The Department of Justice is reviewing the zoning laws that kept a church in Maine from expanding.
The Rock Church of Bangor, Maine was located in a small building where it held seven Sunday services because of its growth. The nearby city of Brewer approved the church for a location in the local shopping mall that had long been vacant. Church spokesman Jonathan Lang reports that after two years, they applied to expand at the mall because of continued growth.
"They denied us and said that we were a legal non-conforming use with the city's zoning ordinance for that area of the town," Lang explains. "We then talked to them a few times about trying to have them reconsider allowing us to expand."
But city officials repeatedly refused the request.
"The particular zone that we were in would have been okay with a theatre, a bar, a club -- a variety of other venues of secular congregating," the church spokesman notes. "But when it came to them wanting a church to be in there, they refused it, specifically because it was a church."
It came as a surprise to church officials when they learned the Department of Justice is looking into the case as a possible violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Since then, The Rock Church is breaking ground to expand its location in Bangor, after the situation forced the congregation to move out of the mall.