Episcopal Church Officials: Spite and Economic Irrationality
15th April 2010
An especially surreal episode comes from Binghamton, New York. The Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton is one of those congregations that tired of its denomination slouching toward heterodoxy and decided to leave for purer pastures. A legal dispute over the property resulted in a New York court ordering the congregation to hand the church property over to the denomination. Trouble is, the denomination no longer had need of the space, what with the congregation leaving and all.
This basic scenario has been repeated all across the fruited plains over the last several years. But in this case, the Episcopal Church did it one or two better. After the court decision, the congregation offered the denomination $150,000 for the building (its assessed value was $386,400). But a Muslim imam also offered to buy it. Now you might be anticipating that the denominational officials had a moral dilemma, since the imam made a more competitive offer.
But, alas, no such dilemma ensued. Rather than sell the church building to the departing Anglican congregation, the denominational authorities managed to act with both spite and economic irrationality. They sold the church building to the imam—for $50,000. It’s now called the Islamic Awareness Center.
With ‘Christians’ like these, who needs Muslims?