Letter to editor, Longmont Times-Call
published 5/9/09

APPEAL IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTIAN CHURCH CASE TROUBLING

“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors, fertile fields and boundless forests, in her rich mines and vast world commerce, in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into her churches … did I understand the secret of her genius and power.” — Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859).

Too bad this historic observation by the famous French statesman who toured America in the 1830s escaped Boulder County commissioners Will Toor, Ben Pearlman and Cindy Domenico as they decided to appeal their courtroom setback in trying to keep Rocky Mountain Christian Church at Niwot from expanding to better serve its flock.

A U.S. District Court jury found that the commissioners treated the church on “less than equal terms,” imposed a “substantial burden” on its religious exercise, and unreasonably limited the church. The judge agreed and ordered the commissioners to issue a building permit. They refused.

Unaccustomed to having their authoritarianism blunted, commissioner Toor found all of this “very troubling, from a constitutional perspective,” quoted in 5/1/09 Times-Call.

But it’s also very troubling to many of us that when the government becomes overzealous in regulating religious activities, it is difficult to discern where official bigotry begins and ends.

The commissioners have already sunk $250,000 of our tax money into this $1.13 million save-face exercise, so the economic recession must not be affecting Boulder County.

Let’s hope that if this fight reaches the Supreme Court it will have narrowed into a First Amendment test: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free expression thereof.”

That’s really what this power-play is all about. The commissioners through their land-use code think they can do what Congress cannot.

May God bless America.