EDITORIAL
The Kentucky Post
January 27, 2000
The Northern Kentucky Baptist Association said it wasn't until after the association had rented its campgrounds to a group that leaders learned who would be using those facilities a few summers ago.
The tenants, it turns out, were secular humanists, a group with beliefs that the Baptists fundamentally oppose.
The Baptists say they honored the rental agreement because they didn't want to be sued, but they didn't like it.
Rep. Tom Kerr doesn't think religious organizations should be put in such a posture.
Kerr, D-Taylor Mill, has proposed legislation -- House Bill 70 -- that would excuse churches from the state's civil rights laws and allow them to exclude from their facilities those who do share their religious tenets.
Kerr explains that the purpose of his bill is to make sure that churches would not be forced to let other organizations use their facilities when those groups don't share their religious beliefs.
And on its face, that may sound reasonable. Why should a group of Southern Baptists be required to rent to secular humanists? Why should any religious group have to accommodate a group with which it has fundamental differences?
The problem with Kerr's approach -- as well-intentioned as it may be -- is that it is difficult to write a law that can define where religious differences end and discrimination and hatred begins.
The distance is not so great between excluding secular humanists from a Baptist campgrounds in Boone County because of their beliefs and excluding Jews from the local YMCA because of their beliefs.
Or what if racial superiority -- even discrimination against another race - is essentially a tenet of a particular religious belief? And don't say that's never the case with religion. We're deceiving ourselves if we think that bias, discrimination and even hatred doesn't sometimes reside under the banner of religion.
Kerr's bill heads in a dangerous direction.
If the Northern Kentucky Baptist Association is concerned about who they might have to rent to, it shouldn't offer the campgrounds for rent.
by David Williams, Editor
The Letter - Kentucky's gay, lesbian, bisexual &
transgender newspaper
PO Box 3882
Louisville, KY 40201
It's only natural for humans to want to associate with other humans of similar likes and dislikes. Being able to share our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and interests with others like us makes for a peaceable kingdom and a stress-free life. Few of us can tolerate for long an environment where no one agrees with us. That's one reason our ancestors left the jungle a million years ago.
But when some try to separate us by law, we need to draw a line. Wanting to associate freely with others of like mind is one thing: being required to stay away from those of dissimilar mind is quite something else. How are we ever to learn from one another?
That's why the Kerr Bill (HB 70) now being considered by the Kentucky General Assembly is so uncivil. That proposal would remove religious nonprofit worship and recreational activities and facilities from the definition of "public accommodation, resort or amusement" under the state civil rights laws. Talk about your "special rights"! It's wrongheaded, divisive, not in keeping with democratic ideals, and probably illegal under federal law. It needs to be file-thirteened.
We have no problem with First Amendment religious guarantees allowing churches to kick out anyone they don't want in their pews. If they think racial segregation is Bible-based, so be it. Let them scorn Samaritans. Many churches continue to serve as the last refuge of bigots and scoundrels, but in one sense that's good: they're a safety valve for the discontented.
But when a church enters public commerce with public campgrounds, recreational centers, and other such ventures, state and federal laws require them to leave their prejudices at the church house door or face rancorous lawsuits and stiff fines. They're no longer just churches, but businesses, even if non-profit.
Personally, I wouldn't want to rent a cabin at a fundamentalist church campground. Why press the issue when there are many other places to choose from in this beautiful state? Why set myself up for unwanted proselytizing, just to make a point? I like my weekends peaceful.
But if my freedom to choose is taken away, I might. Any establishment open to the general public needs to obey the public's law. If they don't agree to do that, they have two options: either make such places members-only, or shut them down.
This state is already divided enough. How it stays together, I don't know: force of habit, I assume. But when our own legislature proposes to cement some of those divisions into law, no decent Kentuckian should stand for it.
HB 70 is a mockery of our state motto. Divided, we cannot stand. Our legislators need to stand up bravely and say, "No! Not In Our State!" Otherwise, why have a state?