"NO JEWS OR DOGS ALLOWED." That sign kept my father out of the public swimming pool where I as a child swam 30 years later.  My father was routinely called a Christ-killer; only one anonymous phone-caller ever dared call me "a f**king Jew." Between dad's childhood and mine came the Nazi murder of millions of Jews, gays, lesbians, and Roma.  American soldiers fought the Nazis. The Nazis murdered Jews.  Therefore suddenly in the public mind Jew-hater meant Nazi.  Auschwitz killed the Nazi brand because it taught where hatred leads.

In my father's childhood, businesses discriminated by religious belief.  In Johnson County the City of Leawood excluded Jewish and black home ownership. Blacks could not swim in my childhood pool in Baltimore because they were considered inferior to whites. All this murder and hatred was religiously justified.

Fashions change. Hatred remains. The Nazis made hating Jews unfashionable, at least overtly in polite society.  Some still hate us and call us Christ-killers:  think of Mel Gibson. But the law forbids Americans to turn their religious hatred into refusal to do business.  Society demands that if you are open for business to anyone you are open for business to everyone.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally ended discrimination in public accommodations against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women.  Restaurants had to serve blacks, no matter how much a religion justified hatred.  But now, some Kansans again seek to get the law to permit their religious hatred of other Americans. We've walked this path before.

Christians and Jews both believe in a God of love.  Genesis 5:1 teaches that all humans are created in God's own image. If you believe that there is to be divine punishment of actions you consider to be a sin, then let God take care of it. We humans are commanded to love the image of God.