“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” – United States Constitution.

“It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” – “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazurus

”We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated”  – Star Trek, The Next Generation

“No other nation, my friends, has ever survived the diversity and multiculturalism that America faces today, because of a lack of assimilation, because of this division, and because of this identity politics. But no other nation has ever been founded on the principles of Jesus Christ, that begin the redemption and reconciliation through the atoning blood of our savior.” – Lt. Gov. Dan Forest

The last quote above was spoken by the presumptive gubernatorial nominee for the Republican Party in NC’s 2020 election cycle at a recent church service. And just like others have done in the recent past, the use of a pulpit to campaign in even the most veiled of ways is not beyond Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. He has not been shy about his faith, and he has not been shy about mixing it with politics.

But look at that word choice.

• “Surviving diversity?”
• “Surviving multiculturalism?”
• “Lack of assimilation?”
• “Identity politics?”

And look at the video.

How can that not be taken as an “us/ them” statement that screams opposition and “otherness?” How can that not be taken as a denouncement of our diverse society? How can that not be taken as an attack on those who are not white and Christian?

Many news outlets reported on this and Forest made sure to lash back out at them as if to say his words were taken out of context.

Today, Jamey Falkenbury, Director of Communications released the following statement:

“The News and Observer has stooped to an all new low. While we have become accustomed to their slanted and biased articles, ‘reporting’ information fed to them by a far-left George Soros-run organization is unconscionable. The Lieutenant Governor believes that when ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’ are used as weapons to divide our nation and create factions based on identity politics, then that is bad for our country. He believes that all people are created in the image of God and that we need to work together across race, religion, and political divide to bring people together, not pull them apart. The speech in context was about loving your neighbor, and he delivered it to a diverse and multicultural audience. The Lieutenant Governor received a standing ovation at the end of the speech. The quotes the N&O were fed by George Soros’ organization have been stripped of context and are being used to create division, highlighting the very issues the Lieutenant Governor was addressing in his speech.”

Blame the “far-left,” “George Soros,” and “the the N&O” for reporting the exactness of his words? Again, look at the video.

And then look at the N&O’s political reporter Andy Specht’s reply on Twitter.

It’s rather appropriate that our founding fathers made sure in the Constitution to separate church and state and literally in the same breath established the freedom of the press, but Forest’s statement that was delivered by another person seems to be proof that he got caught with his words.

But do not think that Forest does not want multiculturalism and diversity when it suits his purpose. Remember the Jan. 2016 DPI report that Lt. Dan Forest wanted redone to shed a more positive light on charter schools here in North Carolina when there were glaring negatives? That report talked about lack of diversity.

What was at issue was that Forest simply did not like that report showing what was already known: that many of the charter schools Forest had enabled were perpetuating segregation and were not accomplishing what he advertised they would do.

Yet, instead of accepting the report for its contents and moving to remedy what it revealed, Forest requested that it be edited and amended because he did not like what it said. He demanded that the SBOE not honor those findings of academic research based on hard data and the logical conclusions that come from them.

Forest needed that multiculturalism and diversity really badly then.

And now? Makes you wonder if he should really be the next governor of North Carolina. Just like with his 3rd-person statement blaming others for something he in fact did this past Sunday, Forest’s practice of identity politics goes far beyond what anyone in Raleigh does. He literally took to the pulpit to campaign, yet would never admit that. But he would be more than happy to scream at others for being politically active and call it identity politics.

Take the recent May 1st protests by teachers organized by NCAE.

“This is straight-up political, Democrat politics,” Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said. “This is political maneuvering, is all it is. They’ve been doing this all over the country, and that’s what they’re doing here, and it’s just wrong.”

And whether Forest likes it or not, some of those same NCAE representatives who marched on May 1st at a national NEA conference in Texas this week at the National Education Association Conference on Racial and Social Justice.

And instead of “surviving” diversity and lacking “assimilation,” they are embracing what North Carolina’s public school classrooms really are: more vibrantly multicultural.