Jack Conkling is a seventh grade social studies teacher in
Hutchinson, KS, population just over 42,000. In Hutchison they still like to
brag about Tommy Thompson, an early to mid-20th century football
hero now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They don’t, however mention one of
their other native citizens, Ms. Raquel
Darrian, a 1990 Penthouse Magazine “Pet of the Month,” and later a successful
porn actress. Such activities have no place in Hutchison. No, everything in
Hutchison is quite orderly.
Safely landlocked in the middle of middle America, Conkling (below, right)
also coaches women’s basketball at Buhler High School in Buhler, KS, a cozy
bedroom community of just over 1300 people.
The most recent census says Buhler is 98.45 percent white. In his
photos, Jack looks like any other average white guy,
but here’s what separates Jack from the pack. He wrote this on his Facebook page, where many of his “friends”
are also his students:
“Gay marriage is wrong
because homosexuality is wrong. The Bible clearly states it is sin. Now I do
not claim it to be a sin any worse than other sins. It ranks in God’s eyes the
same as murder, lying, stealing, or cheating.”
Conkling’s post made national news and continues to be the
stuff that blogs are made of from coast to coast. I found Conkling’s email
address and decided to drop him a line:
Dear Mr. Conkling:
Gosh, I can’t help
wondering what your gay students felt when they read on Facebook that because
of their sexuality they are just like murderers -- “in God’s eyes.” You do know
that if you teach seventh grade long enough, the odds are that you will have
gay students in class, don’t you, Mr. Conkling? Then I couldn’t help wondering
what it must be like to live in Kansas and know what the world looks like
through God’s eyes. Could you tell us
more about that in your next Facebook post? By the way, I’m sure you know that
Kansas is one state where the death penalty is still legal. So, since being gay and being a murderer are
equal in God’s eyes, do you believe it would be most efficient to execute gay
people? And listen, if so, you better hurry, because you know the Kansas
legislature, as we speak, is debating House Bill 2323, which would abolish the
death penalty. Hope to hear from you
soon…
Paul A. Greenberg
Oddly, I haven’t received a response from Mr. Conkling.
“Leviticus 20:13
reads: "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman,
both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their
blood will be on their own heads."
It’s worth mentioning that Gipson references the Old Testament.
I was wondering if he happened to see the part where it says it’s acceptable to
sell your daughter into slavery. Oh, and
Andy, did you see where Leviticus says I’m supposed to “hate any animal in the
water that does not have fins or scales?” Fess up, Andy…you know you eat Gulf
shrimp over there in Mississippi. I’m
pretty sure the Old Testament also says the world is flat and prostitutes must
be stoned to death.
Andy Gipson needs to be reminded that he was elected to
serve all of his constituents fairly and equally, including those who are gay.
I want to remind him that his job is to help create and pass laws. The job does
not include promoting any particular religious view, and passing moral
judgments on constituents is way outside the boundaries of his job description.
I would remind him that the basic tenet of Judeo-Christian philosophy is
respect for the dignity of human beings – all human beings. While he has the
right as a private citizen to interpret the Bible, that privilege does not come
with his elected position. Now that he has advocated death for gay citizens, I
believe he should be compelled to step down.
Similarly, Jack Conkling should pay close attention to the
wave of gay teen suicides in this country. He should realize that as a middle
school teacher he wields great influence over his young students, and again I
would remind him that some of them are gay.
To equate their inborn sexuality with
the crime/sin of murder should be grounds for his immediate dismissal from his
profession. I base this on the fact that he is working with impressionable,
vulnerable youth, and his expressed attitude may cause some of his students
lifelong self-doubt or worse. His ill-conceived Facebook post implicitly
communicated to his students that they are not and cannot be good enough to
live in our society.
Now that the President of the United States has publicly
endorsed marriage between gay people, the anti-gay rhetoric is amping up to an
unreasonable volume. When a seventh
grade teacher in Kansas and an elected official in Mississippi each find it
acceptable to publicly denigrate all gay people based on biblical scripture,
going so far as to compare sexuality to murder, we have lost our cultural sense
of reason. It serves to remind us that there is something in the human
condition that just causes some people to need extreme affiliation with their
"own kind," and extreme superiority over those who are not just like
they are. I’m not about to try to figure out what that need stems from, but I
am sure such individuals do not belong in our public school systems or
legislatures.
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