To open a new church, congregations must comply with state and local zoning and land-use laws, and often must seek approval from special boards or public assemblies. All too frequently, writes Emma Green, communities are unwilling to see a new house of worship in their midst. Bigotry—against Jews, or Muslims, or African-Americans—is sometimes the source of the hostility; but in no small number of cases, objecting residents have more mundane concerns: