A Republican Senator in the Minnesota state senate has gone viral for comments he made on Monday.
Glenn Greunhagen, 72, was first elected to Minnesota’s House of Representatives in 2010. He then joined the Senate in 2022, representing District 17 (Glencoe).
He has made for himself for his Biblical-aligned viewpoint on… well, pretty much everything.
On Monday, he took part in a debate on the education policy bill (SF 3567).
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Two Senators belonging to the DFL (Democratic Party offshoot Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) authored the bill. Among other things, the bill requires schools to introduce policies on students’ possession and use of cell phones in school and require mental health education for students in grades 4-12.
“Censorship, lies, and deceit”
Greunhagen used his time on the floor to go off on a tangent. He lamented the fact that so many schools don’t teach kids about creationism: the belief that everyone was made by God.
“In science, I find a lot of censorship, lies, and deceit. You know, there’s lots of scientific evidence that points to a creator or God and I’ll just give you two. One is the law of cause and effect. For every effect, there’s a greater cause,” he began.
“So you have a computer. Did somebody make the computer? If you’ve never seen it before, did somebody make the computer? Or did wind, rain, time and chance blow the computer into existence? Well, the logical conclusion is that someone made the computer.”
As a side note, persecuted gay maths genius Alan Turing is credited as the father of modern computing, but Greunhagen glossed over that.
“Well, your eyeball is millions of times more complex than that computer and therefore the law of cause and effect has never been contradicted,” he continued. “You have this building. Somebody built it.
“You have the Earth. Somebody made it. You have the universe. Somebody created it. That is a repeatable, observable, scientific fact. And yet we censor that from our students.”
OK … so as someone created computers, someone else created the earth and universe. That’s an “observable, scientific fact” according to the good Senator from Glencoe.
You can watch his comments below from the 53.40 mark.
Greunhagen is known for his anti-LGBTQ stance. In 2013, he described homosexuality as “unhealthy” and an “addiction”. During a debate that year on same-sex marriage, he used his privilege to introduce a friend, Kevin Peterson, to the floor that he said had “exited the gay lifestyle.”
“The interesting thing about Kevin is he was active in the gay lifestyle for about ten years and then he left it, got married, and now has three children,” said Greunhagen, to the groans of some other lawmakers.
In March 2022, Greunhagen opposed a ban on conversion therapy. He said it would be better described as “reparative therapy”.
“We’re not trying to attack people per se, as much as to address behaviors and the opportunity to get the type of counseling you want,” Gruenhagen said.
The internet reacts
Online, his latest comments prompted many more groans.
I was not taught creationism in high school, nor was I taught necromancy, how to use a Ouija board, or Satan worship. Sounds like my education was deficient 😂 https://t.co/JKRH6J0MwF
— TimTake (@TimTakeMFT) May 14, 2024
God save this Nation from the curse of Pious nonsense.
— Vernon Sheldon-Witter (@sheldon_witter) May 14, 2024
A statement like this should be a immediate disqualification of any public official.
— Buckeyes, Browns, & Blue Jackets (@Brown03Buckeye) May 13, 2024
The ability to not understand basic knowledge, facts, or societal norms should have effect on one’s eligibility to serve the public.
Why are these boomer GOP state legislators so focused on things that aren't issues? Oh, because it actually requires work to address the real issues.
— TruthBeTulled (@Tizull) May 14, 2024
SF 3567 passed by a vote of 35-31. It has previously passed the Minnesota House.
RelatedIn 2017, the MNCPL pressured the Anoka Hennepin school district to oppose to gender-neutral bathrooms, fearing that it would lead to students being more accepting of sexually fluid identities.