Florida Appointee Assailed for Link to Parenting Essay

Gov. Jeb Bush drew sharp criticism Friday after his choice to head Florida’s child welfare agency was linked to an essay that says spanking hard enough to cause welts is OK and that married women shouldn’t have careers.

Democrats hoping to oust the Republican governor quickly turned the appointment of Jerry Regier as Department of Children & Families secretary into a political issue.

They cited the 1989 essay, “The Christian World View of the Family,” which says Christians shouldn’t marry non-Christians, couples should be allowed to divorce only in cases of adultery or abandonment, and premarital sex and masturbation should not be “accepted as ‘normal’ or legal.”

Bob Poe, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, said the governor either didn’t do his homework on Regier “or he agrees with the extreme positions his appointee has taken regarding women and families.”

Regier tried to disassociate himself with the paper, which lists him on the cover page as co-chairman of the group that wrote it.

“I was not a co-author of this paper and did not exercise editorial control over its content,” Regier said in a statement released by the governor’s office. “Rather, as a family advocate, I was asked to serve as a co-chairman of the group that released the paper.”

He said he broke his relationship with the Coalition on Revival Inc. a year after the paper was published because of the group’s extreme interpretations of the Bible.

“It is not my position that corporal punishment should result in welts or bruises,” Regier wrote. “My own wife of 34 years is a registered nurse, and I am extremely supportive of her career. I support women in the work force as well as women holding an equal role in marriage.”

Bush, who is seeking a second term this fall, defended his choice and said Regier’s background was thoroughly checked. He said he did not know about the essay before he appointed Regier but accepted that Regier disassociated himself from it.