Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

Kentucky has some of the strongest laws in the country protecting religious freedom. Article 5 in Kentucky's Bill of Rights prohibits any preferential treatment of one religion over another. The Constitution restricts the state from favoring any creed or mode of worship. It also prohibits the state from compelling anyone to attend a particular place of worship or use tax dollars to fund religious buildings or pay pastor's salaries. says "No human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience." This is in Kentucky's Constitution because our forbears believed religious freedom was a pillar to society and a basic human right, so they restricted the government from interfering with religious affairs. It's important for us to revisit our founding documents from time to time, especially as basic rights they secure are being threatened.