For 17 years now New York City churches have been fighting to retain their right to rent space from public schools to hold their weekly services. The congregations are mostly from the poorer segment of society, which is why they can’t afford their own church buildings. Oddly enough, these are the people that Leftists usually claim to care about – unless of course – religion is involved.
 

 
Back in January, a federal court had upheld the city’s decision to not allow services in public schools. Some 60 churches were forced to make alternative arrangements. Heavenly Vision Christian Center even met in the street: Church Banned From School Building, Worships on NYC Street.
 
Finally though, there’s some good news in this case: Churches No Longer Evicted: Weekend Worship Services Will Continue at NYC Schools. Last Friday a federal court granted a permanent injunction that will allow churches and other faith-based groups to continue to meet in public school buildings after hours.
 

ADF (Alliance Defense Fund) Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence had this to say about the court’s decision:

ADF will continue to defend this constitutionally protected right if the city chooses to continue using taxpayer money to evict the very groups that are selflessly helping the city’s communities, including the public schools themselves.”
 
Churches meeting in New York City public schools for worship services have fed the poor, have assisted in rehabilitating drug addicts and gang members, have helped rebuild marriages and families, and have provided for the disabled. The churches have also helped the public schools themselves by volunteering to paint the interiors of inner-city schools; donating computers, musical instruments, and air conditioners; and providing effective after-school programs to help all students with their studies.
 
“There is no reason to exclude worship services from these empty school buildings, especially when the school allows all other community groups to meet,” Lorence explained. “Why exclude churches that are helping their neighbors in so many significant ways?”

 
Why indeed? Could it possibly be that the nanny state proponents want to push God out of the picture entirely, and force the poor to rely solely on the government for their very existence?
 
The evidence that that’s the case is sure mounting. In March petty tyrant NYC Mayor Bloomberg actually banned food donations to the homeless! Apparently the food might not meet his high standards of healthiness. So better to let people starve?! Or come crawling to the government for their free cheese?

The real tragedy is that the progressive left has been allowed to force religion out of the public square so effectively because they’ve rewritten history.
 
The whole “separation of church and state” issue has been predicated on a deliberate misreading of the founders intentions for decades now. If Thomas Jefferson’s famous letter to the Danbury Baptists had been meant to prevent churches from holding worship services in public buildings why would Jefferson himself have attended church in the U.S. Capitol Building just two days after he wrote the letter?
 

 
 
How can anyone honestly make the case that Jefferson would have opposed churches using public schools to hold services? He was actually the man who gave the Senate approval for the use of the Capitol Building!
 

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.
 
 
~ Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18, 1781 ~

 
I’m so grateful that organizations like ADF and Speak Up continue to battle for religious freedom. Because the secular atheists are relentless in their mission to destroy it.
 
Don’t know about you, but in these dark days, I’m certainly trembling for my country. And praying.