Fresh off his trip to the White House and visit with President Donald Trump, Pathway Church lead pastor Travis Johnson weighed in on the latest in Alabama's library controversy.
Last week, the Alabama Public Library Service board moved to terminate the employment of now-former director Nancy Pack. Additionally, the APLS paused funding for Baldwin County's Fairhope Public Library as it continues to defy Alabama administrative law.
During an appearance on Mobile radio's FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," Johnson applauded those taking a stand on public libraries and called on state officials to call out for "grooming" their child.
"OK, that was brought up by some of the faith leaders even in the listening session — is the kind of material that are being pushed on our kids, even in our library system. And you know, what's the answer to that? And so when you don't have local control over matters, you defer to some bureaucrat that has no, you know, really concern for the community, or has a lower concern for the community, and those concerns of subordinate to some other outside agenda. Of course, there's going to be dissonance in the community. So for me, I don't care what the federal policy is about men and women's bathrooms. But if one of my daughters goes into a bathroom, and a man follows behind them, that's like, you know, a man follows it, there's going to be two men in the bathroom because I care about my family, I care about my children. And I think that's the same issue for libraries, is that we care about the material that's being pushed on children. And when you have things that are sexually explicit, it's beyond the pale of what should be being communicated to small children."
"Then there should be an outcry in communities. And so Alabama should listen when a mother and a father say it's not appropriate to be grooming my child or exposing my child to this kind of obscenity, this kind of explicitness, that's a problem. And we should listen. And so I'm thankful for, you know, for leaders in Alabama that are not afraid to step in, lean into that stuff, and say, 'Hey, you know, we're not going to just give up for this, you know, give up to this.' I would even say that about various agendas that are tied to federal monies. And, you know, for me, again, I don't want to trade, you know, my sons, our sons for sidewalks, you know. We can allow the fabric of our community, our morals, our values to be primary and not subordinate the goodness of a community to strings that are attached to, you know, various funding mechanisms. So I think that's good. I bless anybody that's willing to stand up and draw a line in the sand on those kinds of issues."
Jeff Poor is the editor-in-chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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