Bills dealing with religious freedom moving in Kentucky General Assembly

Yahoo

26-02-2025

A Louisville church is shown. Several bills in the General Assembly have to do with faith. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
FRANKFORT — Several bills moving in the Kentucky legislature this session deal with faith — from regulating the expression of religion in public schools to addressing what legal actions someone can take if they feel their religious expression has been hindered.
Of the more than a dozen religious bills or resolutions filed by lawmakers have been introduced in previous legislative sessions, but a few are poised for successful floor votes in the House and Senate this time around.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 19, which would require schools to have a moment of silence at the start of each school day where students may 'meditate, pray or engage in any other silent activity.' It now goes to the House for further consideration, where a similar measure has been introduced.
Also in the House, bills have been filed that would allow the Ten Commandments to be read or posted in public schools.
Senate committees last Thursday forwarded a few pieces of legislation dealing with religion, such as Senate Bill 60, which would give citizens who feel that their religious exercise 'has been substantially burdened' a right to sue.
The topic was so frequent on Thursday, Democratic Caucus Chair Sen. Reggie Thomas, of Lexington, said in the Senate Education Committee that 'I guess this is my religious day at the Capitol.'
After the committee meeting, Thomas told the Kentucky Lantern that he agreed with some of the legislation, like studying alleged cases of antisemitism on campuses. He also said he didn't have an issue with the moment of silence bill since students may use the time how they want.
'However, where we see religion being used as a means to disrupt health regulations or safety regulations or discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community, I will oppose those always,' Thomas said.
Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, called religious legislation 'maybe in response to some of the things we've seen rising up in Kentucky in the last several years.' Tichenor appeared before the education committee to present her Senate Joint Resolution 55, which resolution is aimed at combating antisemitism at Kentucky public universities and requiring reporting on such cases.
Joining her were Louisville Democratic Rep. Daniel Grossberg and Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, chairman of the Kentucky Jewish Council. The resolution could soon move to the Senate floor for a full vote.
'I could maybe argue that we have seen an attack on religion in Kentucky by some, and this is more than likely just a natural response to get back to, 'OK, what's our what's our history? Where does Kentucky stand on these issues?'' Tichenor told the Lantern.
During the Senate committee debate on the moment of silence bill, Tichenor argued there is 'a deep, deep history of Christianity in this country' and could be an opportunity to teach students about how Christianity has impacted U.S. laws.
'I think teaching that as a historical fact to our students can be incredibly valuable — alongside letting them know this is voluntary. It's not something required,' Tichenor said.
The office of Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman opined last week that legislation to restore a Ten Commandments monument to the Capitol grounds and to public schools to display the Ten Commandments in ways that 'lack a 'plainly religious,' 'pre-eminent purpose'' and highlight the texts 'undeniable historical meaning' would likely not be unconstitutional. The opinion had been requested by multiple lawmakers in the House and Senate.
Richard Nelson, the executive director of the conservative Commonwealth Policy Center, said in a Tuesday interview that the U.S. is 'not a secular nation, nor are we a nation that imposes a national religion or a national church.' He said that 'threats, largely at the national level, to religious freedom' may be why Kentucky lawmakers are introducing bills on the topic of religious freedom.
'Religious freedom' is more than attending a worship service, Nelson said. It also includes the ability to freely live your life without government coercion in public spaces, personally-owned businesses and one's community.
'The legislature believes in this so strongly that they are doing all they can to shore up religious freedom for every Kentuckian, and I think that's a good thing,' Nelson said.
David Walls, the executive director of conservative policy group The Family Foundation, said in a statement to the Lantern that while the organization was 'grateful that the U.S. Supreme Court has moved to restore a proper understanding of religious liberty in recent cases,' the commonwealth 'still has a way to go at the state level to adequately protect religious liberty.'
'A recently released index on religious liberty placed Kentucky at 34th in the country due to the weaknesses of our current laws on religious freedom,' Walls said. 'We encourage the General Assembly to support legislation that will strengthen and add to our current religious freedom protections, like SB 60, to ensure that Kentuckians of all faiths may practice their religion freely without excessive interference from the government.'
'If there's an attack on religion in Kentucky, it would certainly be an attack on minority religious views,' said Corey Shapiro, the legal director of the ACLU of Kentucky.
'If we want to be promoting religion, we should be promoting it in a way that reflects the diversity in our commonwealth,' he said. 'Any sort of response to a purported attack is ignoring how that's going to make the Jewish student from Louisville, the Muslim student from Lexington, feel when they're either in school or at the Capitol.'
It's also an 'incredible missed opportunity to focus on best practices in public schools, none of which involve religion,' Shapiro argued.
'It is clear that the people in Kentucky want our legislature to focus on public schools and improving our public schools, and putting money into religion is not the answer, and it's not what Kentuckians want.'
Mindy Haas, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass, said in a statement that while the Jewish community 'is not a monolith and perspectives may vary,' many within it agree 'on the importance of upholding religious freedom and preventing government overreach into matters of faith.'
Haas noted that 'extreme actions at both the federal and state levels make it clear that personal agendas are often prioritized over the well-being of the American people.' She also raised concerns over a 'growing trend of political decisions being increasingly influenced by religious ideology, creating division rather than protecting religious expression and inclusion.'
'This shift blurs the critical separation between religion and state, a principle that safeguards both government neutrality and religious freedom,' Haas said. 'When lawmakers impose religious doctrine through policy, it threatens the pluralism that allows individuals to practice their faith — or no faith at all — without government interference.'