You may have heard this already — this is Old News after all — but Missouri recently passed an amendment to their state constitution, popularly referred to as the Prayer Amendment. It was introduced to assuage fears about, among other things, people not being allowed to pray at government meetings. (Luckily, Regina’s city council still starts things off with a prayer, so we’ve got nothing to worry about.)
The resulting amendment will have a bunch of consequences. For one, students may not have to take Biology classes if evolution disagrees with their religion.
It was that detail that a representative from the Anti-Defamation League was discussing in this NPR piece when Representative Mike McGhee, a sponsor of the bill, came in with this:
MCGHEE: What if there were a teacher who decided to say, well, we’re giving a class here in the university and you’re going to be a social worker. Now, you’re going to be dealing with homosexuals in social work. Therefore, why don’t, this weekend, you all have a — this class needs to have a homosexual encounter.
LYDEN: Well, let me say that — Mr. McGee, rather than perhaps — that seems an extreme example.
That’s the host breaking in there, and I do mean breaking in. One can only imagine how much further he would have gone with that one. Earlier in the piece, he also seemed to be suggesting that if the previously-mentioned city council had been praying to Buddha, the ACLU wouldn’t have gotten upset.
It’s like a bad joke about a Southern Republican. “What did the state Republican tell NPR? That the ACLU wants you to pray to Buddha and that university teachers want to teach your kids homosexuality.” Take a look at a picture of the man to complete the image.
