Will teachers be forced to choose between their conscience and the state, wonders Jean Berry of Bangor, if Question One is voted down?

From her letter to the editor:

As a Christian and as a teacher in an alternative public school in Maine, my personal values sometimes come into conflict with our so-called “legal” rights in this country as defined by our judicial system, as in the legal right to an abortion and the proposed legal right to homosexual marriage. How do I deal with it? Mostly, I do not broach the topics. I identify them as too political and I have avoided conflict. After all, I teach traditional subjects such as science and math, and I stay away from subjects such as health where I may be asked or required to say something opposed to my beliefs.

I suspect not all teachers are so lucky, and that some curriculum developer in some school could very well require a concept to be taught or an attitude to be put forth, or a book to be used that would reflect the current state of civil rights in this country including homosexual marriage if it were to become legal. Then one would have to decide whether to follow their conscience or the state.

I would have to choose my conscience.