David Barton doesn’t have the academic credentials that would truly qualify him for his post as a social studies “expert” for the Texas State Board of Education, but he has done plenty to show that he qualifies as a right-wing extremist. The latest example is his embrace of Sally Kern, a poster child for extremism in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
In an e-mail yesterday, Barton — head of WallBuilders, an organization that opposes separation of church and state — praised Kern as “a courageous state leader” who is “outspoken” about her “Judeo-Christian values.”
Kern is outspoken, alright — especially in her venomous attacks on gay people. Last year, she even compared homosexuality to “toe cancer” and said gay people are “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.”
She also suggested that parts of the country are virtually under siege by militant homosexuals trying to “indoctrinate” children:
In her recorded comments, Kern expressed concern that gay candidates “are winning elections” and control city councils in Arkansas, Maryland and other states.
A former teacher, Kern also said gays are teaching young public school children that their lifestyle is acceptable.
“We’re not teaching facts and knowledge anymore. We’re teaching indoctrination,” Kern said.
“We have the gay-straight alliance coming into our schools. Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined,” she said. “They are going after our young children, as young as two years of age, to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable lifestyle.
“This stuff is deadly and it’s spreading and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation.”
In trying to defend her statements, she only made herself look deceitful as well as hateful:
“I was talking about an agenda. I was not talking about individuals. They have the right to choose that lifestyle. They do not have the right to force it down our throat. I have never said hate speech against anybody. I would never do that.”
Kern also directs her venom toward President Obama. Earlier this month, Kern criticized the president’s speech to students as “more about indoctrination of students than education” and even compared it to something Cuba’s communist government would do, adding:
“To many parents, it looks like children are going to be held ‘accountable’ if they don’t propagandize on behalf of the Obama administration.
Barton’s e-mail includes Kern’s “Proclamation of Morality,” which she introduced this year in the Oklahoma Legislature. The proclamation suggests that the blame for “our economic woes” is “our greater national moral crisis” and specifically lists same-sex marriage along with “other forms of debauchery” such as abortion, divorce, sex trafficking and child abuse as examples.
The same proclamation accuses Americans of “forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built” and attacks President Obama for supposedly failing to recognize the National Day of Prayer.
Barton thinks someone like that is simply “outspoken” about her “Judeo-Christian values” — as if anyone who is Jewish or Christian wouldn’t find her views appalling. Yet Barton is helping determine what millions of Texas children learn in their public school social studies classrooms.
Ah, Yes. Dear Sally Kern.
My web friend of 10 years (Dr Bruce Prescott – New Baptist Covenant) has been monitoring her whacko activities in Oklahoma for a while now. TFN’s choice of the term “poster child” was a polite understatement, but I commend you on your manners and civil discourse.
With regard to Sally Kern and Religious Right lies, please scroll down to the July 2009 post entitled “Baptist Messenger Sinks to New Low” at this URL:
http://mainstreambaptist.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-07-25T10%3A26%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=20
Hey there. I’m from Oklahoma, and I think Sally Kern is a waste of human flesh and particles and a terrible representation of our people in Oklahoma. We need to band together and save this nation from figureheads that spread fear and hatred among our fellow men. Anyone that thinks Homosexuality is a… threat at all, needs to be laughed at and mocked and not put up among the offices of government. Homosexuality is a natural trait that occurs in people and NOT A CHOICE. I’m posting this because I don’t want everyone reading this article to get the idea that all Okie’s feel this way, cause we don’t.
Thank you
– Chris Martin.
Hi Chris. Some of my best friends are Okies. You are right. All Okies don’t feel the Kern way. Those are the ones that have managed to tap into the truth SOONER rather than later.
This Kern person is a lunatic and, based on her hysteria, my guess is that she is a lesbian herself. She just lacks the guts or honesty to deal with it on any kind of mature and rational level.