Rep. Tim Walberg, one of the sponsors of legislation to protect the rights of religious student groups on college campuses, said Wednesday on Newsmax that such groups should be given the same opportunities as other student organizations.
"It's an appropriate issue that we need to address," the Michigan Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "Campuses ought to be a place where there's diversity, there are differences of opinion, there are values and beliefs that are different, and we have a free and open opportunity to debate those together in a peaceful way."
He added that students must "not be forced into settings to accept alternative viewpoints that go directly contrary to their beliefs, values, and points of view … if one group is let to live on campus, the other groups ought to be allowed to live there as well."
Along with Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Walberg introduced the legislation, which clarifies that no government funds will be made to a public institution that denies religious student groups the rights afforded to other student organizations.
"I think that colleges and universities ought to be a place of openness, and if they aren't, then they will suffer the consequences of loss of funding federal funding for their programs and if that's the way we have to do it, that's the way it needs to be to be done," Walberg said.
Meanwhile, he said headlines are distorting the proposed Parental Rights Act and his bill, which is part of the legislation.
The entire Protect Kids Act package "says that if a child wants to change their pronouns and change their gender, change the bathroom they go to, then the parents need to be notified," he said. "We're talking about elementary or middle schools."
The bill calls for schools to lose federal funding if parents aren't notified, Walberg said, as "parents are the key responsible agents for kids. That's an unalienable right, a God-given responsibility."
Schools, he added, require permission slips for field trips but won't tell parents if a child wants to "change their pronoun or gender … that's a problem."
Such actions, Walberg added, destroy the relationship between parents and school.
"We've seen too much evidence around the country where it's going the wrong direction and parents are being denigrated simply for loving their kids," he said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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