Alabama utility official hijacks meeting to blame pre-school measles on pregnant teens and gay marriage

The news that a federal judge had struck down a ban on same-sex marriage in Alabama sent Public Service Commissioner Chip Beeker into a rant this week about everything from measles to religion in schools.

According to the Alabama Public Service Commission's website, its mission is to "ensure a regulatory balance between regulated companies and consumers in order to provide consumers with safe, adequate and reliable services at rates that are equitable and economical."

But as is often the case, Tuesday's meeting turned political as Beeker and two other commissioners decided to speak out against U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade's Jan. 23 ruling against Alabama's same-sex marriage ban.

Beeker said he was reminded of "the difference of our federal government when we were children and how then they did not punish success and they did not reward sloth."

"But with the crowd we have in D.C. today, with the wealth redistribution scheme, that is exactly what is happening. Back then the federal government did not entrap people in a welfare state. From which, there is no escape," he continued. "When I was a child we never could have imagined the federal government would have sent American citizens unemployment checks because they could not find a job to do, but endorse the idea that the people who come to this country illegally could have those jobs."

Beeker praised Gov. Robert Bentley (R) and state Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) for vowing to block same-sex marriages and "this usurpation of the rights of Alabamians."

"We see the moral decline in our nation," Beeker said. "You do not have to look further than the schools to find it."

The commissioner then pointed to teen pregnancies as evidence of that decline.

"Just this morning, it was reported that a daycare located inside a public school has been closed due to the threat of a measles outbreak," he explained. "A daycare inside a public school! That kind of thing unthinkable a generation ago is common in some part of our country."

Beeker also lamented that schools were no longer required to post copies of the Ten Commandments.

"But the results of the removal of God from the schools is as plain as the results of the attempted removal of God from all of the United States," he opined. "Over the last 20 years or so, we have turned from God and his principles in order to be politically correct."

Beeker concluded by warning that God would "hold us accountable" for failing to protect Alabama's "resources" and "Christian principles."

Watch the video below from Al.com, broadcast Feb. 3, 2014.