The Marion County, Ohio School District superintendent is not apologizing after many expressed “outrage” over the River Valley High School’s invited commencement speaker’s remarks that focused on “biblical principles,” including telling graduating students to ensure they choose a spouse of the opposite sex.
“Choose a spouse, I suggest. I also strongly suggest to make sure to choose biblical principles, you know a male with a female and female with a male,” urged Jim McGuire, a local businessman, and alumnus of the public school.
McGuire did not only condemn same-sex marriage, he advised graduates to not “diminish or play down biblical principles,” and implied Christianity is the one true religion that the world is based upon:
“Everyone in every country in this planet lives by [the] calendar that was based on 2022 years ago, it was established by Jesus Christ, and we need to remember that.”
Marion County School District Superintendent Adam Wickham issued a statement that not only does not apologize for subjecting its graduates and their guests to condemnation of LGBTQ people and same-sex relationships and marriage, but also apparent religious proselytizing.
That statement says the speech was not reviewed prior to it being delivered, and that McGuire “was not a member of the River Valley staff and he was not speaking as an official representative of River Valley Local Schools.” It also says they “value all students, staff, and members of the Viking community.”
But as Hemant Mehta at OnlySky writes, McGuire sits on the board of the Marion County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
His “biography on that website should’ve been a giveaway that school officials should have at least looked over his speech in advance. His bio for the MCBDD stresses his ‘relationship with Christ’ and notes that he’s a ‘strong conservative who loves God and Country.'”
Video via WBNS: