Tag Archives: kentucky

Love More, Legislate Less

26 Feb

I’m fiercely proud to be from Kentucky. I become down right evangelical about the great Commonwealth that gave the world bourbon, bluegrass, Post-It Notes, traffic signals, the Moonbow of Lake Cumberland, Bibb lettuce, fried chicken, University of Kentucky Basketball, Loretta Lynn, Abraham Lincoln, Mohammad Ali and disco balls. That’s right, folks. Disco balls.

But this morning I nearly burst into tears sitting at my desk as I read the proposal for Senate Bill 180. You see, Senate Bill 180 would legally protect businesses that don’t want to serve gay, lesbian, or transgender customers. Or to say it differently, it would make it legal to discriminate against certain classes of people.

This is not the Kentucky that I am proud of. This is not my Kentucky.

Senator Robinson, a Republican from London said this about SB180, “All of these business owners want to treat everyone with full human dignity and respect. But their consciences and religious beliefs prevent them from using their skills to promote a celebration that runs counter to what the Bible teaches about marriage. Shouldn’t their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion be respected?”

Let’s unpack this a little bit.

First he says “All of these business owners want to treat everyone with full human dignity and respect.” What he really seems to mean, is “These business owners want to treat everyone who lives like they do with full human dignity and respect.” I can’t think of anything more disrespectful and less in-line with treating people with dignity than legalizing discrimination.I may not understand Louisville fans, and while I have a sincerely held belief that their lifestyle is wrong, I don’t want to see them go un-served  because of their team affiliation. For all I know, they were born a Louisville fan, and somethings you just can’t change.

Robinson then makes this statement. “But their consciences and religious beliefs prevent them from using their skills to promote a celebration that runs counter to what the Bible teaches about marriage.” Mr. Robinson clearly hasn’t thumbed through his Bible very often and actually read what it says about marriage. In fact, there are a variety of unions and family configurations that were permissible in the cultures and time periods that produced the Bible. These arrangements ranged from monogamy (Titus 1:6) to a man being forced to marry his brother’s widow –never mind if he already has a wife– it seems as though in these instances polygamy was A-OK (Deuteronomy 25:5-10, Genesis 38; Ruth 2-4). In a really shocking twist, rape victims could be forced to marry their rapists (Deuteronomy 22:28-29).

Frankly, I could go on and on, but here’s a handy diagram below that does it much more succinctly.

Senator Robinson’s last point, “Shouldn’t their [the business owner’s] rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion be respected?” is valid. But it is valid in the same way that the rights and freedoms of all people should be respected. I’m unclear as to why the rights of one group must be limited to protect the rights of another group. No one is stopping these business owners from practicing their religion or stifling their freedom of speech. The only thing they are required to do is is provide the same service to everyone. What these business owners want to do is legalize hate, discrimination, prejudice and bigotry.
This is not my Kentucky. These are not my kinfolk.
If these business owners are truly so concerned with not celebrating anything that runs counter to what the Bible teaches, they shouldn’t be attending any Superbowl parties (Leviticus 11:7), making a cake for anyone who is divorced (Malachi 2:16; Deuteronomy 24:1-4, etc..), and should probably be prepared to die for being open on a Sunday, because well, hey, Exodus 35:2 says that Sunday is the Lord’s day.
Lastly, it’s really easy to pick apart the Bible to prove your point.
I just did it.
Maybe instead of being concerned with the letter of the law, we embrace the spirit of Jesus and spend more time loving people, as they are. After all the second greatest commandment is “Love your neighbor as yourself” Matthew 22:39.
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The Fiddle Dances

21 Jan

First let me be clear about something: The Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) is an amazing organization that has done more good in Eastern Kentucky, and throughout Appalachia in general, than any other organization with which I’m familiar. Furthermore, I am proud (and thankful) to say they are headquartered in Johnson County, Kentucky, my favorite place on the planet. CAP is the 12th largest human charity service in America and provided services for 36,000 Eastern Kentuckians, and reached over one million people in all 13 Appalachian states in 2014. That didn’t happen by accident or dumb luck. It was the result of more than half a century of hard work and ceaseless dedication to bettering the lives of the undeserved populations of Appalachia. I am humbled and honored to have an organization of that caliber working in and around the hills that raised me.

