Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control. The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million and calls it “God’s will.”
The town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida.
During a speech last year at a Catholic men’s gathering in Boston, Monaghan said that in his community, stores will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies will not carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will have no X-rated channels.
Homebuyers in Ave Maria will own their property outright. But Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the town, meaning they could insert provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items.
Welcome to the 11th Century.
I own my property, can I dictate people MUST buy birth controll and porn to be there???
The religious Right is growing and permeating our laws and life. It is a step back, way back–to the time before the Enlightenment. One thing is clear: all those who profess their religion and want to make it reflected in our laws are UNpatriotic. They are traitors to the Constitution. They are anti-American. They do not respect the American idea of SEPERATION between church and state. They are not Americans. President Bush is allowing this to take place. He is a traitor. Bush is the anti-Christ.
Another Civil War might be necessary.
If this is allowed, then you will see many more similar-concept towns sprouting up. You’ll have the Muslim towns, Jew towns, Rastafarian towns etc. An existing community with a similar concept I can think of is the Amish. The Amish have managed fairly well, I think this can be a success if the right people are put in charge. But it can also also be a HUGE disaster if the wrong people are in charge.
I don’t know … having idiots of like mind in one spot might be useful when the revolution comes. LOL.
Geez, anti-religious kooks abounding, no one is forcing you to live there!
To true estacado, the idea will live or die on its own merit.
I do however wonder, if he plans on keeping out the far left faculty that many a Catholic university is known for….
There used to be dry towns. I don’t think anybody suffered from that.
Why not let people have places where they can live without what they consider the corrupt onslaught of our society? Does everybody need to live within a stone’s throw of what they find immoral?
Modeled after strict Catholic principles, but not Catholic behaviour.
Now I _know_ that my decision to give up Catholicism for Lent about 35 years ago was the right thing to do. And next, the Spanish Inquisition….
Good for him! Let the man use his money for what he wants. It’s not harming you at all. Don’t live there if you don’t want to. Don’t open a business there if you don’t want to follow the man’s rules.
The town itself is fine, but the guy behind it is out to lunch.
Lest we forget, this guy just about destroyed Domino’s in the 80’s due to his religious beliefs. Domino’s was pizza delivery for a long time in many parts of the country: A virtual gold mine of profit. In turn, Monaghan borrowed heavily against the company to fund all sorts of crazy stuff, and just about killed it.
Floyd
No one expects the Spanish inquisition!!!
For some reason this reminds me of a town, here in Oregon, that refused to allow a cell-phone tower within their town limits – and were furious when one of the phone companies was able to get permits from the county to erect a tower just outside the town’s property boundaries.
The guys who will control all the “commercial property” in Ave Maria don’t have any control over what happens “just outside” Ave Maria – and the plus/minus of a capitalist society is that if there is a perceived market, someone will open a store.
People will be able to enjoy living in a town that doesn’t allow “that sort of thing”, while still being free to get those things elsewhere – if they ever want them.
Win, Win! 🙂
Humm…this story makes me think about two things….Oneida & the whole 19th century Utopian movement (which wasn’t exactly a lasting success) and, well, Footloose. It’ll probably be one or the other, but in true 21st century style, it will feature more lawsuits than reasonably necessary! 🙂
I certainly rail against the religious kooks, but I’m not really threatened by this. He’s bankrolling it, let him do what he wants. No one’s forcing you to live there. If he want to create his own little fundamentalist enclave more power to him. People will know what they’re getting before they move in.
I actually consider this an issue of religious freedom. You can choose to live however you want, it’s just when you try to force it on other people that I have a problem. So when they try to ban gay marriage nationwide because they don’t like it that’s a problem. When they take an existing town and try to twist it around to their ideals that’s a problem, not everyone in that town signed up for that. But if they create a town specifically for that purpose and people choose to live there in full knowledge of what it’s like, that’s their decision. As someone said, it’s like the Amish choosing to live a different lifestyle. Or it’s like sending your kids to Catholic school. I don’t like his interpretation of Catholicism but I support his ability to do this.
In fact, letting the residents own their property outright makes it fairly reasonable. If he really wanted to be super authoritarian with this town he wouldn’t do that, he would impose strict guidelines on what they can and can’t do on their property. Basically a homeowner’s association from hell. But he’s not, he’s just keeping a tight fist on the commercial property.
And there is how much difference between this place and Jonestown before the Koolaid?
I view this as positive: At least the delivery guys aren’t snitches.
If that pizza zillionaire knew where he had gotten his money he’d croak.
You forgot the importain part of this story! Aparetnly in the lesse you can only eat a pizza hut!
Didn’t they do this in the movie “The Village”?
I’ll pass on this, but as a Christian and one who respects the Constitution, I find nothing threatening about this.
What is 11th century about freedom of association and local control of one’s life.? My god, a world 10 minutes from porn and birth control!
And everyday one more restriction, law, tax, government snooping, patriot act goes on and on,. And you worry about these people?
What is wrong with Jonestown? If a bunch of nuts want to off themselves I say more power to ya! Let’s clean up the gene pool.
Proves that ridiculous fundamentalism is not restricted to Islam.
So being against abortion, pornography, and birth control is equivalent to Jonestown? Those aren’t extremist beliefs, I believe it’s the Vatican position on all of them. I doesn’t mean I agree with them, but they have a right to live their lives that way.
I’ll say it again: There’s not an existing populace that they’re trying to impose this on, they’re setting up a new town specifically for this purpose. Ergo, everyone who moves there is doing so with the full knowledge of what it is. I see no problem with that. They’re choosing to live that way and so are entitled to their religious freedom.
Here’s another way of looking at it. If you’re for freedom of speech when you don’t agree with what they say, why aren’t you for freedom of religion when you don’t agree with what they believe? As long as they’re not pushing their beliefs on me, I’m fine.
I’ll say it again: There’s not an existing populace that they’re trying to impose this on, they’re setting up a new town specifically for this purpose.
A real-world example [minus the religious aspects] might be Disney’s “Celebration” community, near Disney World??
Meh, let them do what they want. Its his money anyway. I dont see this as a bad thing since its up to people if they wanted to live there. I certinly wouldn’t (Catholic but dont like flordia or trust this guy. He can still do what he wants, hes just a bit nutty to me).
Also to the people who compare this to Jonestown and Islamist fundimentalists, I read nothing about mass suicide or firebombing of embasys over cartoons recently from catholics. Not saying we dont have our share of screaming nutjobs but they can wank off. How is this any worse than china town?
I would expect the whole thing to run by a Homeowners Association, controlled by Monaghan and his partner Collier. That way they avoid the messy legal problems of land owner rights.
If you are stupid enough to live there, then may God bless you because no one else is.