{"id":10317,"date":"2012-02-17T15:18:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T20:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=10317"},"modified":"2013-05-22T09:59:09","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T13:59:09","slug":"february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2012\/02\/17\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\/10317\/","title":{"rendered":" Church Worship Services in Public Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- http:\/\/www-tc.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/rss\/media\/video\/episode.1525.nyc.church.ban.m4v --><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>KIM LAWTON<\/strong>, correspondent: At FDR Public School on Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side, Abounding Grace Ministries held what could be one of its last worship services in the building. The nondenominational church has been renting worship space here for the last three years. Pastor Rick Del Rio says the reasonable rent was critical to his predominantly low-income congregation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>REV. RICK DEL RIO<\/strong> (Pastor, Abounding Grace Ministries): It&#8217;s the only thing we could afford. Two, it becomes that place where families can unite, and we really cultivate those relationships so that it is an oasis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAWTON<\/strong>: Del Rio describes his church as a source of stability in the neighborhood and says the city\u2019s policy is unfair to the people he serves.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10351\" alt=\"Rev. Rick Del Rio, pastor of Abounding Grace Ministries\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/02\/post01-nycchurchban.jpg\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" \/><strong>DEL RIO<\/strong>: At the expense of the poor they want to go ahead and make this decision. What do we tell our people?<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAWTON<\/strong>: Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says allowing churches to worship in public schools creates a constitutional problem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BARRY LYNN<\/strong>, (Executive Director, Americans United for Separation of Church and State): When a church uses a school on a regular basis it\u2019s very easy for a community or the students in that school to think there\u2019s a special connection between one religious group and that public school.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DEL RIO<\/strong>: All of this just in case some kid is going to have the wrong perception? Why don\u2019t you explain to the child that worship, the freedom to worship is one of the most basic rights?. Teach the kid. You know what? This is a wonderful country, a wonderful city. We all need to be tolerant of each other.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAWTON<\/strong>: Del Rio and other opponents of the ban argue that churches are being treated differently than other groups, such as Alcoholic Anonymous and the Boy Scouts, which still can rent space in New York City public schools.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10352\" alt=\"Barry Lynn, Executive Director, Americans United for Separation of Church and State\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/02\/post02-nycchurchban.jpg\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" \/><strong>LYNN<\/strong>: The law says there are whole categories of things that can\u2019t be done in a public school. You can\u2019t have a commercial event, you can\u2019t have a partisan political rally or a convention, and you also can\u2019t have worship services, so this is not viewpoint discrimination.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAWTON<\/strong>: Thousands of churches around the country worship in public schools. Del Rio says New York City\u2019s policy may be a precedent in what he sees as a movement to secularize the nation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DEL RIO<\/strong>: If you think Occupy Wall Street can make some noise, there is going to be some real movement here from communities like ours, because we are not going to let this die.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAWTON<\/strong>: Abounding Grace has found a new temporary worship location for the next few weeks and has joined a coalition of churches fighting the policy. I\u2019m Kim Lawton reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does allowing churches to worship in public schools create a constitutional problem, or is it an expression of religious freedom? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2012\/02\/17\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\/10317\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":17609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[7742,6751,557,1117,10359,10048,2220],"class_list":["post-10317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-barry-lynn","tag-freedom-of-religion","tag-new-york-city","tag-public-schools","tag-rev-rick-del-rio","tag-secularization","tag-separation-of-church-and-state","topics-faith-and-spirituality","faith-christian"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>February 17, 2012 ~ Church Worship Services in Public Schools | February 17, 2012 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Does allowing churches to worship in public schools create a constitutional problem, or is it an expression of religious freedom?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2012\/02\/17\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\/10317\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"February 17, 2012 ~ Church Worship Services in Public Schools | February 17, 2012 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Does allowing churches to worship in public schools create a constitutional problem, or is it an expression of religious freedom?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2012\/02\/17\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\/10317\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-17T20:18:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-22T13:59:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/02\/thumb01-nycchurchban.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Yi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Yi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/religionandethics\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/17\\\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\\\/10317\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/religionandethics\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/17\\\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\\\/10317\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Fred Yi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/religionandethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47\"},\"headline\":\"Church Worship Services in Public Schools\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-17T20:18:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-22T13:59:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/religionandethics\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/17\\\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\\\/10317\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/religionandethics\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/17\\\/february-17-2012-church-worship-services-in-public-schools\\\/10317\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/religionandethics\\\/files\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/thumb01-nycchurchban.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Barry Lynn\",\"Freedom of Religion\",\"New York City\",\"public schools\",\"Rev. 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