Ministry Endures Persecution from Officials
A federal appeals court is critical of Chicago officials and how they dealt with a ministry’s use of an old building.
The YMCA in Chicago’s inner city decided to sell the aging building, and World Outreach Conference Center bought it with plans to use it for church services and to minister to the homeless. Attorney John Mauck of Mauck & Baker, LLC tells OneNewsNow, however, that the ministry’s plans met a brick wall.
“The city, and particularly the local alderman and some zoning officials, wanted to stop the church at all costs, and they would not allow the church to operate,” Mauck explains. The officials “actually went through a hostile rezoning and zoned that YMCA building as a manufacturing district.”
The attorney says that action made no sense and had no rational purpose other than to thwart the ministry and “enable the alderman’s buddy to get a hold of the property.” The church filed suit and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has made a decision “holding that the city’s actions involved frivolous lawsuits by the city, malicious persecution and basically held the city’s feet to the fire.”
There is no word yet on whether Chicago plans to carry the case further.
(Source: OneNewsNow)
