Amid controversy, Kern gets support
Amid controversy, Kern gets support

Comments Comment on this article217

By Michael McNutt
Published: April 3, 2008

State Rep. Sally Kern told a cheering crowd Wednesday the criticism she's received from gay rights groups and others for calling homosexuality the biggest threat facing this country backs up why she ran for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Advertisement

A crowd estimated at more than 1,500 jammed into the first floor of the state Capitol while others watched from above to show support for Kern.

Kern, R-Oklahoma City, and several others, including a man who said he was gay until he found Jesus Christ, often quoted Scriptures while speaking to the crowd.

Wednesday's rally was organized by a coalition of conservative and religious groups, who said nearly 2,000 attended. More than 500 attended a rally last week in the Capitol organized by those criticizing Kern's comments.

"I told the people when I was running for this office that I was a Christian candidate and that I believed we were in a cultural war for the very existence of our Judeo-Christian values,” said Kern, who was elected to the House in 2004. "This situation proves that I was right. We are in a cultural war; this is for real.”

Kern said she's received tens of thousands of e-mails from people supporting and opposing her comments.

"I've been called lots of names, and I can't repeat most of those names,” she said. "Some of the good names I've been called have been courageous, brave and a hero. And I want you to know — and I mean this with all my heart — I have more trouble relating to those good names than I do the bad names.

"I say that because I know I'm a sinner and I'm not worthy of God's grace.”

Kern said after the rally she was humbled by the turnout. She said she was praying for 800.

"This is not about me,” Kern told those at the rally. "It's about the church having the right to speak out about the redeeming love of Jesus Christ who died to set us all free from our sins.”

Kern's husband, the Rev. Steve Kern, said it wasn't the purpose of the rally to bash homosexuals.

"We love them,” said Rev. Kern, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

Several groups supporting homosexual and lesbian rights had asked Kern to apologize.

About her comments
Earlier this year Rep. Kern told those at a meeting of an Oklahoma City Republican club that homosexuality is "the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.” Someone recorded her comments and gave it to a pro gay-rights group; that statement and some of her other comments, which some groups called a form of hate speech, were posted on the Internet.

"When I gave that, that came from a speech, I was not bringing down any individuals,” Kern said Wednesday. "I believe each and every person is created in God's image and is precious in his sight. He loves all of us. He loves all of us equally. And he loves all of us regardless of what our sin is.”

Kern said Wednesday her comments were not against homosexuals, but were directed at the strategy of gay rights supporters to defeat conservative candidates.

Kern's husband said he wasn't seeking apologies from the thousands who sent hate mail to his wife's Capitol office and to their home or said mean things about their family.

Contacted later, Kay Ham, president of the Norman chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said the group's goal is tolerance and the group remains focused "on the way people treat each other.”

Ham, who did not attend Wednesday's rally, said the group is concerned how children "who happen to be gay or lesbian might be bullied or harassed in school. We're more concerned about gay or lesbian people who go to work every day and face the threat of being fired simply because they are gay or lesbian in Oklahoma and in many other states.”

Stephen Black, executive director of First Stone Ministries in Oklahoma City, told those at the rally that he once was gay. His organization, he said, helps men and women overcome homosexuality.

"There is a political agenda and a cultural message about homosexuality (and) that it is destructive to our country,” he said while standing under a large banner that read, "We Stand With Sally Kern.”

Those attending the rally were asked to fill out and drop off cards of support for Kern and deliver them to the governor's office or House Speaker Chris Benge's office.

"Do you stand with Sally Kern?” the Rev. Paul Blair, pastor of Edmond's Fairview Baptist Church, asked as the crowd applauded and cheered.

"Pardon me, let me say Gov. Sally Kern.”

"Oh no,” Kern said after the rally. "God's got me right where he wants me. I'm honored to be here to serve as a state representative.”


 

Related Topics: U.S. State Government, U.S. Government, Culture and Lifestyle, Relationships, Special Interest Groups, GLBT Issues, Sexuality

Toolbar sponsored by: David Stanley Ford
Ads by Yahoo!

Hugh Downs Reports:
Natural discovery lowers high blood pressure and cuts artery plaque.
www.bottomlinesecrets.com
Young Father Makes It Big
From Corporate Burnout To 2-3hrs A Day & Multiple 6 Figures At Home.
www.thekeytofinancialfreedom.com

shareView All

Buzz Up!


