David Vs. Goliath in Texas: Small Town Asks The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Senior Leaders to Voluntarily Lower Its Temple Steeple — The World Is Watching

Fairview, Texas (Pop. 11,000) Has Already Lost the Legal Fight Now It’s Making a Moral Appeal: Lower the Steeple 20 Feet and Show the World What Good Neighbors Do

FAIRVIEW, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The legal battle is over. The moral one is just beginning.

The Town of Fairview, Texas, population approximately 11,000 and annual budget $13 million, has launched FairviewSpeaks, a community campaign with a simple, moral request: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with $91 billion in operating assets and $231 billion in investments, should voluntarily lower the steeple of its planned Fairview Texas Temple from 120 feet to 100 feet the height Fairview originally asked for as a gesture of goodwill to the neighbors it will serve.

Fairview has already signed a legal settlement under the threat of litigation. The Church won. In a letter to senior church leaders Mayor John Hubbard has requested a dialog to better understand and address community concerns.

A Federal Law Held a Gun to Our Town’s Head

Fairview Mayor John Hubbard notes that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a well-intentioned 2000 law designed to protect minority congregations from discriminatory zoning became a weapon that left his town no real choice.

“The Town agreed not because the outcome was fair, but because the threat of ruinous legal fees left us no real choice,” Mayor Hubbard wrote. Under RLUIPA, a prevailing church can recover attorney’s fees from a losing municipality, a financial threat that dwarfs Fairview’s entire legal budget.

The mayor’s pointed question: “How does the difference between a 100-foot steeple the height the town requested, and a 120-foot steeple constitute a ‘substantial burden’ on religious exercise?” The Church operates approximately 350 temples worldwide. Most do not have 120-foot steeples. Some have none at all.

A Precedent Every Community Should Watch

What happened in Fairview is not an isolated dispute. It is a preview of conflicts playing out or soon to arrive in communities across the country as large religious institutions exercise expansive building rights under RLUIPA’s unsettled legal standard. The Supreme Court has declined to define “substantial burden” at least five times, leaving small towns legally exposed and financially outgunned.

The FairviewSpeaks campaign is now a test case watched by municipal attorneys, urban planners, and religious freedom scholars nationwide: When an institution has the legal power to impose its will, will it choose goodwill instead?

The Steeple Will Be a Symbol — The Question Is What It Symbolizes

“As people of all faiths pass through Fairview in the years ahead, what will this steeple say to them?” Mayor Hubbard wrote. “Will it speak of a church that chose goodwill over legal advantage? Or will it stand as a monument to an institution that imposed its will on a small town that lacked the means to resist?”

The Church teaches that symbols matter. Fairview agrees. FairviewSpeaks.com is the community’s answer to that question and its invitation to the Church to answer it differently.

About FairviewSpeaks

FairviewSpeaks is a community campaign launched by the Town of Fairview, Texas, asking The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to voluntarily lower the steeple of the planned Fairview Texas Temple from 120 feet to 100 feet — the height compatible with the surrounding residential community. More information: FairviewSpeaks.com.