In what reads like a final plea ahead of a potential lawsuit, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a letter to the Dallas suburb of Fairview once again calling on the town’s leadership to approve a downsized version of a proposed temple the two parties agreed to in November.
“It is troubling,” states church Stake President Daniel M. Trythall, a lay regional leader, “that members of the Town Council seem to have already withdrawn their support from the agreement made during the recent mediation.”
Trythall’s letter to the mayor and council reiterates that the church remains willing to swallow the denial of its original plans — despite the belief that doing so “substantially burdens the practice and expression of religious beliefs for the church.”
The ecclesiastical leader then urges Mayor Henry Lessner and council members to provide “assurance” that, if the church submits the application for the smaller design, the town stands ready to give it the green light.
Ominously, Trythall notes that “our religious rights could be compromised if the town does not honor its word as agreed to during mediation.”
Those interested in reading the entire document can do so by visiting a church’s website, which now hosts a page laying out the back-and-forth with town officials over the faith’s planned McKinney Texas Temple.
Fairview’s mayor, for his part, repeatedly has encouraged the church to submit the redesign for consideration.
Read the full report at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.