II. RELIGIOUS PROPERTY: ASSETS FOR MINISTRY

The religious community in New York City is one of the City's most valuable assets. The presence of a vibrant Synagogue or Church has always been a major catalyst which renders one area more desirable than another.

Religion, by its very nature, requires meeting places for worship and for educational, cultural, health and other service activities which give expression to the ministry of the Synagogue and Church. At the heart of this conflict between basic social values is the fact that those hurt by the preservation of architectural samples for the benefit of an aesthete elite, are the poor, the weary and the downtrodden who look to the Church and Synagogue for a basic support which governmental agencies cannot effectively give, and often should not give. Drug and alcohol abuse programs, aid to the elderly and to the emotionally, mentally and physically handicapped, religious education and bible studies for children and adults – these are the programs and people who suffer so a very, very few of the more cultivated classes can preserve a prettier view on their block.

The leaders of the religious community in this City are deeply concerned that this ministry is being undermined on a massive scale by a much inferior value-system enforced by governmental interference. The United States Constitution recognizes the necessity for unfettered religious ministry and places two unequivocal prohibitions on the government: 1) that there shall be "no law respecting an establishment of religion," and 2) that there shall be no law "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion.|*|

A common experience of Churches and Synagogues which have had; substantial dealings with the Landmarks Preservation Commission is that the law and the Commission's implementation of it both work an interference with ministry. Some congregations may feel there is a benefit in being designated as a landmark because of the "honor" which the designation implies. In general, so long as there is no need to alter or demolish a building, no "problem" is discerned. When there is need to alter, sell or demolish a building, all kinds of problems occur. At least tens of thousands of dollars which were contributed for religious ministry have, instead, been diverted to coping with unreasonable requirements, delays and capricious directives of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and with the burdens of an inherently defective law.

If an agency of government were to propose that funds dedicated for religious purposes be diverted for non-religious purposes, the constitutional violation would he clear and undisputed. Yet this is precisely what the landmarking law does by diverting resources dedicated to religious ministry to the alien and non-religious cause of architectural preservation.

By their very nature, religious buildings are distinctive and, therefore, convenient targets for landmarking. Freezing the past at the expense of present and future ministry, especially in a day of critical need, is unconscionable. For the Commission to substitute its judgment for that of the religious congregation in such matters arrogates to the Commission an unacceptable role in decisions respect conduct of religious ministry, which is abhorrent to our national heritage of liberty of conscience and freedom of religion.

|*| The First Amendment to the United States Constitution (past of the "Bill of Rights") is as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

These restrictions on federal lawmaking were extended to State (and thus to local, municipal) lawmaking by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.