DriveThru – Get What You Need

Yesterday, The Denver Post brought to my attention yet another piece of legislation pending in the U.S.  House that gay activists could use as a political tool to force their will upon schools nationwide:

It’s called the Student Nondiscrimination Act, and it was proposed this week by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado).

That sounds nice, doesn’t it? I mean, who would be against preventing discrimination?  But this bill is more sinister than it sounds.  

If passed, it would use federal mandates to micromanage local school policy all the way down to the elementary level. It would do this by mandating that every public school in the nation enforce special protections for pro-gay categories like “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

Why is that a problem?

 First of all, it would open our schools up to a new wave of expensive lawsuits, at a time when they are already burdened by unprecedented litigation.

The proposed legislation calls for noncompliers to not only be liable for providing “compensatory damages” and in danger of losing grants, but also to be written up in a report that is filed with a U.S. House committee. The term draconian might be an understatement in this case.

And it’s unclear exactly how “discrimination” will be defined, which is concerning–especially in light of recent cases involving attempts to censor Christian student groups for having values deemed to conflict with pro-gay “nondiscrimination” policies.

Secondly, the bill would give gay activists the leverage they need to force their agenda—against parents’ will—into public schools, again, all the way down to the kindergarten level. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Just consider recent history.

If this legislation doesn’t make it through, supporters have a backup waiting in the wings that’s equally threatening to local control. It’s called the Safe Schools Improvement Act.

Both bills are heavily supported by the largest gay-activist groups in the nation, including the Human Rights Campaign and GLSEN (the organization created by “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings.)

As I explained to the The Denver Post, bullying is a serious problem that should be addressed (at the local level), but you can do so without sexualizing and politicizing the entire school environment. The emphasis should be on the wrong actions of the bullies, not on their “perceived” motivations.

On Friday afternoon, I was interviewed by Politico writer Josh Gerstein. He wanted to know why Focus on the Family Action was concerned about the following events: 1) President Obama’s speech to the Human Rights Campaign; 2) President Obama’s nomination of Professor Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and 3) Kevin Jennings’ appointment to the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

While I appreciate his effort to include our perspective in the article, I was disappointed to see that he left out the main point: For us, this is about religious freedom.

Our top concern regarding all three of these events, I told Mr. Gerstein, is the erosion of religious liberty. Through these recent appointments—and through pledges made to the largest homosexual advocacy group in the nation—President Obama is pandering to activists who want to silence Christians, not only in the work realm, but in public education and political life in general.

This is very frightening to people of faith.

Let’s take the three events one at a time:

President Obama’s speech to the Human Rights Campaign. Among other things, President Obama pledged to eradicate a federal law defending traditional marriage. We need only look to Massachusetts, the first state to legalize full-fledged gay marriage, to understand the threat this poses to both parental rights and religious freedoms. Parents in that state are now being told they can’t exempt their 2^nd graders from lessons about same-sex marriage—even if it conflicts with their most deeply held religious convictions.

The intolerance of same-sex marriage advocates was on display for all to see during the debate over California’s Prop. 8, which added wording to the state constitution defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. Prop. 8 supporters were subjected to vehement blackballing and even physical attacks. Church buildings were defaced and some people lost their jobs because of their stance.

Nomination of Prof. Feldblum: The President also nominated Georgetown law professor Chai Feldblum to serve on a commission that enforces the nation’s federal employment laws. This is disturbing considering that Feldblum has repeatedly stated that when it comes to a conflict between religious liberty and homosexual activists’ goals (or “sexual liberty” as she terms it)—homosexual activists should win most of the time. This is not comforting to many faith-based business owners, such as Christian day-care operators who receive federal grants and don’t want to be forced to promote gay marriage to preschoolers.

Appointment of Kevin Jennings: I also pointed out to Mr. Gerstein that Kevin Jennings has publicly attacked a mainstream, Christian student group—Young Life. Not to mention his 17-year track record of twisting “safe schools” into a tool for pushing a one-sided agenda into public schools that displays no tolerance for Christian or socially conservative points of view.

The Politico article failed to give any coverage of these religious-freedom concerns, focusing instead on a detailed litany of  “civil rights” demands by homosexual activist groups. If you fall for the semantics—“prohibiting workplace discrimination,” “expanding gay rights”—in the article, this all sounds pretty innocuous.

But the untold story is the very real threat these policies pose to religious freedoms, which is made abundantly clear by the public statements of those pushing them.