A divorced family man who believes that teachers should have the academic freedom to bring God into the classroom but that they should never, ever, be allowed to mention the theory of contraception, is vying to fill one of the 7 positions on the Hillsborough County School Board, a group which is responsible for overseeing the 11th largest School District in the US.
District 6 candidate Terry Kemple was born to dirty fucking hippie parents and quickly fell prey to the evil secular elements of society - a society which forced him to choose to make himself a slave!
He continues...
And asks:
By the early 1980's, Kemple had evolved into a weak, drunken godless shell of a human being, but his pickled brain nonetheless made him a legend in his mind as he purposelessly motored the Northeast on boozy two-wheeled excursions, occasionally threatening his minor offspring with "a ride to Pennsylvania."
Kemple reinvented himself in the mid '80s. He was an alcoholic, divorced, separated from his daughters for 10 years. He would come by on his motorcycle to see the kids in Connecticut. He would say crazy things like, "Let's take a ride to Pennsylvania."...
In 1986, Kemple paid a visit to his oldest brother, Morry, headmaster of a Christian school in Jacksonville. He went to a tent revival on Sunday with Morry's family.
The star speaker was Tim Lee, the famous evangelist who had lost both his legs in Vietnam. Like Kemple, Lee had been rebellious, godless....
In the revival tent, Kemple felt overwhelmed. Tim Lee had lost his legs. He had lost his children. He went back that night to hear Lee tell the story again.
Kemple told brother Morry he wanted to change. Morry urged him to get started. "Find a church that preaches the Bible." Kemple lived just a few blocks from Bell Shoals Baptist Church. First thing he did was join the Bible class for singles.
First, Kemple leveraged Bible verses to convince his new church lady girlfriend to get a divorce. Then they married and Terry leveraged his shiny new Jesus-loving family-man cred to take on some of the most pressing issues of our times.
He has made the protection of children his mission. He has hosted sexual abstinence rallies for thousands of teenagers, lobbied for right-to-life laws, declared war on lap dancing. He cruises Christian Web sites. He collects evidence of God's banishment from classrooms, of pornographers' subversion of the First Amendment.
Kemple articulates an absolutist view — that homosexuals are stealing children from Christians by indoctrinating the young to gay lifestyles. He calls it the "homosexual agenda." Gay marriages pose the biggest threat of all.
Recently, Kemple has fought to give teachers the Academic Freedom to refute the Darwinist lies that are taught as "Biology," and he was a big part of the successful Florida campaign to deny the homosexuals their perverted marriage agenda item. Oh, and he wants kids to be taught abstinence only. In elementary school AND in college.
And how does that play out in the arena of sex education in public schools?
One of the things that's mentioned most frequently in the Bible is sexual immorality and how we are supposed to refrain from it. Much of the education that our kids get today... encourages them to become sexually involved at earlier and earlier ages....
I'm old enough to remember when we weren't encouraged to have sex in school, and we didn't have sex.
So are you saying that schools are encouraging kids to have sex?
Yes....
So then I don't suppose you would agree with the proposed legislation called the Healthy Teens Act that would require school districts to emphasize abstinence while teaching students how to protect themselves from disease and pregnancy?
No....
So you're advocating abstinence only sex education for college students?
Why not? We need to turn that group around and give them some inducement not to be sexually active.
I'm not actually old enough to remember when we didn't have sex. If I ever do get that old, I hope that someone will shoot me.
The District 6 race is crowded, but only the top 2 vote getters in the 4-way non-partisan primary will advance to the November ballot. Incumbent April Griffin, backed by unions and other progressive groups, should be favored, but Kemple's church connections are proving to be lucrative.
Challenger Terry Kemple jumped to an early lead in campaign contributions, reporting $16,100 in April compared to $3,024 for incumbent April Griffin.
Griffin, 41, of Temple Terrace, is seeking her second term on the board and said she will report about $16,000 in contributions by the next deadline. Her donors include Iron Workers Local 397, the Hillsborough County Agricultural PAC, and retired principal Manuel Duran.
...
Kemple, 63, of Brandon, president of the Christian-based Community Issues Council, said he has benefitted from the generosity of friends at church and in the community.
Kemple expects to report a total of $27,000 in contributions by the July 23 deadline.
Fifty-three of Kemple's 63 contributions are for $100 or more, and 20 are for $500 or more.
He received $300 from Orlando personal injury attorney John Stemberger, president of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council, whose interests tend to attract campaign money and votes, political analysts say.
Other top Kemple contributors include Bart Azzarelli of Dallas 1 Construction and Development in Thonotosassa; Mary Ott Wood of Plant City, president of Florida West Coast Credit Union; and 411 Communications of Tampa, a consulting firm whose clients have included Attorney General Bill McCollum and former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.
Griffin and Kemple will probably advance to the next round to face each other in November when Kemple's experience as an organizer combined with his notoriety and fundraising prowess among the local fundamentalist crowd could be enough to propel him to victory in a race that is off of most voters' radars.
He certainly has a fundraising advantage right now, and he seems to be going out of his way to appear reasonable to low knowledge voters - his official website is useless if you want to know anything about him. Luckily, some person has put together something a little more informative than the official Terry Kemple site.
But more important than making fun of him is supporting incumbent April Griffin.
The other side has been very successful in organizing to win local down ballot races such as this one for School Board. They know how important these positions really are, and they are praying to win.
Spread the word about Terry Kemple: make sure voters in November know who they they are voting for and what their candidate stands for. Kemple's fundamentalist machine is going to turn out for him. We have to turn out voters for April Griffin.
Support April Griffin for Hillsborough County School Board District 6.
And click through to this site to learn a lot more about Terry Kemple.