Okla. State Rep. Sally Kern is angling
for media attention once again. The Republican told an audience
Tuesday that “not all religions are equal” and repeated her
opposition to gay marriage and homosexuality.
Kern drew national attention when she
said, “I honestly think it's [homosexuality] the biggest threat our
nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.”
“According to the word of God, that
is not the right lifestyle. It has deadly consequences for those
people involved in it. They have more suicides, and they are more
discouraged, there's more illness, their life spans are shorter...It
is not a lifestyle that is good for this nation.”
Those remarks, secretly recorded and
released on YouTube, were made in March at a gathering of Republicans
in Oklahoma City. A firestorm of protest from gay groups ensued, but
Kern stood by her remarks in an interview given to Concerned Women
for American's Matt Barber: “I was just using a metaphor, just
trying to make a point so that my fellow Republican colleagues and
especially the church would wake up and realize that they [gays] are
a threat to the moral fiber of this nation.”
Tuesday's remarks were made at the
Cleveland County Republican Club where she once again repeated her
opposition to gay marriage and homosexuality. She opened by saying
she was a “cultural warrior for Judeo-Christian values.”
“I am not saying everyone has to be
Christian; this is not a homogeneous nation,” Kern told the
audience. “What you have to be is someone who believes in a
Judeo-Christian ethic, in other words, in knowing there's a right and
wrong.”
“Not all lifestyles are equal; not
all religions are equal,” she continued. “Was I saying all people
are not equal? Heavens no; we were all created equal.”
Kern is running for a third term
against Democrat Ron Marlett, 59. Marlett has said he wants to
represent everyone in the district “equally with no discrimination
as to race, religion, gender or sexual preference.”