Fayetteville Group Gathering Signatures to Vote on Ordinance

repealflyerA group of concerned citizens are hard at work gathering signatures to bring controversial Fayetteville Chapter 119 (the so-called “nondiscrimination” ordinance) up for a vote of the people.

The group now has a website with information about the effort: www.repeal119.com. There is also a flyer highlighting some of the consequences of Fayetteville’s new ordinance and articulating why it should be repealed.

If the petition drive is successful, voters in Fayetteville will have the opportunity to keep or repeal Chapter 119 at the ballot box later this year.

We have written repeatedly about the unintended consequences of this ordinance, including:

If you would like to know more about the effort to repeal Chapter 119, call (479) 239-5900 or email info@repeal119.com.

Atheist Group Goes After Arkansas Pizza Parlor

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is drumming up controversy in Arkansas again–this time over pizza.

You may recall in 2013 FFRF threatened legal action against Conway public schools because school administrators allowed youth pastors to visit students on campus the same way it allowed other visitors to meet with students. The schools (and youth pastors) won that debate; now the group is back, and this time they are going after a private pizzeria in Searcy.

According to KTHV in Little Rock, Bailey’s Pizza of Searcy received a letter from the atheist group after the group learned Bailey’s offered a 10% discount to anyone who brought a church bulletin into the restaurant on Sundays.

Freedom From Religion Foundation claims this discount discriminates against people who do not go to church, and that it violates the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. We feel that argument simply does not hold water. Giving someone a discount because they have a church bulletin with them does not discriminate against atheists any more than giving a senior citizen a discount discriminates against young people. It’s simply another way businesses can attract customers. No one is being denied service because of their faith or lack thereof.

Freedom From Religion Foundation’s argument against Bailey’s Pizza is so bizarre it’s almost laughable. How “religiously neutral” does a business have to be? If Bailey’s prepares all its pizzas in a kitchen with pork products (like pepperoni, for example), that’s liable to prevent people with religious objections to pork from eating there. Is that “discrimination”? No, it simply means “places of public accommodation” (to borrow from the Civil Rights Act) can’t always please every member of the public.

When President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I’m not sure the goal was to stop pizzerias from giving nominal discounts to anyone who walks in with a church bulletin. Giving a discount to someone is not religious discrimination, but trying to tell a business owner his private restaurant must be a religion-free zone arguably is.

Photo Credit: “Flickr – cyclonebill – Kartoffelpizza med rosmarinpesto” by cyclonebill – Kartoffelpizza med rosmarinpesto. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Family Council Releases Two New Policy Briefs on Fayetteville Ordinance

Today Family Council is releasing two new policy briefs on the recently-passed “nondiscrimination” ordinance in Fayetteville (Fayetteville Chapter 119).

The first policy brief analyzes the last-minute amendments adopted by the Fayetteville City Council prior to passing the ordinance.

The second policy brief reexamines the ordinance as a whole and the unintended consequences it carries.

Of particular importance are that the ordinance:

  • Still opens churches, private schools, and religious people who own businesses to the threat of criminal prosecution;
  • Opens some ministers, individually, to the possibility of criminal prosecution; and
  • Still does not prevent a man who claims to be a woman from using the women’s restrooms, showers, locker rooms, or changing areas at businesses and public locations.

Click here to read Family Council’s analysis of the amendments made to Fayetteville Chapter 119 prior to passage.

Click here to read Family Council’s new policy brief on Fayetteville Chapter 119.