Leave a Comment

Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online

Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.


Log in below or sign up (it's free).





"Double" yawn...........
Rufus, spencer - Apr 9, 2008 at 8:10 am
Back atcha, boyfriend. I have better things to do with my time than try to have any reasoning discourse with some anonymous, disingenuous, deliberately obtuse coward, who thinks it's the hight of wit to sit back and respond with sanctimonious, self-righteous, self-satisfied yawns. You'll never be more than what you are, Rufus: dull as a butterknife.
Kevin, Oklahoma City - Apr 9, 2008 at 2:53 am
yawn....
Rufus, spencer - Apr 8, 2008 at 7:52 am
Rufus, I want to know how you got a copy of the agenda and I didn't? Maybe what you got was the pinhead propaganda version. I think you've confused "talking about gays and gayness" with just being who we are and not backing down from bigoted blowhards. I don't think any of us portray ourselves as victims (unless we're victimized, which does happen) so much as human beings - which you clearly don't. If there ARE such things as "homosexual protectors", where you and your cronies are concerned, I'd say their cause is entirely just. As for looking good or bad, all we want to look like is human; our de-humanizers look bad all on their own. And getting funds from corporate America? Pleas - haven't you heard about the enormous disposable incomes we queers have? Some of us even get to eat out at Burger King or Taco Bell a couple times a week. You have plenty of courage, here, where you can be a smug, anonymous, one-man judge and jury, but if it came down to a face-to-face interaction, you wouldn't have the courage of your "convictions".
Kevin, Oklahoma City - Apr 8, 2008 at 4:01 am
what a crock. More gay activist propaganda. The six-point agenda that they laid out in 1989 was explicit: Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and as often as possible... Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers... Give homosexual protectors a just cause... Make gays look good... Make the victimizers look bad... Get funds from corporate America.[1]
Rufus, spencer - Apr 7, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I find it - well, it strikes me a LOT of ways, how none of those citing the bible actually resort to the ultimate authority: Jesus. And what Jesus had to say about homosexuals can be summed up in four words - not one darn thing. He IS the New testament, supplanting all previous testaments, so all that stuff in the Old Testament is a great history lesson, but does not apply. The most important things (according to Jesus himself) that Jesus DID say are that we should do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves, and that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It doesn't strike me that Sally Kern or any of her supporters is living up to those admonishments - in fact, Jesus identifies the latter as the single most important commandment ever given. Any of that stuff about how to run one's church - irrelevant politics. And before anyone gets on their high horse about the sanctity of God's word, you might remember that God allows an awful lot of un-Godly crap to go down at the hands of human beings - it's called "free will", and it includes any perversions of the meaning of the original texts at the very human and self-interested hands of the translators. Even at that, no one managed to put in Christ's mouth any word condemning homosexuals. As for Sally Kern, she needs to remember a few things - the bible does not advocate intolerance; that under our Constitution and Bill of Rights, all religions ARE equal; our founding fathers were very definite in their desire to separate the church from the state; and if she insists on abiding by the letter of "God's Word", she needs to get out of politics and go home and cook and clean and make a home for her husband and children, and leave all this important stuff to the men-folk - like it says in the bible.
Kevin, Oklahoma City - Apr 6, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Thank you for acknowledging that we didn't perpetuate the rumor, Rufus. As I said, the first time I heard it, it was from someone in Florida, who read it on Perez Hilton's website. Perez Hilton is a trashy tabloid blogger who somehow became famous and I can't stand him. (Which has NOTHING to do with his being gay, so don't make that link.) Therefore, that's why I think the rumor started on a national level rather than a local level. As for the rest of the people posting here, I have no reason to think they aren't individuals who are simply standing up for basic human rights the same way I am.
BBJ, Midwest City - Apr 5, 2008 at 8:32 am
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore BBJ
How embarrassing for Oklahoma. Although I'm glad I moved away, I have the deepest respect for the Oklahoma LGBTQQI (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersexed) community. You're on the front lines, so give 'em hell.
Michael, San Francisco - Apr 4, 2008 at 9:31 pm
what's realllllly funny, is that i've never even BEEN to a "call center," and i didn't even know they existed!

