By executive order yesterday, Kansas governor Sam Brownback declared, among other things, that the state government shall not deprive any religious organization of its nonprofit tax status or disqualify it from taking part in government programs on the basis that the organization acts in accordance with its religious belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.
Governor Brownback’s executive order reflects the general approach set forth in the federal First Amendment Defense Act that is pending in Congress, though it is of course limited by the scope of his existing authority under Kansas law. If we are going to avoid descending quickly into a progressive totalitarian hellhole, it is important that similar religious-liberty protections be set forth in legislation, in Kansas and the other states as well as in Congress.