Religious Right Wing Group on Tolerance: They're Anti

I saw this press release, reproduced verbatim below, and it just makes me cringe. This attitude is prevalent among the religious right, and it's deadly and anti-Christian.

By the way, speaking of "invasive efforts," how about this groups strident efforts to insist on promoting a lifestyle of intolerance, fear, and hatred?

CONTACT: Finn Laursen, Executive Director of Christian Educators Assoc. In'tl, 440-667-4548, pr@ceai.org

MARCH 17, 2005

Response to "We Are Family" Video

"It is evident that our children have become the targets of special interest groups that insist on promoting the homosexual lifestyle within the school setting. Two such invasive efforts are currently underway and America's educators, parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens need to stand up and ....just say No!" insists, Finn Laursen, Executive Director of Christian Educators Association International.

Recently, a video call "We are Family" was delivered to over 60,000 elementary schools in the nation under the banner of promoting diversity. The introductory letter to educators states, "children will learn about different kinds of families and will explore the importance of appreciating cultural diversity." Just in case teachers are too naive to understand the purpose of this video put out by the We are Family Foundation, the teachers guide provided says to be sure to "ask further questions of the class if they only give these traditional answers" (mommy, daddy, sister, brother) when discussing who might be part of a family.

After viewing the video, Laursen stated that it was obvious, though subtle, that the purpose for including 100 television characters our children love and respect in this video was to promote the concept that families may be different than the time-honored traditional family. Although the video does not blatantly take this issue to the next level, the topic could easily be taken to the next step of raising the flag of tolerance for lifestyles that most parents do not want their preschool children and elementary children to openly embrace or to focus little innocent minds on.

"Most American families DO NOT send their children to schools to have the concept of traditional family polluted by special interest groups and for this reason need to speak out." explained Laursen.

He encouraged all in agreement to contact their schools and ask that their children not be forced to endure this video and thus allow parents to decide how they pass on their family values to their children. Teaching our children what a family should look like is a responsibility of parents and not that of our schools. Schools should be teaching academics not non-traditional lifestyles.

Laursen pointed to a similar manipulation targeting our older youth being perpetuated by GLSEN (Gay Lesbian, Straight Education Network) under the deceptive banner of anti violence. A Day of Silence , April 13, 2005 is, according to GLSEN, " a student-led day of action where those who support making anti-LGBT bias unacceptable in schools take a day-long vow of silence to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) students and their allies."

Again, according to this educational leader, it is not the role of our schools to promote non traditional sexual expression and bringing this issue to our schools should not be tolerated. "If laws are being violated and some students are being harassed, this is a legal issue for our courts, not a reprogramming project to be carried out in our schools." insisted, Finn Laursen.

He went on to say, "Our community should not be bullied by political correctness or fear of being considered intolerant...let's get back to the teaching of the basics and leave family and sexual morality issues to our parents."

Christian Educators Association International, founded in 1953, is the foremost public school association for Christian educators serving in public and private schools.