Bob Unruh ranted in an Aug. 27 WorldNetDaily article:
Gov. Tim Walz’s ban on faithful Christians from teaching in Minnesota’s public is set to hit the state’s schools in just months.
It also bans adherent Jews and Muslims.
And a report at the Federalist warns that he is “poised to make similar bigoted, totalitarian and unconstitutional policies” for the entire nation, “should he be elected vice president.”
The report from the publication’s executive editor, Joy Pullmann, explains the state has new teacher licensing rules that will take effect in July 2025, and they will “ban practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims from teaching in public schools.”
It’s because under the plans of the leftist governor, the state will demand that teacher license applicants “affirm transgenderism and race Marxism.”
No license? No job for anyone to teach in the state’s public schools. Or private schools if they require that certification.
Specifically, the rules will demand: “The teacher fosters an environment that ensures student identities such as race/ethnicity, national origin, language, sex and gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical/developmental/emotional ability, socioeconomic class, and religious beliefs are historically and socially contextualized, affirmed, and incorporated into a learning environment where students are empowered to learn and contribute as their whole selves.”
Administrative law judges already have approved the anti-faith ideologies.
But the Federalist article upon which Unruh based his article — and clearly didn’t fact-check before publishing — is a lie. As Snopes documented:
The argument that such a requirement bars Christians or other religious individuals from receiving a teaching license in Minnesota is that it supposedly forces teachers to “reject their faiths’ declaration that God has created only two sexes, male and female.” These are talking points that have been pushed aggressively by Koch-linked, dark money conservative legal groups opposed to teacher licensing requirements.
The most recent round of headlines originated with a story in The Federalist written by Joy Pullman — author of a book arguing that “queer politics mean the end of America.” Pullman published a nearly identical article about the new licensing requirements in January 2023. Her sources included Upper Midwest Law Center, a think-tank partnered with the Koch-linked State Policy Network, and the Minnesota-based Child Protection League, described as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The claim that the new Minnesota licensing requirements ban religious individuals from teaching is a politically motivated, bad-faith talking point. Because the law does not ban Christians, Jews, or Muslims from teaching in Minnesota, the claim is False.
Snopes also called the “aggressive and inflammatory” headline WND put on Unruh’s article.
But such lies get more attention for WND than the truth, so it publishes lies — never mind that it further diminishes what little credibility WND might have left after its years-long embrace of lies (at least one of which cost it money).