State Legislator Warns Oklahoma Teachers Against NEA Affiliation
by Jim Brown
July 17, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A conservative Oklahoma lawmaker is calling on teachers to leave the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA) over its support of homosexual "marriage." State Representative Sally Kern is urging teachers to withdraw from the Oklahoma Education Association in protest of the educator union's liberal political agenda.
At its recent convention in Orlando, Florida, NEA delegates overwhelmingly passed a resolution endorsing homosexual marriage and civil unions in states where such marriages and marriage-like unions are legal. Kern says the NEA is trying to thwart the will of the voters in places like Oklahoma, where the majority of the citizens strongly support traditional marriage.
"Our state is a very conservative state," the Oklahoma representative points out. "We voted two years ago to define marriage as being between one man and one woman, and I think that vote was 76 percent of our population; so I know there are many teachers in our state who favor the traditional family and family values."
Kern says she is calling on those teachers across the state and urging them "to not give their money to an organization that doesn't support the values that I think they believe in." Instead, she suggests these teachers join the Association of Professional Oklahoma Educators or another teachers group that upholds traditional family values.
The Republican state legislator says it is "ludicrous" for the NEA to say it has no position on same-sex marriage, as the union's president, Reg Weaver, has claimed. Members of that organization do support homosexual lifestyles and unions under the rubric of diversity "and want to change the term from tolerance to acceptance," she asserts; "so they are wanting our society to embrace same-sex marriages -- that's just all there is to it."
Kern says Oklahoma teachers who support family values should leave the NEA's state affiliate as the national organization "undermines parental teachings." She says the NEA also "routinely opposes" legislation benefiting teachers and public schools, another reason she feels principled educators should leave.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
