A church for sale on 87th Street prompted JP Paulus of The Sixth Ward blog to ask:  Hey, maybe "we have too many" already. 

Mapquest says there are 80 within a mile of his house, and he wonders how much good they're doing.  So...

Folks have voted liquor stores and bars out of some neighbohroods.  In next-door Chesterfield, they organized against Family Dollar. 

What about churches?  (JP says he's not advocating a ban, exactly, but pastors should at least check themselves...)

Neighbor and fellow-blogger Worlee Glover chimed in to say:

"[M]ost churches in our community are not 'community churches' anymore and merely property owners who could care less about what is going on in our community because they believe the church is above the community and littering, double parking, reckless driving by their members is permissable, so as long as it doesn't affect their church."

UPDATE: When Brian talked to them on-air, a listener called in to say:  Heck, some churches in this city are "a legal racket."  

Caller Kenny Responds to the Sixth Ward Bloggers.mp3

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UPDATE:  Urbanist Lee Bey-- planner, former architecture critic, and advisor to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley-- posted a photo essay about storefront churches to his blog last year.  He shared thoughts and recollections on with MollyMolly at 2 p.m.      

Why are they important to him?  They're disappearing.

Lee Bey - Why Storefront Churches are Important to Me.mp3

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That's the snapshot.  The full conversation is here.

UPDATE:  Photographer Dave Jordano visited more than a hundred Chicago-area storefront-churches for his series "Articles of Faith." (Check out the pictures, in two slideshows. on his site.  This one is my favorite.)  

He joined MollyMolly at 3:40 to talk about the places he saw.  "I didn't meet one scammer-pastor," he told me before the broadcast.  "Most of them just wanted a place to preach."

50 dollars in the collection plate - Dave Jordano.mp3

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Full conversation here. 

UPDATE:  Luis and I called the “church for sale” number at 4:00 p.m. from Studio 11.  And we got the pastor on the line.  Audio coming soon... 

ALSO:  JP wrote in to say that we should check out a group that's really challenging churches to live up to their obligations to serve their communities:  The Christian Community Development Association.  We're checking 'em out, JP.  Thanks for the tip.

photo by Jordon