Last week, Alpha News uncovered blatantly racist employment policies in the Minneapolis school district. In a leaked contract voted on in March, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) proposed that white teachers should be laid off before teachers of color in order “to remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination.” That’s right: Minneapolis kids could have their teachers chosen by race rather than ability. Fortunately, parents and teachers alike have reacted strongly to this racist policy and are starting to fight back. Minneapolis schools must be held accountable for this policy, which is in flagrant violation of the Minnesota Constitution.
But MFT President Greta Callahan expressed her extreme pride in the decision to effectively discriminate against white teachers. In her opinion, racial discrimination is not “one of our concerns whatsoever.” Instead, she submits that retention of underrepresented teachers is far more important.
The Minneapolis policy was ratified by members of the Minneapolis Public School board, which receives taxpayer funding. This means that taxpayer dollars will be used to fund explicitly racist employment policies.
James Dickey, a senior trial counsel at Upper Midwest Law Center, said that the agreement “openly discriminates against white teachers based only on the color of their skin, and not their seniority or merit.” He encouraged teachers and taxpayers to stand up to this “state-sponsored racism” in the hope that a lawsuit would follow. Some Minnesotans have already heeded Dickey’s suggestion.
The last few years have shown that just because someone has the letters “MD” after their name doesn’t mean they are automatically trustworthy. From disinformation about COVID-19 to gender theory, doctors with radical agendas have proven themselves to be not only wrong, but dangerous as well. Dr. Rose Marie Leslie, a family practitioner at Allina Health in Faribault and a TikTok influencer, serves as a disturbing example.
Using her substantial TikTok following, Dr. Leslie spreads dangerous lies about transgender surgeries and hormones. In one video, she stated that “giving gender-affirming care to transgender children is medically necessary and supports their health and well-being.” Dr. Leslie’s rhetoric and “advice” are dangerous for both children and adults. Her actions suggest that she is not a competent care provider for patients at Allina Health – and we urge that her employment there be reconsidered.
“Gender-affirming care” is a fictitious term that refers to giving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and transition surgeries to impressionable children and uninformed young adults. It affirms no one and helps nobody. In fact, it should be called “reality-denying care.” In reality, God created people in two distinct sexes, male and female. Each has a different role, but the same value before God. Sadly, the world is a sinful place, where mankind is given over to our depraved desires (Romans 1:24). Transgender activists want to defy God’s wonderful created order by blurring the lines between men and women, and to some extent, they have succeeded, as Dr. Leslie’s popularity testifies.
“Whatever you do, do it well.” “That's how you glorify God in all things.”
These are the words of encouragement that Carl and Angel Larsen, two of our chapel speakers at LEAD 2022 shared with our students last month. The Larsens talked about tangible ways to become well-rounded adults who develop a variety of skills and explained how they pursue excellence as Christian film makers.They also talked about their stand for religious freedom here in Minnesota when they challenged a law that would have compelled Christian creative professionals to create messages that violate their beliefs.
I love seeing students immediately put what they learn into action, and that’s what I saw them do for the rest of the week as they pursued excellence while working on their bills. So much so that at the end of the week, the Chief Clerk of the House dropped by during our final debates and commented on how much he appreciates the LEAD program because the simulation is accurate enough that it’s a valuable training experience for his staff.
Stacey DeCorsey, the principal at the Excelsior Elementary School in the Minnetonka Public School District recently issued a rave review of a transgender affirming children’s book called “Jack (not Jackie).” She described this insidious book written for kids as young as five as a “heartwarming picture-book” and a “phenomenal read.” Schools across the nation have been following her pattern, denying the established fact that there are two immutable sexes to pacify a radical minority. Thankfully, some schools are fighting back – inspired in part by Florida’s courageous “Parental Rights in Education” bill. In the Becker, Minnesota public school district, new rules have been proposed that seek to remove materials that indoctrinate children from the classroom.
The Becker district’s resolution promotes the idea that “classrooms must be free of any personal bias or non-school materials favoring any particular group, political ideology, favored class or promoting controversial issues.” In other words, teachers and staff will no longer be permitted to force the talking points of the progressive agenda on students. The responsibility for helping kids navigate tough issues ultimately belongs to the parents, and this resolution goes some way towards that goal. Sadly, as the school board began discussing this issue, dozens of students began protesting, which led to the vote being tabled for an unknown future date. These protests only serve to show what is really going on here – a fight over reality.
Here's the reality: In the beginning, God created the world, and humankind with it. He created humanity in two distinct sexes, male and female. A person’s sex is determined by genetics, not ideology. Reality is defined by how God has created this world, not by how some folks interpret the current social climate.
An Aitkin County jury ruled in favor of religious freedom last week by affirming that Christian Pharmacist, George Badeaux, did not discriminate against his customers based on sex. The jurors found that the plaintiff failed to prove that Badeaux “intentionally refused to do business with her because of her sex,” but required that the pharmacist pay his customer $25,000 in emotional damages. Even so, this decision from Atkin County is a breath of fresh air in the fight for religious freedom and affirms that the Unites States Constitutions is still recognized as the law of the land.
In 2019, after realizing that an earlier contraceptive did not work, Andrea Anderson sought a morning-after pill from Thrifty White drugstore in McGregor, Minnesota. This drug prevents a woman’s ovaries from releasing eggs and changes the lining in the uterine wall. Citing research, pharmacist George Badeaux denied Ms. Anderson the drug because it could end the life of an unborn child. “If I do anything that prevents that egg from implanting in the uterus … the new life will cease to exist,” he said.
Some believe that Mr. Badeaux’s religious convictions have no place in his work. The Minnesota-based Gender Justice advocacy group filed a lawsuit in 2019, and the case was heard three years later. This case isn’t about contraceptives – it’s about the fundamental “first freedom” to act according to the dictates of one’s conscience, guaranteed to all Americans. Our Constitution protects the rights of anyone to exercise their religious beliefs at home or in the workplace. This right, which is unknown in many other countries, does not only benefit Christians but people of every faith or none.
