Does the Parental Rights Amendment just protect your rights… or is it creating new laws? Congressman Pete Hoekstra explains what the amendment means on today’s Home School Heartbeat with Mike Farris.
Mike Farris:
Pete, I want to ask you this: There have been some constitutional amendments that have been designed to change the law. There are other amendments that were designed to protect the law as it existed. The Bill of Rights, principally, were designed to protect the existing rights of Americans and to make sure that the new government didn’t violate those rights. Which kind of amendment is this? Are we trying to protect existing rights, or are we trying to change the law?
Congressman Pete Hoekstra:
No, I think it’s very, very clear. What we are doing here is we’re protecting an existing right. Parental rights have been established through the courts for the last 100 years. We believe that in the coming years this right will come under attack, and it’s now the time to step up and protect this right. It’s very similar to what we've seen with gay marriage. For 200 years in America, the definition of marriage was very clear: a single man and a single woman. The courts then took action and threw that on its ear, so that that’s now up for debate as to understanding what marriage is. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen here—that nowhere do we ever create the opportunity for someone to question or try to reinterpret what parental rights mean in America.
Mike:
Congressman, thank you again so much for your leadership on this issue. We encourage our listeners to call their congressman and senators and support parental rights, H.R. 97. I’m Mike Farris.
