By Jack Brammerand Beth Musgrave jbrammer@herald-leader.combmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT The Rev. Patrick Delahanty of Louisville says he thinks the new state law dubbed the Religious Freedom Act is needed.

"I want the state to meet the highest bar in its ability to interfere with one's religion," said Delahanty, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, which backed the bill.

But the Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper of Lexington says the new law "teeters on the verge of religious fascism" and thinks it will open the doors for people to discriminate against others in the name of God.

Kemper, minister of New Union Christian Church in Woodford County and former director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said she was voicing only her opinions and not those of the council or her church.

The strong disagreement between the two well-respected religious leaders underscores what was the most contentious issue in this year's General Assembly House Bill 279.

On the final night of the state legislative session Tuesday, lawmakers in the House and Senate overwhelmingly rebuffed Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear by overriding his veto of the one-paragraph bill that will become law in about three months.

The vote in the House was 79-15; in the Senate, 32-6. Almost all of the legislators siding with the governor were from urban areas or are minorities.

Most lawmakers were afraid politically to let the governor's veto stand, said Democratic consultant Danny Briscoe of Louisville, "because they feared it would hurt their chances of getting re-elected. This state is becoming increasingly conservative, so politicians are reluctant to do anything to go against that trend."

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, Covington Mayor Sherry Carran and the Kentucky Association of Counties, the Kentucky League of Cities and more than 50 other groups urged Beshear to veto HB 279.

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Kentucky's religious freedom bill divided politicians, public, ministers