Kentucky Secular Society

February 23, 2011 marks the first appearance of the Kentucky Secular Society in the halls of the Kentucky state capital in Frankfort! KySS met with a total of five representatives and two senators who are our allies on the separation of church and state and accurate public school science education. Participating KySS members were Ed Hensley (Treasurer for KySS and the American Atheists state director for Kentucky), Dan Delaney (President, KySS), Mikel Hensley (Secretary, KySS), Jan Ewing, Louis Henry, Maxine Henry, Brink Bloembergen, Linda Johnson, Alex Grigg (Leader of Lexington Atheists), Robert Bevins, and Pam McKenny. Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, was also present.

Our morning was spent in meetings with five of our allied representatives. We met with Representatives Tom Burch, Joni Jenkins, Kelly Flood, Mary Lou Marzian and Jim Wayne. We also spoke with Senators Perry Clark and Gerald Neal in the afternoon. It was heartening to talk with and listen to elected officials in Kentucky who share our concerns about the recent injections of religion into legislation going though the legislature in Frankfort. Topics of conversation included the Homeland Security Law, which currently requires the Governor and other officials to annually declare dependence on “Almighty God” for protection. We also discussed new legislation establishing elective bible classes in the public schools and an “academic freedom” bill that would allow teachers to use alternative instructional material when teaching about science. Most of the representatives with whom we spoke about these bills issue expect that they will not make it out of the House of Representatives, although we cannot take that for granted. As Rep. Kelly Flood said, such interference with science education are attempts to re-frame the conclusions of science as opinion rather than fact. If we are to prepare our children with the high level of scientific literacy that they will need for both their careers and for good citizenship decisions in scientific issues, such interference with the public education science standards cannot be left unchallenged.

A major theme in the discussion of church/state separation was that it is bad not only for minority believer and non-believers when religion and government mix, but also for religion itself. When politics and religion mix, the end result is hypocrisy in the ruling religion, and loss of freedoms for everyone outside that particular religion. Most of the representatives and senators with whom we met with consider themselves religious in one way or another, and hold a variety of religious views from Unitarian Universalist to Baptist to Catholic. They are our allies because they understand the need to separate religion from government. In the words of Rep. Tom Birch to his priest, it’s up to the priests to do “the work of God” while it is the job of a state representative to do “the work of Caesar.” A representative must represent everyone in their district, and not just the followers of their own religion or their religious leaders.

In this civic work, we have not only supported secular values for today, but we have also gained contacts and information that will help us promote these values in future events. This has been our first contact with Frankfort, and is not going to be our last.