Caught between the threat of litigation on the one hand and demands by protesters on the other hand, Austin Independent School District (AISD) has extended a promise to Celebration Church that it will be allowed to continue renting the district’s Performing Arts Center for Sunday worship services – for the time being.
Ever since the church launched Sunday services at the center in Austin’s Mueller neighborhood in late August, Stonewall Militant Front ATX and protesters from other groups have shown up weekly calling the church hateful and a “fascist cult.” Activists also lobbied AISD’s school board to cancel the church’s rental contract, winning the support of several of the trustees.
Celebration Church rents the auditorium under the public school district’s policy for non-school use of school facilities, which states, “School facilities may be rented by religious groups for religious purposes. The rental agreement shall be renewable annually.”
Although Celebration Church is not the only Evangelical church to rent space from AISD – Austin Stone Community Church has long made use of Austin High School and Paredes Middle School – it likely attracted the attention of gay activists in July or August by promoting its inaugural Austin service through advertisements in local publications.
One publication, Austin Monthly, took down advertisements from the church after learning from activists of their objections.
Celebration Church defines marriage as being between one man and one woman and reserves church weddings for heterosexual couples. The church is based in Georgetown and rented the AISD facility to use as a satellite campus enabling it to expand into central Austin. Nearly 800 people attended the opening day in Austin, according to a recorded sermon by Pastor Joe Champion.
Stonewall Militant Front announced ahead of the church’s Austin launch on August 26 that it would “make Celebration Church feel they have no other choice but to shut their doors in Austin and stay the hell away.” It released a second statement afterwards warning of “increased and escalating actions” in order to secure eviction of the church from AISD property.
“If they preach that a world without us is possible, we will preach a world without them is necessary!”
Another protest group, identifying itself online as the AntiFascism NonChristian Church, not only picketed the church’s weekly worship services but also brought their grievances to city and district officials at meetings of the district’s health advisory committee, its advisory council, the City of Austin’s LGBTQ Quality of Life Commission, and directly in conversation with individual trustees.
Outside the church’s morning service, protesters held placards saying “No place for hate in AISD,” “Celebration Church Celebrates H8,” and “Homophobia Kills Children,” among others. Candace Aylor, a protest leader who styles herself the group’s “Minister of Justice,” explained, “Our position is that this church having services on school property is damaging to the health of the students. It doesn’t send the right message when you allow a homophobic church to pay enough money that they get to be as hateful as you want to on your property.”
Aylor is also affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America Queer Coalition and ran for Texas House District 47 in this year’s Democratic Primary, winning 7% of the vote in a five-way race.
Trustees consider ousting church
Within a week of the first protest, AISD’s board discussed publicly at a meeting September 3 how it might end its relationship with Celebration Church. Five trustees questioned the district’s rental agreement and discussed whether they could apply a policy requiring renters to share the districts values in order to be allowed to use its facilities.
Trustee Ann Teich was quoted in the Austin American-Statesman saying, “I’m not in favor of renting to any entity that doesn’t support our values… and that’s full inclusion of our LGBTQ community.” Similarly, trustee Jayme Mathias told the Austin Chronicle that Celebration’s “values did not align with those of the district.”
Both trustees cautioned, however, that to terminate the rental agreement with the church under the current policy would potentially invite legal action, “which is why they are exploring a potential change in facility-use rules,” the Chronicle reported.
The trustees tentatively moved toward a new policy, one that would ban all outside groups on Sundays – the day traditionally reserved by Christians for their communal worship. AISD’s Chief of Staff Jacob Reach told the American-Statesman that the policy change was meant to avoid “wear and tear” and avoid the necessity of bringing in custodial staff on Sundays to clean.
In order to implement the policy, the district began informing other groups with events already scheduled for future Sundays that these would need to be rescheduled. Austin Civic Orchestra was informed that a performance scheduled for a Sunday in December would need to be moved to another day because AISD would no longer rent to outside groups on Sundays.
“The orchestra is greatly inconvenienced by this change,” complained ACO Music Director Lois Ferrari in a statement to local television station KXAN. Ferrari pleaded with the school district to open the venue up for performances on all days of the week, including Sundays.
Nonetheless, by mid-September protesters sensed victory. Aylor – who had been in contact with at least two trustees – wrote to supporters in a note September 19, “As of today, we have received word that AISD will not accept Celebration’s application for rental of the PAC in October.”
State lawyer: ‘Impermissible hostility’
This turned out not to be the case. A law firm representing Celebration Church told Honest Austin that the church leadership received “assurances” from AISD earlier week, opening the way for the church to continue to rent the Performing Arts Center.
“On Tuesday morning, AISD officials informed Celebration Church leadership that it would be permitted to rent its facility on a month-to-month basis, just like other community organizations in Austin,” said the law group, First Liberty Institute.
AISD itself has not yet confirmed this; it had said as recently as Friday that it was still actively reviewing its policies and had not made any “final determinations.”
The district’s reported olive branch to Celebration Church came shortly after the Texas Attorney General’s Office intervened with a warning letter implicitly threatening a lawsuit. First Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Mateer in his letter cited several U.S. Supreme Court precedents, the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“When the government acts based on ‘impermissible hostility toward… sincere religious beliefs,’ its actions are per se unconstitutional,” wrote Mateer, quoting Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court case decided in June in favor of a Christian baker who had been fined for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding.
Echoing the wording of Justice Anthony Kennedy in his majority opinion in that case, Mateer pointed to the “timing and intent of the trustees.” “These trustees have ‘passed judgment upon [and] presupposed the illegitimacy of religious beliefs and practices’ in violation of the First Amendment,” he said, again quoting the ruling.
The letter also argues, “No government entity can ‘pass laws which… prefer one religion over another.’… In fact, the clearest command of the Establishment Clause [of the U.S. Constitution] is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.”
“The District’s proposal to exclude churches with traditional beliefs about marriage, while allowing churches that agree with same-sex marriage to continue renting its facility smacks of denominational preference.”
For her part, Candace Aylor says that protests will continue. She announced that this coming Sunday the “AntiFascism NonChristian Church” group will gather again to demand “an end of oppression and hatred by the fascist cult, Celebration ‘Church.’”
On its website, Austin ISD has removed a link to its facilities use policy. The website still says that the Performing Arts Center is available for rent “by both Austin ISD groups and the general public.” AISD’s fine arts programs have first priority.
According to the rental agreement between Celebration Church and AISD, the church paid $11,490 to use the performance hall for its first weekend of services in Austin. Payments exceeding this amount have continued in September.
In a statement issued through the law firm, Pastor Joe Champion commented, “We are proud to support the excellent work of the AISD and are thankful that all community organizations like Celebration Church have equal opportunity to use the Performing Arts Center. As an organization that loves and welcomes everyone in the community of Austin, we look forward to a long-term relationship with the AISD and supporting the school board in whatever way possible.”
Photos: Facebook/Joy Butler via AntiFascism NonChristian Church
