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David Nicholas: Was the denial of a permit for a youth ministry in a small northern Michigan town a zoning issue or an act of religious bias? That's the central question in a new federal lawsuit out of Leland Township.
The Glen Arbor Sun’s Jacob Wheeler has been following the case and he broke it down with me late last week.
Jacob Wheeler: The Leland Planning Commission, which earlier this spring turned down Apollos Properties and Youth for Christ’s special use permit application to hold a youth ministry or a club in a downtown building in an area zoned for only commercial businesses.
The Planning Commission, you know, very emphatically has said in deliberations and following that, that this was a zoning issue, simply a zoning issue. The planning commissioners were pretty careful not to, you know, talk about religion or faith or Christianity in their decision making.
But, right, the lawsuit, the federal lawsuit now—which landed in August, which Youth for Christ and Apollos Properties, the local entity, has filed—that alleges religious discrimination. It alleges an anti-religious bias, and it alleges that this is about something far beyond zoning. So that's really, you know, that's the question at hand. Is this a local zoning issue or is this something far bigger?
DN: You said that the commission was very careful to simply say that it was a zoning issue. Where then does the group point to in terms of: are they talking about statements that they heard or something in writing to take this into the realm of religious persecution?
JW: Well, Thor Hearne, whose name looms large here, he's the lead attorney that brought this federal lawsuit. He and his family have some Leland roots as well. You know, the language he uses is really much more on a broader level. It speaks to his perception, his side's perception of kind of an anti-Christian bias. He name drops the Justice Department and the Trump administration and what they perceive as efforts nationwide to cut down on anti-religious bias. The lawsuit goes deeply into social media reactions you see from concerned Leland parents and families trying to make it about faith, make it about religion.
But as I said, in my story, I interviewed especially Lee Corey, the head of the planning commission, who emphasizes that this was never about religion, never about faith. It was very much about zoning, about Leland's C1 zoning district, which overlooks Fishtown, which allows for-profit businesses and only certain types of clubs such as supper clubs.
DN: Is the status then of the court action and the lawsuit being filed… are we awaiting a decision or is there another step in the process legally?
JW: Sure. So, in August, Youth for Christ and Apollos Properties and Thor Hearne, the lead plaintiff, so they filed this lawsuit in federal court, in Michigan's Western District Court. It's been assigned a judge. They, I think last week, so a bit more recently, they also asked for an injunction from the judge which would allow the youth ministry to begin, or the ministers and the students to begin using the youth ministry again, pending the decision on this. So, they've asked for an injunction, which would allow them to use their space, which again they own, but which the Planning Commission has said cannot be a youth ministry.
I don't know if a decision has come down yet with regarding the injunction, and hard to know how quickly or how slowly this all moves in terms of an actual decision in the lawsuit. They did ask for a trial by jury in the Western District.
DN: Jacob Wheeler of the Glen Arbor Sun speaking with me late last week. His reporting is being distributed by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative.
