Can some big D.C. churches fight off a bike lane? They are bringing large crowds to try. - The Washington Post

WTF!!  Seriously, they are arguing over a bike lane?

I have read some fucked up stories in my time but this one has to be the most asinine thing I have ever come across.  I am loathe to even consider is a "religious" issue.  It's  fucking pure fat-assed laziness on the part of the church.

Please,,, some one explain how in the hell a bike lane would infringe upon a the church's "constitutionally protected rights of religious freedom and equal protection of the laws."

Some prominent D.C. African-American churches showed their muscles Thursday evening, bringing out hundreds of congregants to a city meeting to discuss proposals to build a protected bike lane that could cut into street parking spaces near the churches.

And the packed meeting — which was eventually broken up by city officials who said the crowd in the Shaw library’s meeting room was a fire hazard — highlighted a tension in the rapidly changing District between longtime, black residents and new, largely white residents.

“We just think we have to protect what’s ours,” said Robert Price III, a pastor at the United House of Prayer church in Shaw on the 600 block of M Street NW, referencing black churches that have left the District in recent years.
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“No one is going to get everything they want; we have to find a reasonable solution,” said Alex Padro, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission representative whose district includes the United House of Prayer Church.

An interesting point to note, 

What’s sad is that the DDOT relented in a similar case, ultimately agreeing to making a bike path that could double as parking space (which isn’t ideal).

Ultimately, after a much-heated back-and-forth between the church, city and cycling advocates, the city agreed to make the bike lane unprotected in front of the church. The church was happy with the outcome, but cycling advocates warned that it could set a dangerous precedent for other churches and businesses that don’t want a bike lane in front of their establishments.

Dangerous precedent, indeed. That’s exactly what’s happening now.

In a big city where bike lanes are better for the environment and harder to come by, it’s ludicrous that one church gets to shut down an idea like this. People will adjust to the changes as they always do, and a bike lane isn’t creating some undue burden on Christians who want to worship. Worshipers will just have to get used to the new reality, whether they bike to church or park a little further away.

These Christians are whining about a common good and it’s especially galling because the church isn’t even paying taxes to help with street maintenance, unlike the taxpayers who want the bike lane.

Can some big D.C. churches fight off a bike lane? They are bringing large crowds to try. - The Washington Post