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When the church doors open, only white people will be allowed inside.
That’s the message the Asatru Folk Assembly in Murdock, Minnesota, is sending after being granted a conditional use permit to open a church there and practice its pre-Christian religion that originated in northern Europe.
Murdock council members said they do not support the church but were legally obligated to approve the permit, which they did in a 3-1 decision.
“We were highly advised by our attorney to pass this permit for legal reasons to protect the First Amendment rights," Mayor Craig Kavanagh said. "We knew that if this was going to be denied, we were going to have a legal battle on our hands that could be pretty expensive.”
City Attorney Don Wilcox said it came down to free speech and freedom of religion.
“I think there’s a great deal of sentiment in the town that they don’t want that group there," he said. "You can’t just bar people from practicing whatever religion they want or saying anything they want as long as it doesn’t incite violence.”
After permit approved for whites-only church, small Minnesota town insists it isn't racist
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday December 23 2020, @01:53PM
They had other choices.
The first was to not listen to the lawyer. Given that in any legal battle, half the lawyers lose (there's always a winner and a loser), just refuse the resining.
Then it becomes a question of whether this fringe group even has enough money to engage in a legal battle. The more likely situation is they look somewhere else.
The second is to restrict new church zoning to the most expensive area of town. Got a big shopping centre? With expensive rents? The same tactic can be used with massage parlours - instead of zoning to force them into cheap locations. It's not discriminatory if it applies to all new churches.
Third, a moratorium on building conversion to churches. Again not discrimination against churches if it applies to all churches. Works for condo conversions. Existing churches won't complete because they like the lack of new competition.
Parking restrictions. No street parking, require paved parking lots with proper connection to storm sewers (no storm sewer? Sorry, you can't dump waste water into the sanitary sewer any more - and you'll have to pay for the street storm sewer installation. Got a million dollars as a bond?)
When you change the vocation of a building, the city can require it be brought up to the latest regulations. Just make it financially impossible and they'll go away. It's what the big cities do. This must be a real hick town.