"Freedom From Religion Foundation" Objects to Lafayette's Proposal to Use $7 Million in Economic Development Revenue Bonds to Help Finance Faith West Project

The city of West Lafayette, Ind., cannot legally subsidize Faith Ministries' Faith West Project with $7 million in economic development revenue bonds, FFRF Co-President Dan Barker said in a May 21 letter of complaint to Mayor John Dennis and the City Council.

FFRF, with more than 18,000 members nationwide and 250 in Indiana, advocates for state-church separation. Multiple local complainants contacted FFRF about city Ordinance 11-12, which violates a clause in the Indiana Constitution that states "No preference shall be given, by law, to any creed, religious society, or mode of worship."

Cost of the complex is pegged at $11.5 million. It would house a student ministry, fitness and counseling centers, a cafe and apartments. The Plan Commission unanimously OK'd the project in March. A public hearing before the City Council is May 24.

Faith Ministries refers to the project on its website as “a new student and biblical counseling center.”

Barker noted that since the bonds the city would issue benefit the project as a whole, the city would in fact be supporting biblical counseling.
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http://ffrf.org/news/releases/ffrf-contests-blatant-religious-subsidy/

A copy of the letter sent to West Lafayette City Council Members is available here:

http://ffrf.org/uploads/legal/WestLafayette-FaithWest.pdf

An earlier post on the Faith West issue can be found here:

http://indianapropertytaxreporter.blogspot.com/2012/03/lafayette-development-by-faith-church.html