radiant.matrix

A family member sent me this news item:

“Section 8 of Senate Bill 200 is a wide open door for any judge to censor anything that condemns homosexuality, including Scripture,” Colorado State Rep. Kevin Lundberg said.

Many Christians fear that one day the Bible will be considered illegal in America.

“I do believe that the Bible is banned, under the plain language of this new statute,” Steve Crampton, general counsel of the pro-family Liberty Counsel, said, indicating he believes that day is already here. — “Censoring the Bible? It Could Happen in CO“, CBNnews, retrieved 2008-Aug-20.

Could there really be such a bill under consideration? Fortunately, the State of Colorado posts all bills under consideration by the Senate in PDF format: Bill 08-200 is no exception.

This whole fiasco appears to be much ado about nothing: the bill in question basically prohibits owners of businesses (not churches or private associations, mind you) from doing things like posting “gays not allowed” signs.

Specifically, Colorado Senate Bill 200 is an Amendment to existing law that adds “SEXUAL ORIENTATION” to the list of things which cannot be discriminated against legally. Currently, the list includes race, gender, and religion.

The section (Bill 200, Section 8) in question amends Colorado Revised Statute 24-34-701 (summary), which currently prohibits only the owners, operators, etc. of “place[s] of public accommodation [e.g. hotels], resort[s], or amusement” from publishing, distributing, etc. an material that discriminates against any “disability, race, creed, color, sex, marital status, national origin, or ancestry”. It also forbids the same from refusing service to such people.

The new bill only adds “sexual orientation” to that list.

This in no way impacts or censors the bible. It only means that hotels, amusement parks, and other public places of business can’t post discriminatory signs, or provide other kinds of material that limit what someone can do based on sexual orientation (or race, sex, creed [religion], etc.).

How does such nonsense get published? I think the key to answering that is in the article itself: “Many Christians fear that one day the Bible will be considered illegal in America.” But just how well-founded is that fear?

Not very, as it turns out. As of 2000, 76.5% of US claims “Christian”, while only 0.4% claims “athiest”; what are the chances that someone could successfully censor the holy book of over 3/4 the US population?