"Just before Christmas, I was paging through a newsletter from the Bronx Household of Faith, a small evangelical church that gathers on weekends in a New York City public school.
As I perused it, moved by the words and images, I couldn't help but wonder why the city Education Department has been fighting so doggedly in court, ever since 1996, to exclude this congregation and others from meeting in vacant school buildings on Saturdays and Sundays.
One photo in particular grabbed me: It showed Pastor Robert Hall talking to a homeless man. It was Hall and his co-pastor, Jack Roberts, who started Bronx Household of Faith in 1971, in a poor neighborhood a few subway stops north of Yankee Stadium. They founded the church to demonstrate how the Gospel of Christ could transform a community - reducing crime and drug use, rebuilding families and ultimately benefiting the entire neighborhood."
As I perused it, moved by the words and images, I couldn't help but wonder why the city Education Department has been fighting so doggedly in court, ever since 1996, to exclude this congregation and others from meeting in vacant school buildings on Saturdays and Sundays.
One photo in particular grabbed me: It showed Pastor Robert Hall talking to a homeless man. It was Hall and his co-pastor, Jack Roberts, who started Bronx Household of Faith in 1971, in a poor neighborhood a few subway stops north of Yankee Stadium. They founded the church to demonstrate how the Gospel of Christ could transform a community - reducing crime and drug use, rebuilding families and ultimately benefiting the entire neighborhood."