Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

December 22, 2008

A conflict in Middletown, New York displays the deliberate perversity of the bureaucratic mind at work.

That town's United Presbyterian Church has established a shelter for homeless people during this winter's killing cold snap. It routinely takes in dozens of people with no other refuge, providing them with a warm place to sleep, food, and clothing.

Last week, the City sent its fire inspector to examine the premises. He found nothing amiss. Yet the City's chief legal counsel insists that the homeless shelter is an impermissible residential use of the church property. The City therefore is preparing to file a zoning violation against the church.

Until it was changed in 2007, the zoning ordinance permitted such charitable use of the church facility. But no church should have to beg the government's permission to serve the poor, and no property owner should be subject to the scrutiny of socialist community planners.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.