Lawmakers Question UCO for Rescinding Invitation to Christian Speaker

Lawmakers Question UCO for Rescinding Invitation to Christian Speaker

OKLAHOMA CITY – State lawmakers today publicly asked why Christian speaker, Dr. Ken Ham, has been told he is not welcome at the University of Central Oklahoma. According to news reports, the UCO student body president yesterday said he had been "bullied and personally maligned" by campus activists opposed to allowing Dr. Ham to speak.  The lawmakers expressed concern about a growing climate of such assaults on free speech and whether or not the Regents for Higher Education were properly accountable for the use of taxpayer dollars.

“Bullying and intimidating people to squelch free speech are disgraceful anywhere - but even more so on our college campuses,” said Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Oklahoma City. “Higher Education’s censorship and bigotry against Christians shows an appalling lack of accountability on how Oklahoma’s public colleges and universities spend our tax dollars. We fund education to teach and promote American values. Censorship is not an American value.”

“Those claiming to advocate for tolerance are often, and ironically, the most intolerant of all,” said Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate. “This bullying by anti-Christian campus censors has to stop.”

“The overwhelmingly Christian and conservative people of Oklahoma should not be forced to pay more taxes to subsidize censorship and bigotry against Christians and conservatives at our state colleges,” said Rep. Chuck Strohm, R-Jenks.

The lawmakers promised to review the Regents for Higher Education's accountability for their use of taxpayer dollars, and advocated for appropriate safeguards to be enacted to avoid intolerance like that at UCO in the future.