to everyone else: believing that we're all the same person is allowing him to remain in the belief that he's in the majority in his thinking. that's all. it's just a defense mechanism.
Evan, Memphis - Apr 4, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Evan
haha...

yep i'm a "gay activist" at a "call center" and i'm "repeating the drivel."

i HATE it when people figure me out so quickly.

anyway. i HAVE been to Oklahoma numerous times, though, which means that there have been numerous times when your state was one person gayer, and you didn't know it.

chew on THAT one.
Evan, Memphis - Apr 4, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Evan
from http://www.cityofspencer.us/gpage2.html

Senior Citizen's Board During the month of August Senior Citizen Board Members: Earl Syth, Erlene Jones and Hazel Sherman appointed Mr. Rufus Biggs as a new board member. Welcome aboard.

Same guy as this Rufus from Spencer? Probably so. Just an old retired guy with nothing else better to do.
Joe, oklahoma city - Apr 4, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Joe
"Current U.S. health regulations prohibit men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood. Studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorically confirm that if MSM were permitted to give blood, the general population would be placed at risk."
bill, Oklahoma City - Apr 4, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore bill
L?? good grief... The call center manager must have walked out and kicked a few butts to make you guys get to work..
Rufus, spencer - Apr 4, 2008 at 3:44 pm
You seem very eager to look up garbage and post it, Rufus.
Larry, Carnegie - Apr 4, 2008 at 3:41 pm
so it's "Evan" now? Paula, I know you're for real, you've been debating issues with me for months. But these other "evan\k\gary\tim\ect\ect" are obviously the same person parroting their gay activists drivel over and over. BTW Paula, you were correct the other day. That organization you belong to did not publish that false rumor about Kern's son the way countless other gay publications did.
Rufus, spencer - Apr 4, 2008 at 3:39 pm
haha, what's funny is that it's conservatives who fail to look things up & are fooled by things like anti-Obama e-mails (which actually provide links that debunk their claims), because the originators KNOW the average right-wing blowhard hears something that verifies their endless cycle of regurgitated talking points about things they think they know, and they never do any research on their own.
Evan, Memphis - Apr 4, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Evan
Rufus you still haven't seen anyone about that paranoia problem? You really should. I'm concerned for you and your family, not to mention the general public.
BBJ, Midwest City - Apr 4, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore BBJ
Yawn...More gay propaganda... No one is going to bother to look the garbage up.
Rufus, spencer - Apr 4, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Kern says, "we are in a cultural war." I wondered where I had heard that before. Finally found it today from a speech by Pat Buchanan in 1992 (remember his failed run for the Presidency?) Here's the article: http://www.buchanan.org/pa-92-0914.html . She's simply regurgitating the "pro-family" agenda which has 2 main enemies: abortion and homosexuality. Everything she has said can be linked to organizations like American Family Association, Focus on the Family, and Baptist Press. She would've made an excellent Nazi.
Gary, Oklahoma City - Apr 4, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Gary
nice response k\gary...So now your pulling the old "I'm two different" posters routine ganging up on ole Rufus. I think the call center needs a new manager.
Rufus, spencer - Apr 4, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Attempting to engage in an intelligent discussion with Rufus is futile. He accuses people of posting under a variety of names, claims everyone who disagrees with him is gay, claims anyone who disagrees with him is an employee of some gay organization, and is basically just a rude and obviously uneducated individual with little respect for anyone whose opinions differ from his own.
K, Chicago - Apr 4, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore K
call center still open????
Rufus, spencer - Apr 4, 2008 at 1:31 pm
There's nothing wrong with the GLBT community organizing itself to enact change through political action. The American Family Association (AFA) and other "pro-family" organizations do the same thing. It's called the democratic process. If you don't like the democratic process, move to China, North Korea, or Iran - places notorious for human rights violations.
Gary, Oklahoma City - Apr 4, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Gary
http://www.victoryfund.org/files/board/Fund%20Budget%20Package.11.16.2007.pdf
Rufus, spencer - Apr 4, 2008 at 11:42 am
aka "the gay mafia's" call center
Rufus, spencer - Apr 4, 2008 at 11:40 am

News Photo Galleriesview all