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4. The new pro-lifers

"The new pro-lifers are different. They aren't freaks or fanatics. … They don't evangelize and they certainly don't intimidate. They don't even regard abortion as a 'sin.' This new wave of pro-lifers hate abortion because they hate the waste of an egg. They are among Britain's growing number of infertile couples who, after years trying for a baby, and many cycles of IVF treatment, know just how precious that egg can be." Despite the author's constant comparison between the new sensitive, compassionate pro-lifers and the old, religious, violent kind, it's worth reading Cristina Odone's discovery that these new pro-lifers are only belatedly learning what the old ones already knew. "For the 45,000 British couples who seek fertility treatment annually, the 200,000 terminations that take place each year are a personal insult: How dare anyone discard something that you yearn for so greatly?"

5. Teaching evolution in a hostile environment

Some students are using skills honed on substitutes to disrupt their science teachers' lessons on evolution. And they're getting help from creation ministries. "If a teacher is making a claim that land animals evolved into whales, students should ask: 'What precisely is involved? How does the fur turn into blubber, how do the nostrils move, how does the tiny tail turn into a great big fluke?" John Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research near San Diego, told the L.A. Times. "Evolution is so unsupportable, if you insist on more information, the teacher will quickly run out of credibility."

In order to avoid these questions, one in five teachers won't say the word evolution during class, according to a survey by the National Science Teachers Association. "They're saying they don't know how to respond … . They haven't done the research the kids have done on this," said Linda Froschauer, the group's president-elect.

One Missouri class looked like this when the teacher began discussing evolution:

Toward the end of his second class one recent morning, [Al] Frisby held up an old issue of National Geographic. The cover asked in bold type: "Was Darwin Wrong?"

"Yes!" one student called.

Another backed him up: "Yes!"

Six or eight other voices joined in. Frisby quieted them and opened to the article inside, which began with the one-word answer: "No."

"It's my job to show you the overwhelming evidence for evolution," he said.

"What about the other side?" Jeff Paul called. An approving murmur swept the room.

Frisby now prefaces his lectures by saying, "My job is to explain evolution so you can understand it. Whether you accept it or not, that's your business." It seems plenty of students aren't very accepting.

Mass. S.C. rules out of state gays can't marry:

1. Court: Gays can't come to Mass. to marry | On Thursday, the Supreme Judicial Court, which three years ago made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage, upheld a 1913 state law that forbids nonresidents from marrying there if the marriage would not be recognized in their home state. (Associated Press)
   
   
2. No Massachusetts marriages for out-of-state gays | Gay couples from American states that ban same-sex marriages cannot legally be wed in Massachusetts, where such unions are legal, the state's highest court ruled on Thursday. (Reuters)
   
   
3. Ruling shrinks issue to those from states without explicit ban | The Supreme Judicial Court's decision upholding a 1913 marriage law significantly narrows the battleground over same-sex marriage to a handful of states, lawyers on both sides of the issue said yesterday. (The Boston Globe)
   
   

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March (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50