BUCKHANNON — The City of Buckhannon announced on their website that Mayor David McCauley will hold the first reading of his proposed LGBT ordinance that Christians in the community believe will threaten Religious Liberty.
The ordinance reading will take place this Thursday on January 3, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. Several local pastors and church members in the community have expressed great concern, understanding that this ordinance will place them at a high risk for lawsuits and potential loss of their organization if their church is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
On October 18, Mayor David McCauley and Fairness WV state director-lobbyist Andrew Schneider discussed the ordinance before council, seeking to empower the city’s LGBT community. Schneider portrayed this ordinance as being established to “protect” citizens; however, in reality, it places a target on the back of every Christian business owner in Buckhannon.
Schneider expressed extreme hostility for churches and people of faith in his remarks, belittling Christians as “those who are citing bible passages.”
“The most common attacks we see against LGBTQ non-discrimination, which happens to be religion,” Schneider said. “Something we have long recognized is that major source of attacks against LGBTQ nondiscrimination come from religious sources.”
“We started talking about it as an organization. We discovered that we could actually promote this in a way that takes the argument away from those who are citing bible passages that claim to give them the authority to discriminate to this golden rule.”
The Schneider-McCauley proposed ordinance would also potentially target churches, whereas a non-profit organization in West Virginia was penalized for violating a similar ordinance.
“To answer your question in one case it involved a local nonprofit that discovered this woman who had been hired to be the executive director,” Schneider said. “It was discovered before she even started her job that she was in a lesbian relationship and it became apparent on social media and within the first couple of days of her employment she was fired for her sexual orientation. This woman ended up taking the nonprofit to circuit court and the judge ruled the local business was in violation of their nondiscrimination law so they were fined under the terms of the law and ordered to provide the woman with some form of restitution for her case.”
Most of all churches are registered with the IRS as being non-profit organizations. If a church has a 501 c3 status, they could be subject to abide by this non-discrimination policy. Therefore, they would lose that status, or face a civil lawsuit.
During the October 18th meeting, City recorder Colin Reger questioned Schneider, asking if churches would be affected under this ordinance.
“Any entity that is completely within the church and church operated,” Schneider said. “As long as it’s not a business that profits they are completely exempt, they can hire and fire whoever they choose and that’s the way it should be.”
It is important to point out Schniders use of the terms and phrases “church operated” and “as long as it’s not a business that profits.” This establishes that a church must be independent, and not registered as a non-profit organization with the IRS. Therefore, mostly all major and smaller churches in Buckhannon would be placed at risk, following the passage of this ordinance.