Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 5 of 9 · from the scan, no model involved
church’s religious mission. I submit that, in doing so, the zoning officials extended the scope of their authority beyond the limits within which even the U.S. Congress and our General Assembly may legislate. To grant the Pentecostal Church their permit under the EXISTING ordinance was reasonable, under the circumstances, but it in no way addresses the fundamental question raised here.
The very first words of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights of our U.S. Constitution state: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF”. These words head the list of all our other rights because this right had been won through so many centuries of bitter bloodshed and because our domestic tranquility directly depends upon the free exercise of this Right. These words in the Constitution are the direct offspring of Virginia’s own Statute of Religious Freedom, a document which Section 22.1-201 of our School laws requires our public school students to be taught and to be examined on in writing (our new Superintendent has pledged to the School Board that this section, hitherto ignored, will be enforced under his Administration).
For the revision of the Zoning Ordinance, now in progress, I have urged, in letters to the Planning and Zoning authorities, that the following words, or some similar words, be added to the ordinance: “Nothing in this Ordinance shall be interpreted as granting to any Planning or Zoning agency of
89.9%