A number of times I've used building codes as an example of completely neutral laws which churches and other religious institutions should be expected to follow rather than ignore. I'm sure people have found this example to be silly, because what church would want to claim that they didn't have to follow or pay attention to building codes? Well, one in Alabama did - and it fell down.

The Birmingham News reports (via Pharyngula) that the pastor claims to have been completely unaware of the existence of building codes that he had to follow:

[Pastor Jeff] Carroll, himself a homebuilder, said he was not aware of any requirements and remains unconvinced a government body should have a say in how a church is built. “If the state and the church are separate, I don’t understand why they think they’ve got jurisdiction,” he said.

Maybe the state thinks it has jurisdiction because a church is a building and, as such, is subject to building code requirements? In fact, codes for structures like churches tend to be especially strict because they are used to host large gatherings of people — just the sort of situation where the loss of life will be greatest if anything is done wrong.

The Cedar Grove church designs were assembled by a church member and her daughter after looking at pictures on the Internet, Carroll said. Some hand drawings were made, then printed out on a computer program and used as the blueprints, he said.

The pastor said he volunteered to oversee the construction at no cost, or to hire a contractor. The church went with the pastor.

Maybe it’s just me, but for some reason I have trouble imaging trusting this pastor under any circumstances. A church member and her daughter designed the church after looking on designs on the internet? They printed out hand drawings as blueprints? What’s next, using Wikipedia to figure out how to perform brain surgery?

“We were trying to build a new one the way our forefathers did, with blood and sweat and tears and volunteers and donations and people helping,” Carroll said. “As far as I’m concerned, that should still be legal in America.”

Should endangering people’s lives through negligent and irresponsible behavior be legal in America? Carroll thanks his god that no one was hurt, but it seems to me that he is to blame for the fact that people were put in danger in the first place. If there were a god watching over people, shouldn’t it have prevented the church from collapsing in the first place — or even have prevented Carroll from doing all this in the first place?

The new church was insured and Carroll said he expects the collapse will be covered. He said the church is eager to rebuild, though it will gain necessary approvals the next time and will not use a wooden truss.

I’d love to know what insurance company would cover the collapse of a building designed by a couple of people using the internet and on the basis of hand-drawn blueprints created by amateurs.

Remember, Pastor Jeff Carroll is himself a home builder. He builds homes for a living. There are people, right now, living in homes built by a man who can’t imagine why churches should have to be built according to legal building codes. There are children who will tonight sleep in houses built by a man who built a church on the basis of hand-drawn blueprints created by two amateurs after doing research on the internet.

I find this very frightening.

 

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