You might have seen my American Spectator column earlier this week, or Mike Lunsford’s Hayride story, about what happened to Luke Ash earlier this month. Ash was perhaps the only straight, white conservative male librarian in the East Baton Rouge library system, and he was fired because in a conversation with a fellow employee, he refused to use “preferred pronouns” to describe a third employee.

Meaning that a woman pretending to be a man demanded to be referred to as “him.” Ash, who doubles as a Baptist pastor in town, declined to participate in that charade and lost his job as a result.

Video of Ash describing his experience on Tony Perkins’ Washington Watch podcast then surfaced on X, which prompted a post simply saying “What?” by Harmeet Dhillon.

She heads the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which is kinda significant. It’s a pretty good bet that the EBR library system is about to get an anvil rightly deposited on its head. The Trump DOJ has made it exceedingly clear that it will get involved in cases where woke communists in positions of power violate the civil rights of Christian normals.

And yesterday the Library Board of Control in Baton Rouge had a meeting to go over its budget. It’s pretty obvious that the Luke Ash situation is going to affect that budget. So it’s relevant.

That’s why Lewis Richerson, who is the pastor at Woodlawn Baptist Church, went to the speaker’s podium at that meeting to bring up the subject. Here’s what happened next.

The two library board members trying to shout Richerson down, Candace Temple and Darryl Hurst, kept insisting that the Luke Ash situation isn’t germane to the budget.

You could make that argument without being rude, which is obviously beyond the capabilities of either Temple or Hurst. You’d be wrong, but you could make it. We’ll explain why below.

Here’s what Richerson said…

Good afternoon, members of the Library Board of Control. Thank you for allowing public comment today.

Since your agenda includes the budget, I want to speak briefly about what that budget represents. A budget is more than a financial document—it reflects the priorities and values of an institution. And today, many of us in the community are asking: What kind of culture is this budget funding?

Last week, Luke Ash—a faithful employee and a pastor—was fired for refusing to use pronouns that conflict with his Christian convictions. He did not mistreat or disrespect anyone. He simply could not, in good conscience, speak in a way that violates his faith.

Let me be clear: public dollars should not fund ideological coercion or religious discrimination. The firing of Pastor Ash was not just unnecessary—it was wrong.

That’s why, at 4:05 p.m. today, I emailed each of you a letter signed by pastors across East Baton Rouge Parish. In that letter, we make two simple and urgent requests:

1. That Luke Ash be reinstated.
2. That the library’s internal policies be revised to protect—not punish—employees for living in accordance with their deeply held religious beliefs.

We expect public institutions to serve all people—including those with traditional religious convictions. If the current budget sustains policies that exclude faithful Christians from public service, then the budget is part of the problem.

God’s Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). By requiring employees to use pronouns that reject the created order—male and female as made by God—the library has not only acted unjustly but has rebelled against the truth of God Himself.

The opening of the statement should have been enough to tie it to the library system’s budget. But to the extent there’s any good faith at all in the positions of Candace Temple and Darryl Hurst – something we’ll pass on for now – here’s a little something they might not be considering.

Which is that what’s been done to Luke Ash will make for the necessity of a sizable reorganization of the EBR library budget, because they’re about to get nuked three different ways with legal costs.

First is that Luke Ash will rightly sue these people into the Stone Age for violating his civil rights, for discrimination and for wrongful termination.

Second is that Harmeet Dhillon is going to bring the full weight of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division down on their heads.

And third is that Liz Murrill, Louisiana’s Attorney General, is going to have a field day with them as well.

Louisiana isn’t New York or California.
State law prohibits discrimination based on religion in the workplace, especially as a public employee in a taxpayer funded public library. In Louisiana – Christians have rights just like everyone else. https://t.co/IKoqZnUV9J

— Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) July 17, 2025

Do these guys think they’re going to defend all of this for free?

Do they not think the Luke Ash situation won’t affect the library system’s revenues? What if Richerson and the 33 pastors who signed on to his letter lead all the churchgoing folks in town to boycott the libraries?

What if they mobilize to destroy the library system’s funding the next time the taxes funding the libraries come up for renewal? Which, given the fact that the libraries are sewers of cultural Marxism and sexual deviancy, not to mention lots of other horrors cultural and political, they should have already done.

This is going to cost the library system a whole lot of money. That’s why it’s germane to discuss at a library board meeting.

And Candace Temple and Darryl Hurst had better learn some manners if they don’t want to make their jobs a whole lot harder.