Minister Fired from Kentucky Farm Bureau After Delivering Anti Discrimination Sermon
By Dave VanderPol, Managing Editor
The Letter, Volume 16, Issue 3, March 2005

Todd Eklof, the Louisville Unitarian minister who vowed to his congregation on November 7, 2004 to not perform either marriage ceremonies for heterosexual couples or commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples until all anti-marriage amendments passed this past year are overturned, was notified in a letter dated January 18, 2005 that he was fired from his full-time position with Kentucky Farm Bureau.

Eklof received notice that he had been fired while he was in the midst of taking a sick leave that had been ordered by his primary care physician. The sick leave was deemed necessary due to stress-related illness Eklof began to experience after being reprimanded in mid-November for taking a public stand against discrimination.  Eklof, who’s a straight married man, believes his termination was in retaliation for his stand against marriage discrimination. He has hired an attorney and is considering filing a civil lawsuit against the KFB.

The Kentucky Farm Bureau headquarters in Louisville did not respond to our request to interview them regarding Eklof’s allegations.  The Kentucky Farm Bureau’s 2004 and 2005 policy manual contains statements against same-sex marriage and the teaching of “alternative life styles” in public schools. The section Our Democratic System includes the statement, “The institution of marriage should only be recognized as the legal union of a man and a woman.” Elsewhere in the same manual, on the topic of Education the organization’s Education policy states the belief that, “alternative life styles should not be taught in public schools.” As evidenced by the organization’s website (www.kyfb.com) KFB regularly lobby’s for and against legislation at the state and national level.

In an interview with Eklof, who served six years as Video Production Director for the Kentucky Farm Bureau at their Louisville headquarters, he stated that he had never been disciplined by his secular employer prior to local and national news media coverage of his anti-discrimination sermon he delivered to his congregation at Clifton Unitarian Church the Sunday after the 2004 General Election. “(KFB) management and I seem to have a disagreement over exactly what happened since my public stance against discrimination,” commented Eklof.

Eklof was summoned to a meeting by his KFB supervisors on November 15, 2005, where he claims to have been verbally reprimanded for violating a company policy that prohibits employers from making public statements on high profile issues. As a result of the meeting Eklof was instructed to sign a statement indicating his anti-discrimination statement violated a company policy from taking public positions. The statement further claimed that Eklof admitted to violating that policy and asked him to acknowledge that he had been warned about it before.

Eklof refused to sign the November 15th document because he claims that both he was unaware of any company policy that would prohibit him from publicly stating his beliefs on “high profile issues” and that he had never been previously reprimanded for violating this, let alone any other, KFB policy.  Further Eklof stated that on three occasions prior to his November 7th sermon he had made public statements on controversial issues. Two such statements were contained in letters addressed to the editor of the Courier-Journal newspaper. Both letters contained comments critical of President George W. Bush.  A third occasion where Eklof publicly stated controversial views, this time in opposition to the Iraq Ware, was featured in a news interview broadcast by Louisville’s TV Channel 32 in early July of 2004.

At Eklof’s mid-November meeting with supervisors he was ordered to edit himself out of his onscreen presence from one year’s worth of the KFB television series “Bluegrass & Backroads” which continues to air in re-runs. KFB management apparently believed that Eklof’s statement against marriage discrimination made him too controversial to continue to have him appear in their weekly TV series that airs on several stations throughout the Commonwealth.

Eklof noted that the Kentucky Farm Bureau “has, in many ways, been a good place to work and has allowed me to provide for my family during the past half dozen years. It is an organization that represents its members well and I had the fortune of connecting with many wonderful people associated with it during my employment.”  Eklof believes that something very positive has come about as the result of publicly opposing marriage discrimination. The minister noted “Taking this public position has allowed me to network with other ministers from a diverse denominational background from around Kentucky and Ohio who share my concern about this injustice.” The group of clergy, which represent a variety of church traditions including Presbyterians, United Methodists and Quakers, is in the process of setting up a website where other supportive clergy can add their support to the freedom to marry cause.

Founded in 1919, the KFB claims to be the “Voice of Kentucky Agriculture,” representing the interests of agricultural producers and rural communities. One of the largest Farm Bureau affiliates in the US, the organization’s website states that it currently has more than 440,000 members.

Clifton Unitarian Church has established a fund to help defray Eklof’s legal expenses. Checks should be made payable to Clifton Unitarian Church. Be sure to write legal fund on the memo line. Contributions may be mailed to Clifton Unitarian Church; 2231 Payne Street; Louisville, KY 40206.