Almost As Good As Water Turned To Wine? Churches To Libraries!

[peacewithoutgod]

I saw a link over on Patheos to a story which is likely the only friendly telling of whatever is really happening in Houston with churches which the city wants to eminent domain to build a library and housing. but for some reason it's been removed. I won't assault viewers here with the winey protest video which all the news sites are promoting, it's really quite disgusting. All the same, it would feel hard to justify taking active churches populated by large groups which are invested in them, if in fact this is true, but if that's the case then who in their right mind would have selected them for the block?

Anyway, I just have to say that idea of taking old, space-wasting church building and turning them into libraries is an idea which I would find very easy to get behind! Imagine that, taking buildings with plenty of space and converting them from houses of ignorance to houses of learning! These butthurt reverends who stand to lose their jobs try and drown us with their tears as community builders, when what they really do is maintain the status quo of ignorance and poverty.

Well anyway, what do you people think of this idea?

Does anybody here happen to live in Houston, and know any more of what's actually going on regarding this case? So far, that city is looking like the one I would want to live in, if I had to live in Texas.

[dtq123]

I would much rather have them be places of communion and festivals. We could have harvest festivals and just have it be a place it hang out. We could dance, eat, and meet new people! All we have to do then is rearrange the wooden seats instead of removing them.

Then again it depends on the side and format of the church, larger churches could be entire community centers, with food banks, libraries, arcade, and theaters.

Then again... Festivals give yummy food.

Edit: Then again, we could always burn those things. Not like anybody's going to miss the glass.

[Solitary]

If they turn a church into a library, this is what will happen:

The Royal Library of Alexandria or Ancient Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. It was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts.[1] It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. With collections of works, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and gardens, the library was part of a larger research institution called the Musaeum of Alexandria, where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world studied.

The library was created by Ptolemy I Soter, who was a Macedonian general and the successor of Alexander the Great.[2] Most of the books were kept as papyrus scrolls, and though it is unknown how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, their combined value was incalculable.

The library is famous for having been burned down, resulting in the loss of many scrolls and books; its destruction has become a symbol for the loss of cultural knowledge. A few sources differ on who is responsible for the destruction and when it occurred. Although there is a mythology of the burning of the Library at Alexandria, the library may in truth have suffered several fires or other acts of destruction over many years. Possible occasions for the partial or complete destruction of the Library of Alexandria include a fire set by Julius Caesar in 48 BC, an attack by Aurelian in the AD 270s, the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in AD 391.

After the main library was fully destroyed, ancient scholars used a "daughter library" in a temple known as the Serapeum, located in another part of the city. According to Socrates of Constantinople, Coptic Pope Theophilus destroyed the Serapeum in AD 391.

[peacewithoutgod]

If they turn a church into a library, this is what will happen:

The Royal Library of Alexandria or Ancient Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. It was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts.[1] It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. With collections of works, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and gardens, the library was part of a larger research institution called the Musaeum of Alexandria, where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world studied.

The library was created by Ptolemy I Soter, who was a Macedonian general and the successor of Alexander the Great.[2] Most of the books were kept as papyrus scrolls, and though it is unknown how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, their combined value was incalculable.

The library is famous for having been burned down, resulting in the loss of many scrolls and books; its destruction has become a symbol for the loss of cultural knowledge. A few sources differ on who is responsible for the destruction and when it occurred. Although there is a mythology of the burning of the Library at Alexandria, the library may in truth have suffered several fires or other acts of destruction over many years. Possible occasions for the partial or complete destruction of the Library of Alexandria include a fire set by Julius Caesar in 48 BC, an attack by Aurelian in the AD 270s, the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in AD 391.

After the main library was fully destroyed, ancient scholars used a "daughter library" in a temple known as the Serapeum, located in another part of the city. According to Socrates of Constantinople, Coptic Pope Theophilus destroyed the Serapeum in AD 391.

That's a pretty good summary, but not particularly analogous to modern reality. The library of Alexandra and it's daughter were of great importance to scientific knowledge and philosophical thought at the time, and this benefit remains so of any decent library today. However, the loss of these two repositories for almost all of the world's knowledge within reasonable travel distance was far more devastating than the loss of a single library would be today. Nevertheless, children today need a good library within walking distance from their homes. If I had that in the rural town which I grew up in, I would have been a lot smarter by the time I was pressured into taking my poor shot at college! My school library was tiny, and its open hours horribly inconvenient.