Mountains in my heart

That being said, their newest ad featuring Martin Sheen, –who I firmly believe is the BEST fictional president that this great nation has ever had– is truly appalling.

I’m not saying there isn’t truth to the recently released CAP ad, there is. Eastern Kentucky is different place. We don’t care for change and it takes us a while to warm to new people and new ideas. It is a hard place to eek out a living, and it isn’t getting any easier as jobs run from the hills faster than mountain water runs over limestone. But it is heart-breakingly beautiful, brilliant in its simplicity, and full of people who don’t take themselves too seriously and are loyal to a fault. So CAP please don’t act like poor, unemployed, under-educated, struggling people are all we are, or that the situation is somehow unique to Appalachia. That is a story that resonates across America. The Appalachian refrain just makes for better copy because we have been turned into a comic troupe of toothless hillbillies without running water who can’t do any better so we need a handout from people with the good fortune to have been born somewhere more socially acceptable, like Atlanta, Chicago, or Beverly Hills.

As a child I always wanted to go on church mission trips to developing countries, and while my parents ardently supported travel (I’ve got the passport to prove it) my Dad’s eternal refrain on the subject was:

“If you want to help someone, start in your own backyard. Go up to West Van Lear and volunteer. There are plenty of people there that need your help.”

So I did that. I volunteered with my church youth group and my school right in my backyard like he suggested. It certainly didn’t feel like it at the time, but years later people I worked with and served with told me that my consistent presence made a difference in their lives.  Now that I am older, I see the true value in the idea of improving your own backyard, as well as the danger of dropping into a culture that isn’t your own and trying to change it, even with the best intentions.

To make true change, people have to trust your intentions. Especially in Appalachia. We know if you aren’t invested. We’ve seen lots of companies come in, rape our hills and leave us with little more than the idea that “Coal-mining used to pay real well.” CAP is invested in the communities where they work, but you would never know it from this ad. This ad only tells you children are hungry, but it doesn’t tell you what programs your donation would support or the value of a dollar in the hands of CAP versus the value of a dollar donated to another group.

CAP, you are so clearly invested in Appalachia. You started out helping people in your own backyard in 1964 and that grand tradition has continued. As such an invested community member, because that is what you are, a community member, maybe your next ad will showcase the great things you’ve already accomplished and the projects you continue to support, rather than playing into a stereotype that does nothing but harm the people you already work so hard to help.

Clearly, CAP, you don’t see this ad as harmful. If you did, I feel certain you never would have created it. The one thing Appalachia needs more than anything else is a boost to the economy, an ad like this further hinder any outside investment in developing the local economy in a sustainable fashion. What business will invest in these communities when all they learn about from this 80 second glimpse into the mountains is that we are poor and uneducated? I have a gamblers heart, but my MBA head wouldn’t let me make that bet if this was all I saw about Appalachia.

And Mr. Sheen, if you really want to use your celebratory to help the people of Appalachia, give them a hand-up, not a hand-out. Lobby for a factory to be built in these mountains. Maybe Mitch McConnell will listen to you, he sure doesn’t listen to me. Take a vacation to Red River Gorge or rent a houseboat on Lake Cumberland and see the only moonbow in this hemisphere, and then Tweet and Instagram the heck out of it. Tell your friends to leave the LA sound stages and start filming in Appalachia, we are all getting tired of FX pretending that Pasadena passes for Harlan. It isn’t nearly green enough. Or come for a festival and be amazed at the exquisite hand-made quilts and hear the best bluegrass music of your life. I’m willing to bet you can’t help but dance to the fiddle.

I know that is a hard sell because we are an area of the country known for coal miners and moonshiners, boasting a skill set many times not viewed as commercially applicable at first glance. But we have excellent train lines, winding rivers, and a surplus of 18-wheelers that don’t haul too much stuff now that coal production is down that will get goods in and out with ease. We have amazing natural resources, and beautiful vistas, but what is more, we have an under-utilized, smart, hard-working population that prefers to work for something than have it handed to them.

Finally, I’m not saying don’t donate to CAP. Quite the opposite. Please donate to them. They do excellent work. But for those of you who only see a snippet of this beautiful place I call home, please don’t view this ad as a complete picture of Appalachia or our people. We are more than poor and under-educated, just as you are more than a ditzy surfer from LA-LA land or an unsmiling, hurried jerk from the northeast.

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