TIME FOR A SEQUEL TO “INHERIT THE WIND”
The opera is over; the fat evolutionary biologist has
sung. Intelligent design in public schools is dead.
The issue will never get to the Supreme Court, because
there’s nothing left to decide. The “wedge” strategy of ID advocates has
failed. All we’ll see from now on will be the dying twitches of its
lifeless limbs as evangelical activists struggle in mad scientist fashion to
revive it into something that might pass constitutional muster.
In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that “creation science”
could not be taught in public schools. Soon after that, ID rose up like
Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together from body parts robbed from the
grave of creationism. I have every confidence the next generation of
evangelical activists will try to patch something together from the corpse of
ID. That too will fail.
Still think that ID has a future? Read Judge Jones’s
opinion in Kitzmiller v. Dover. You can get it on my web
site at faginfamily.net/ barry/
jones.pdf. All 139 pages.
And what pages they are. Why ID is not science.
Why teaching it is unconstitutional. Detailed accounts of school board meetings
where elected leaders demand that people take a stand for Jesus.
Textbooks like “Pandas and People” introduced into evidence, with “creation”
words in old editions replaced with “design” words in newer ones. Funds
diverted to school board relatives. There’s something here for everyone.
In fact, the drama is so good somebody should make a movie
of it. It’d be a great sequel to “Inherit the Wind”. We could
build it around the former school board president, and call it “Inherit the
Windbag”. Mel Gibson could direct. Well, maybe not.
I don’t want to focus on the legal victory, though.
There’s been enough written about it, and the judge said everything about ID
that you’ve read here before. What struck me about Kitzmiller v.
Dover ought to strike fear into the hearts of any honest man:
Christians were lying for their cause.
Judge Jones (a Bush appointee and a devout Christian) knew
this, and he let ‘em have it. ID advocates on the school board “lied
outright under oath on several occasions.” “The inescapable truth is that [both
ID witnesses] lied at their depositions.” And my personal favorite: “It
is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly
touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover
their tracks …”
I understand that Christians are not perfect people.
We have that much in common. But I still want to know: Why would
ordinary, decent Christians lie when they swore to tell the truth, “so help me
God”?
I’d like to suggest that it was their attempt to engage the
machinery of the state: To use law and the judicial process to bring
about an outcome motivated by faith.
When state power mixes with religious power, the resulting
electrical storm fouls your moral compass. When you are absolutely
convinced that you are doing God’s will, when everyone around you believes as
you do, when you believe you will bring about the greatest spiritual victory
the world has ever known, why should a little lie hold you back?
Doesn’t the end justify the means? Christianity, at least as
I understand it, says no. But I bet it’s mighty tempting once politics
enter the picture.
I do not expect Christians to sit idly by when their rights
are violated. Those of you who read me regularly know I support school
choice and vouchers as a way for Christians to teach ID to their children in
school. Even though I believe down to the core of my soul that they are
deeply and profoundly wrong.
But I do expect Christians and anyone who thinks right and
wrong are important to be aware of the terrible risks to integrity when the
power of faith is shackled to the power of law. In the
More importantly, it wrecked their moral integrity .
ID advocates on the