Saturday, October 10, 2026 · Independent editorial

California’s new “hate speech” training law has no explicit exemption for churches

“This is one of those points in history here in California where civil disobedience is going to be necessary,” Greg Burt of the California Family Council told Tony Perkins’ Washington Watch, according to Ian M. Giatti at the Christian Post, and the law he was warning about is one the Christian Post reports will have every California employer with five or more employees training staff, starting Jan. 1, 2028, to confront speech that “vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred” without ever defining hate speech and without an explicit exemption for churches. That is the whole fight in one breath and it is why a pastor in Sacramento or Fresno might be reading the fine print twice this weekend.

According to the Christian Post, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1803 last month and it mandates that every California employer with five or more employees must add training on recognizing, reporting and confronting workplace speech that “vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred” against people based on protected characteristics as part of existing harassment-prevention requirements. The Christian Post, citing legal analysis by the National Law Review, reports that the law does not increase the existing training hours and does not define “hate speech,” and it reports the law is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2028, so nothing has kicked in yet and there is still time for Christians to speak up before it does.

Here is the line that should stop every believer cold. The Christian Post reports that AB 1803 “contains no explicit exemption or conscience protection for churches or other religious organizations,” and in fairness it also reports, citing the California Baptists for Biblical Values website, that existing California law generally exempts nonprofit religious associations and corporations from the state’s definition of “employer,” which may exempt them from the training mandate, before adding that the bill itself doesn’t expressly offer any such exemption. May exempt them is not the same thing as does exempt them, and a church that has to hire a lawyer to find out whether the state considers it an employer for this purpose has already been handed a burden it never asked for.

The warning comes from California Family Council Vice President Greg Burt, who the Christian Post says is among those who believe the law’s vague standards place traditional biblical teaching in the crosshairs. Burt told Tony Perkins’ Washington Watch, according to the Christian Post, that “Pastors and Christian employees should request religious accommodations” and that “This is one of those points in history here in California where civil disobedience is going to be necessary.” He also said “What I think the state is doing is trying to intimidate churches into following through with this” and “They should not be receiving any sort of ideological training from the state on any moral issue.”

So ask yourself what this could look like where you live. Picture a church with a pastor and a youth leader and a secretary and a worship director and a part-time custodian, five people on the payroll, and ask whether it could one day be told it counts as an employer under a law that never names it, and whether a training video would then be teaching its own staff to recognize and report speech the state has never defined. Picture a Christian woman who owns a bakery or a plumbing outfit with six employees and could be required to sit her crew down for training on confronting speech that “vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred” while the law, according to the Christian Post, never says what counts as hate speech, and ask who gets to decide where that line falls once the training is done. The Christian Post reports Burt’s concern that many California legislators already view the belief that God created humans male and female as hateful and that employers, including, potentially, churches, would be required to train staff to identify and confront such speech, so picture a Christian employee who repeats the first chapter of Genesis in the break room and ask whether a coworker fresh out of that training could someday be the one deciding it was hate. Nothing in the Christian Post report says AB 1803 regulates sermons and we are not claiming it does, but a law that is vague about its own central term is a law that leaves faithful people guessing, and guessing is exactly how speech gets chilled long before anyone is ever punished.

The Christian Post also reports that employers whose training already covers prohibited harassment and abusive conduct based on protected characteristics will satisfy the requirement, citing Fisher Phillips, and that gay and lesbian groups have applauded the legislation. We will take that at face value and still say that a free people should not have to trust the goodwill of the next administration to interpret a word the legislature refused to define.

Scripture tells us the apostles stood before the council and said they must obey God rather than men, and it tells us to honor the governing authorities and pray for those in power, and Christians have always lived in that tension without pretending it is easy. Nobody should go looking for a fight with Caesar, but nobody should hand Caesar the job of training the people of God on what counts as hateful about the things God has said either.

Christian first means our conscience belongs to Christ before it belongs to any training module out of Sacramento. American second means we defend free speech and the free exercise of religion for everyone including the neighbor who disagrees with us. Republican third means the GOP is not the point and no party gets a pass on this. The law is not supposed to take effect until 2028 but the ballot is on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, so before you walk into that booth ask every candidate who wants your vote one plain question about whether they will fight for explicit conscience protections for churches and religious organizations, and if they cannot give you a straight answer then you already have yours.

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