The Human Rights Campaign is the nation’s largest homosexual activist organization. We have written before about how the group is spending an estimated $1 million per year, on average, on its agenda in Arkansas at the moment.
Last year the group was heavily involved in the effort to implement a “nondiscrimination” ordinance in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The ordinance was overturned by voters last December–but only after a protracted campaign.
The Fayetteville City Council recently referred out a similar ordinance for voters to consider on September 8. Fayetteville voters will have the opportunity–once again–to keep or reject the ordinance. This time, however, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Human Rights Campaign feels the religious exemptions in the ordinance are “too broad.”
Now, let’s consider this for a minute. The new ordinance exempts churches as well as religious organizations and schools. As we have said before, the exemption does not protect the religious liberties of ministers, let alone other people of faith. It does not protect a minister from being penalized for declining to participate in a same-sex ceremony, and it does not protect the right of a photographer, caterer, wedding venue owner, or similar businessperson to operate their business in accordance with their deeply-held religious beliefs.
At best, the exemption protects church property and the practices of overtly religious institutions like churches. It fails to acknowledge that the free exercise of religion is a right held by individuals as well as churches. The fact that anyone would find such narrow exemptions “too broad” is very troubling.
Photo Credit: “Old Main from the northwest, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas (autumn)” by Brandonrush – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.