointed to the lawsuit by Tree of Life Christian Schools against Upper Arlington, Ohio. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that allowed the city to zone out of its borders Tree of Life, which would have brought in hundreds of jobs.
Tree of Life bought an abandoned, 254,000-square-foot AOL-Time Warner building. But the city declined to rezone the property for nonprofit use, “because a commercial purchaser would generate more funds for politicians to spend,” Johnson said. ...
Dr. Alan Cairns | 3/9/2009
