Jack Benson

Washington Hills United Methodist Church officials want to place a small sign on city-owned space to point people to its Bonny Oaks location, but Councilman Jack Benson recently questioned whether that would erode the wall between religion and government.

“All of a sudden I realized that this could be a very slippery slope that we were getting into,” Mr. Benson said last week.

But the Rev. Bobby G. Black, pastor at the 75-member Washington Hills church, said a city ordinance allows such signs on public rights of way.

Since the City Council changed a sign ordinance in 1994, seven nonprofit groups — all churches — have been granted “off-premise” directional signs on city rights of way, according to the Department of Public Works. Four of those churches have two signs, while the others have one each.

Mr. Black said he has taken all needed steps to get a directional sign — including paying a city permit fee of $108 — and has followed the law.

“If we’re denied this, I think we’re denying people something that other people haven’t been denied,” said the pastor, who is black. “To me, that’s discriminatory.”

The City Council-approved ordinance change allows any nonprofit group to erect a directional sign no bigger than three-feet square that is no more than 0.6 miles away from the organization’s facility.

In discussing the issue, Mr. Benson has expressed concern about government pushing religion and has mentioned the Texas polygamist cult recently in the news as well as terrorist groups that operate in the name of religion.

“With the recent problems we’ve had with religions in the Arab states being used as a front for terrorist organizations … I just want to make certain that what we do is not in any way promoting or demoting a religion,” he said.

Mr. Black challenged Mr. Benson’s talk of terrorists, an issue the councilman also brought up when the sign issue was discussed at the July 1 council meeting.

“Is he only asking this because I look different than he looks?” Mr. Black said last week. “What does terrorist have to do with the United Methodist sign? I couldn’t get the connection that he was making. … I guess I took it personal.”

Mr. Benson, who is white and a Catholic, said the council rejected a similar request from Second Presbyterian Church downtown a few years ago.

“We turned down Second Presbyterian, and I didn’t recall what they looked like anymore than I recall what (Mr. Black) looked like,” he said. “It wasn’t for any reason about what people were looking like.”

Steve Leach, the city’s Public Works administrator, said he thinks the change in the sign law was spurred by neighborhood churches seeking to make it easier for people to find them. Before the law was modified, churches legally could direct people to their facilities only by renting billboard space, he said.

The city ordinance does not specifically mention churches or religious organizations, referring only to not-for-profit groups, Mr. Leach said.

The City Council tabled the issue on July 1 and referred the matter to the Legal and Legislative Committee.

City Attorney Randy Nelson said last week that his office is investigating the issue and will report back to the body at Tuesday’s Legal and Legislative Committee meeting.

Mr. Nelson said he won’t give a legal opinion, but he will be ready to hear the direction in which the body wants to go on the issue.

Mr. Black said he doesn’t want to be “contentious” with the issue and simply wants to get people to a ministry he says is dedicated to giving back to the community.

“Anytime there’s conflict (related to the church), it means that you are doing a good job,” he said. “All our desire was was to gain more visibility.”