Bill Takes Arkansas Schools' Textbook Definition of Marriage from Voters
by Jim Brown
January 26, 2005
(AgapePress) - Arkansas lawmakers are considering whether new public school textbooks must define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. A bill from Representative Roy Ragland says if textbooks attempt to define marriage, they must do so in the same way the state's marriage amendment does.Last November, Arkansas voters gave approval (75 percent to 25 percent) to a measure that bans same-sex marriage. The measure carried in all 75 of the state's counties. With that overwhelming mandate from the people of the state, Ragland says he felt the time was right to introduce legislation regarding the definition of marriage in state educational materials.
According to the Republican state representative, currently there are no school textbooks in the state that promote a non-traditional definition of marriage. His bill to require public school textbooks to reflect the traditional definition supported by the majority of Arkansans is merely a preventive measure, lest some entity "might publish textbooks that might have a definition contrary to what we have established here in Arkansas," he says.
"Some of these textbooks are published in Boston, San Francisco, New York, or wherever," the conservative lawmaker notes. He says while these out-of-state publishers "might not have regard for our constitution, this law will prohibit them or prevent them from circumventing our enacted amendment."
The language of Ragland's bill is consistent with that in the Arkansas Marriage Amendment, and he believes it affirms the citizens' uneasiness with same-sex marriage. "We feel like we're on the high ground of this thing because we have the mandate of the people," he says, "and we also have the principles behind us on this -- moral principles."
Twenty-two House members and 11 senators have co-sponsored the Arkansas conservative's bill. Ragland says Republican Senator Ruth Whitaker will be pushing the legislation in the State Senate.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
