Local Columnist: Fred Snowflack 07/31/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom Sierra Club walking into a messy fight
By Fred Snowflack, Daily Record
Fresh off of its successful battle to secure passage of a bill to preserve the Highlands, the Sierra Club is now taking on God.
That may be a stretch, but you get the idea.
The state chapter of the Sierra Club last week said it would oppose plans to build a 5,000-member evangelical Christian church on Green Pond Road in Rockaway Township because of concerns about ground water contamination.
You expect the Sierra Club to oppose building plans, so this is not really a surprise. Jeff Tittel, the director of the state chapter, said such large projects should be built in places like Morristown and Dover, where existing sewer and water lines exist. That sounds good in the abstract, but not when you ask where in Morristown or Dover is there room to accommodate a church with 5,000 people.
As proposed, Christ Church of Montclair wants to relocate to the site of the old Agilent property in Rockaway Township. There is strong local opposition to the plan. In short, opponents say a 5,000-member church would overload township roads and services.
But the dispute goes deeper than that. A majority of the church congregation is black, and pastor David Ireland has said that some of the opponents are being driven by racism.
The leaders of a citizens' group opposed to the church have not made any racist comments. But it would be naïve to think that race is not an issue. Racist comments about the church have been found on a local Internet site.
Religion, not surprisingly, also is part of the dispute. A few months ago, a Jewish resident publicly asked township Jews to oppose the church because he said evangelical Christianity condemns Jews to hell as a matter of policy. Despite an outcry, he never retracted his comments.
So this is the atmosphere the Sierra Club will be entering.
Tittel said the club backs religious freedom, but that when it comes to potential environmental damage, the club must view a church the same way that it views a townhouse complex or a mall.
"We're not going to be up at the planning board saying we don't want to see the church because we don't want those kind of people up there," he said. Instead, the club will limit its concern to potential ground water contamination.
Opposing churches on environmental grounds is not novel for the Sierra Club, which in some ways comes across as an ecumenical opponent. In recent years, Tittel said the club has raised environmental concerns about a Christian church in Bernardsville, a Korean Christian church in Wayne and a synagogue in Tenafly.
Opponents of Christ Church probably are thrilled to have a major environmental organization on their side.
Pastor Ireland and church supporters must console themselves with the fact that the Sierra Club doesn't always win.
A few years ago, the club opposed another major construction project in Rockaway Township. That was the Rockaway Townsquare mall.
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...his mention of the Sierra Club's failed opposition to the mall construction. ("a few years ago"?!)
There was much less rationale at that time to deny the mall's application (to the best of my knowledge anyway, since I didn't live here at the time).
First, it was decades ago, in a time when concern for the environment was not nearly so widespread. (I'd be willing to bet the project would be squashed in an instant if it were presented today.)
The mall provides significant benefits to the community: jobs, taxes, business opportunities
The mall is located practically on Route 80, in a developed section of town with sewer and water service.
Mr. Snowflack's mention of the Sierra Club's failure to stop the mall project reminds me of the letters to the editor, and posts on this board, from the people in the mall & fleetwood area. The ones that suggest that, since "we" didn't oppose the mall in their neighborhood, we shouldn't oppose the megachurch in ours.
In fact, it seems that since they wound up with the mall that (I guess) they didn't want, we deserve to have a megachurch that we don't want.
I've said this before--we don't want this project here in our neighborhood--the burden is too great.
And if it comes down to a lawsuit (which of course it will) we will do as Ms. Hamilton instructs; fight RLUIPA tooth and nail.
Local Columnist: Fred Snowflack 
