ACLU Creationism Protest Leveled At Kansas School

The American Civil Liberties Union has leveled an ACLU creationism protest at a Kansas school for allowing an Oklahoma group to speak on dinosaurs.

According to The Kansas City Star, the event, conducted by the Creation Truth Foundation, will occur next week outside of school hours on a campus in the 1,100-student Hugoton district.

School superintendent Mark Crawford said he would not cancel despite being urged to do so by the ACLU on Friday.

“I agree with the ACLU, in that, if a mandatory all-school assembly where creationist truths or creationist beliefs were expressed, that would be inappropriate public-school content, and that is not the case … It’s completely and totally school appropriate,” Crawford said.

Doug Bonney, legal director of the ACLU creationism protest, isn’t so sure, stating that the opportunity for a constitutional violation is too high “because their whole evangelical reason for being is to promote Biblical creationism.”

According to Bonney, the CTF believes “dinosaurs were created on the sixth day by God and that dinosaurs were created to benefit Adam and Eve and walked on the earth with humans.”

Bonney continued: “You could conjecture all you want that they will dumb it down or they will remove their Biblical creationism … I doubt it. I think it will be impossible to do in a constitutional way.”

CTF was founded by G. Thomas Sharp, a former pastor and science teacher, who “came face to face with staggering domestic problems in the lives of his church members and students,” according to the group’s website.

“It was discovered that Bible believing families throughout the United States were suffering the loss of 60 percent to 70 percent of their sons and daughters to secular thinking by the time they reached 15 years of age,” the website stated.

Sharp was also “troubled” by the rising divorce rate in “church going families” and blamed “Darwinian evolutionism” for what he perceived as the “unprecedented moral and educational decline throughout our beloved country.”

The website continued: “America’s only hope, it was determined, was for the Bible believing public of our land to awaken to the reality of a true Biblical faith. Basic to this renewal is a return to all of realities of Biblical Creation.”

According to a recent poll reported by The Huffington Post — see video below — 46 percent of the nation believes in creationist theory. Others, such as Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” believe the teaching of creationism is harmful to children.

Recently, a 19-year-old activist also attempted to have the subject removed from Louisiana schools. Even evangelical leader Pat Robertson got into the mix with recent comments telling creationists not to fight science.

Since the dinosaur presentation of CTF will occur outside of class time, it’s hard to see this ACLU creationism protest being successful, but what do you think?

Should creationist theory have a place in public education, or is it too difficult to teach without integrating church and state?

[Image via ShutterStock]