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5 Year Old’s ‘Hero’ Dad Blasts Protesting Parents: Opposing Masks ‘Isn’t in the Bible but Taking Care of Others Is’

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The father of a 5-year old just beginning school is blasting his fellow Williamson County, Tennessee parents –or at least  those who made national headlines last week after staging heated protests at a school board meeting over a coronavirus mask mandate.

“I’m a dad of a new kindergartener and her first day was right after the chaos last week,” Justin Kanew told attendees at Monday’s school board meeting. “She went to school and was one of just a few kids in her class wearing a mask which made her ask me why she had to. My answer was because we want to take care of other people. She’s five years old, but she understood that concept, and it’s disappointing that more adults around here can’t seem to grasp it.”

“I asked a pastor friend of mine and he was very clear, there’s no actual biblical justification for using the Bible to get out of a mask mandate passed by a majority of this elected board, but thousands are doing it anyway, calling it a ‘religious exemption,’ which is frankly just sad,” Kanew said.

“Avoiding masks is not in the Bible but taking care of others is,” he declared.

As coronavirus continues to ravage Tennessee, Williamson County is reporting an average of 130 new coronavirus cases per day. As Kanew noted, the state’s GOP governor, Bill Lee, on Monday signed an executive order effectively voiding local mask mandates by allowing parents to opt-out of them.

One parent outside last week’s school board meeting appeared to threaten a medical professional who spoke in support of masks, yelling: “We know who you are. You can leave freely, but we will find you.”

Kanew, who was the Democratic Party’s 2018 nominee for a U.S. House seat, and was a two-time contestant on CBS’s “Amazing Race,” also criticized parents attacking Critical Race Theory, explaining that it “is not in our schools, and it never was.”

“The people here to complain about it did not know what it was six months ago and had never heard of it. That’s why they’re going after Diversity, Equity and Inclusion instead and trying to pretend they’re the same thing. They aren’t. And frankly, there aren’t many communities around the globe that need DEI more than this one that we live in.”

Kanew concluded: “If you only like democracy when it goes your way, you don’t actually like democracy.”

On social media some are calling him a “hero.”

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HERO

‘I Am Now a Force to Be Reckoned With’: Episcopal Priest Furious After Trump Chased Her From Church With Tear Gas

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An Episcopal priest who was forcibly removed from her church blasted President Donald Trump for staging a photo opportunity at her house of worship.

Rev. Gini Gerbasi was wearing clerical garb when U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops fired tear gas on her and a group of peaceful protesters to clear the area for the president’s unannounced visit, reported Religion News.

“They turned holy ground into a battleground,” Gerbasi said.

Gerbasi, the rector at another St. John’s Episcopal Church in Georgetown, had been handing out water, snacks and hand sanitizer to demonstrators protesting police brutality when officers began forcibly expelling them from Lafayette Park using chemical irritants.

“I was suddenly coughing from the tear gas,” she said. “We heard those explosions and people would drop to the ground because you weren’t sure what it was.”

The priest said she was “deeply shaken” by Monday evening’s events, and she vowed to fight further injustice.

“That man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second,” Gerbasi posted on Facebook. “I am DEEPLY OFFENDED on behalf of every protestor, every Christian, the people of St. John’s, Lafayette square, every decent person there, and the BLM medics who stayed with just a single box of supplies and a backpack, even when I got too scared and had to leave.”

“I am ok,” she added. “But I am now a force to be reckoned with.”

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