Slow Train Coming
As usual, Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze digs up more useful information in two weeks than a government agency, this time the DART board, does in two years. Two weeks ago, DART announced that they underestimated costs for building suburban lines to Rowlett and Irving by a billion dollars. DART board member Faye Wilkins is quoted as reacting to the news by suspecting "dishonesty and incompetence." DART planners knew the numbers didn't add up a year ago, but didn't tell the DART board, the public, or the suburbs until two weeks ago. Now, to balance the books, DART will whack off a subway here, a second downtown line there, and say everything is fine again. It takes good investigative journalists like Jim Schutze to inform us that no, things are not fine inside DART.
Not-So-Merry Christmas for Iraqi Christians
Rod Dreher reveals a division inside the The Dallas Morning News editorial board about the suitability of a topic for a Christmas Day editorial. Dreher wants to write about the plight of Iraqi Christians, a small minority suffering at the hands of the much larger Sunni and Shiite factions in this civil war. Tod Robberson objected on the grounds that the subject was overly heavy for the one day when people do not want to read it.
Rod Dreher should get his editorial. What more appropriate day than Christmas to highlight the chaos and cruelty still inflicting Iraq? And then, after Christmas, The Dallas Morning News should editorialize about the ongoing Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq and about other injustices like the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, genocide in Darfur, war of all kinds in Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and terrorism inside Israel. You see, the plight of Iraqi Christians is real, but it's a drop in the ocean of inhumanity that America needs reminding of. I figure an editorial a day wouldn't begin to cover all the horrors that need attention. I have a few suggestions for changing the front page, too. A start there would be giving the killing in the Middle East at least as much coverage as the Cowboys.
Animal House or Protected Church?
The Chi Alpha fraternity of UNT is suing the city of Denton because the city zoning laws restricting multi-family occupancy prevent Chi Alpha from converting a house they own into a fraternity house.
What are the grounds of the lawsuit? Religious discrimination. Chi Alpha is a Christian student ministry.
Are religious institutions exempt from zoning laws? Apparently so. Or at least Chi Alpha lawyers are claiming that the "Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000" ( RLUIPA) exempts them. RLUIPA prohibits zoning laws that treat churches on less than equal terms with secular institutions. RLUIPA prohibits zoning laws that substantially burden religious institutions absent a compelling government interest.
When I first read this story, I was ready to toss out Chi Alpha's lawsuit. Many cities have zoning laws restricting multi-family housing. Denton does too. Religious institutions ought to be held to the same zoning laws as everyone else, and they are in Denton. Case dismissed, right?
Then I learned of RLUIPA, which gives religious landowners special rights. I still think the city of Denton has a compelling governmental interest in enforcing zoning laws against multi-family housing, so I'm still tossing out Chi Alpha's lawsuit. On the other hand, Chi Alpha's lawyers claim that the city doesn't have a leg to stand on. IANAL, so I'll be watching the courts sort this one out.
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