H.B. 1021 Could Undermine Churches’ Religious Liberties
I want to tell you about a bill that has been filed at the Arkansas Legislature dealing with churches and the issues of gender and gender-identity. The bill does not immediately force churches to employ transgender individuals or ordain female ministers, but I am concerned that is what it could lead to in the long run, depending on how our courts interpret the law.
Currently, the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993 prevents employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of gender, and Arkansas’ wage discrimination laws prevent employers from paying employees different salaries based on each employee’s biological sex. This means an employer cannot refuse to hire women and cannot pay male employees different salaries from female employees for the same work. However, both laws contain exemptions for religious organizations; this generally prevents churches from being sued for refusing to ordain female ministers or for assigning men and women different responsibilities within the ministry.
House Bill 1021 by Rep. Fred Love (D – Little Rock) removes the religious exemption from Arkansas’ wage discrimination law, and it changes the word “sex” in the law to “gender.”
In this day and age “sex” and “gender” are no longer viewed as the same thing. Many people now consider a person’s biological sex and a person’s gender completely unrelated. Transgender activists claim a man’s biological sex can be male, but his gender—or gender-identity—can be female. This means H.B. 1021 arguably writes gender-identity into Arkansas’ wage discrimination laws.
Here’s the bottom line: If this law passes, in the short run, the courts might penalize churches that, for example, do not ordain female ministers or that assign men and women different responsibilities within the ministry. In the long run, they may even penalize churches for firing or refusing to hire transgender individuals. A lot of it depends on how judges interpret—or reinterpret—state laws.
Bills like H.B. 1021 may not seem all that bad to some people, but they chip away at churches’ religious liberties. We need to consider the long term effects laws like this could have on churches and other religious organizations. We also need to do as much as possible to make sure churches can operate in a manner consistent with their religious convictions.
Family Council has always been a strong supporter of home schooling in Arkansas. Our Education Alliance office helps home school families every day. We provide everything from information on getting started as a home schooler to high school transcripts and graduation ceremonies.
As you know, Arkansans recently passed a very bad marijuana amendment that effectively brings recreational marijuana to Arkansas under the auspices of “medicine.” We are currently looking at ways to head off the marijuana industry in Arkansas before Arkansans are harmed or killed by marijuana-use.