> the issue of sensitivity to fundamental beliefs comes into the picture.
what you're asking is that a landlord be barred from renting to a tennant because of something that tennant _believes_ -- in this case that alcohol sales do not violate the law of god -- i don't think that many landlords would look forward to the prospect of having to survey their tennants beliefs before renting to them. I'm sure you all remember the ugly bruhaha just last year when a Texas town flipped out because someone wanted to build a mosque within their city limits (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16095716/) because it impinged on their own religious beliefs that Muslims were bad and an affront to god. In America having a church on one corner doesn't mean that someone can't build a mosque (or a liquor store) on the other one simply because someone thinks god doesn't like it. when i was growing up local churches petitioned and eventually convinced the town council to pass an ordinance barring people who were not married from living together. it made news and eventually got shot down in appeals court, but it's the same thing. a landlord shouldn't have to ask tennants if they're married, or if they believe alcohol is bad or abortion is murder, or if they think it's okay to eat pork. as diverse as we are, we live in a secular society where everyone is free to make their own peace with the almighty and to join the religious organization that reflects their own beliefs. these organizations do what they believe best to re-form society within the bounds of their power by convincing their paritioners to behave in a particular way -- whether this means making a town dry, or homosexual free, or filled with charitable organizations is their perogerative, but at the same time, their very existence doesn't preclude other free people from doing what they can to make the town wet, or gay friendly or filled with commercial enterprises. i'm sure the mosque and various other neighbors will have things to say that will open our minds to both the pros and cons of a liquor store in that area, but i don't believe that an entity, simply because it is "faith based" projects a cloud of belief around it that extends for however many feet or blocks whose morality is inviolate and determined by that religious organization. in this country our boundaries are made by surveyors and zoning boards, not by an aura of probitude exuded by some and not by others. kc
