God and Darwin in California

“At present the evolutionists own the system, and they’re crying because they may have to give it up. That’s the way it is. We’re not asking for our position to be the only position. We’re asking for 50 per cent of the education system back. At one time we owned it all,” explains San Diego, California, housewife Nell Segraves, who pioneered to get creationism considered in her state’s public schools.

Ten years ago Mrs. Segraves, a Baptist, and her neighbor Jean E. Sumrall, a Missouri Synod Lutheran, decided to do something about evolutionism, which was weakening Kelly Segraves’s faith. At that time he was a senior in a Costa Mesa high school. (Mrs. Sumrall’s children attended a private school.)

With the help of geneticist Walter E. Lammerts of Freedom, California, also a member of the Missouri Synod, they petitioned the California state school board in 1963 to get evolution taught as just a theory of man’s origin, rather than as fact. The board unanimously approved the request, stating, “Future state textbooks dealing with the subject of man’s origins should refer to Darwinian evolution as an important scientific theory or hypothesis … rather than as a permanent, unchanging truth.”

Three years later Mrs. Segraves went back to the school board with a request that textbooks teach creationism along with evolution as an equally viable theory. Her petition was denied, because new science textbooks were not under consideration. But in 1969, when the school board was proposing new criteria guidelines for science textbook publishers, Nell Segraves resubmitted her petition—and won.

The California State Curriculum Commission, which screens and evaluates textbooks under consideration, opposed juxtaposing creationism and evolution. But the school board disagreed. The original section in the guidelines dealing solely with evolution was replaced by two paragraphs taken from a statement submitted by engineer Vernon L. Grose from Conoga Park, who wrote a four-page modification after reading a Los Angeles Times editorial on the situation. The resulting “Science Framework for California Public Schools” states:

All scientific evidence to date concerning the origin of life implies at least a dualism or the necessity to use several theories to fully explain the relationship between established data points. This dualism is not unique to this field of study, but also is appropriate in other scientific disciplines such as the physics of light.

While the Bible and other philosophic treatises also mention creation, science has independently postulated the various theories of creation. Therefore, creation in scientific terms is not a religious or philosophic belief. Also note that creation and evolutionary theories are not necessarily mutual exclusives. Some of the scientific data (e.g., the regular absence of transitional forms) may be best explained by a creation theory, while other data (e.g., transmutation of species) substantiate a process of evolution.

Governor Reagan (who attends an evangelical church) later appointed Grose to the screening commission, a move that added impetus to the creationism movement.

Although several scientific associations have issued strong statements condemning the board’s determination to make textbooks conform to the “Framework,” the board has so far refused to back down. Even the National Academy of Sciences for the first time in its 100-year history has become involved—on the side of Darwin—in a state textbook controversy.

Out of the issue have come several organizations founded to fight for equal time for creationism in the public schools. The Creation Research Society in Freedom, California, begun by Lammerts in 1964, requires for full membership an M.A. or a Ph.D. in natural science, though associate members don’t need an advanced degree. All members must believe the Genesis account of creation.

Nell Segraves founded the San Diego-based, pan-denominational Creation Research Center in 1970 to prepare a series of supplemental texts that would teach creationism as well as evolution. Seventeen texts were ready by the deadline, September of 1971.

When the Curriculum Commission met last year for the initial screening, it found that only two textbooks met the “Framework” requirements, and neither of these was recommended by the commission, ostensibly because both lacked “quality.” So last month the commission held an open hearing in Sacramento for debate on the issue.

Creationists claimed that scientific evidence, particularly that found from the study of fossils, supports a creation theory. Evolutionists insisted that chemical and molecular studies of blood go beyond fossil examination and give evidence of transitional forms. The lack of such forms is a standard argument against Darwinian theory.

After scientists and clergy of both persuasions presented their evidence, the commission voted to include creationism along with Darwinism. The school board was expected to rubber-stamp approval.

Two problems remain: deciding who will teach the courses and determining which textbooks will be used. The board of education was to choose the books later this month. If a text that doesn’t meet the requirements is selected, the publisher must edit it. Mrs. Segraves doesn’t really care whether the Center’s texts are chosen. “That’s a secondary issue,” she explained. “Our primary concern is that the subject be taught in the public schools. If we do succeed in getting two-theory texts into the schools, it will revolutionize California’s education system, and have a far-reaching effect on the rest of the country—maybe even the world.”

Even with textbooks that present creationism, teachers may ignore it. The National Association of Biology Teachers is gathering a legal fund for those teachers who refuse to teach the new material. As one San Francisco science teacher put it, “We’ll never teach that damn thing.”

Thus the battle is far from finished—and in Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia, and Illinois, creationists have just begun to fight.

Hassle Over Handel

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” These words from one of the best known choruses of Handel’s Messiah are usually performed in high schools throughout the country during the Christmas season. But this year Handel has brought controversy to several school districts.

A federal suit filed in Newark by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey requested a ban on Westfield High School’s annual Christmas pageant. The suit was filed on behalf of the Committee Against Religious Encroachment in Schools, a parents’ organization. Judge Frederick B. Lacey rejected a request by the ACLU for a restraining order against this year’s pageant (planned for December 20). He suggested that the Board of Education and the ACLU work out their differences privately. Superintendent of Schools Willard Law said early this month no solution had yet been reached. The Westfield pageant includes a chorus from Messiah, some Jewish songs, and a tableau illustrating great religious art. Law called the program “historical in nature.”

School superintendent Carl W. Hassell of Prince George’s County, Maryland, handed school officials strict guidelines against performing any music or drama that “promotes or gives approval to any particular religion.” The new guidelines were prompted by a visit from Isaac Frank, executive vice president of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, Hassel told reporters. Hassel, however, received some backlash from his music directors, who thought they would be reduced to directing “nonsense songs.” Richard Blanchard, a musical director at an area high school, annually directs a complete performance of Handel’s Messiah, which spans Christ’s life and ends on an eschatological note.

After the area music directors protested strenuously, the Prince George’s County school officials reworded Hassel’s decree to permit Christmas carols and choral music “in the proper context, and in the proper setting, but not in terms of a religious service.” (Ironically, Hassel is an elder in an evangelical Presbyterian church.)

But while school boards and teachers discuss Christmas carols, large numbers of students are discussing the meaning of Christmas. Across the country more and more early-morning campus Bible studies are getting started. Before the buzzer signals classes to begin, high school students “praise the Lord,” as 18-year-old Harold Davis of Tampa put it. His group hoped to have 100 out for daily sessions before the Christmas break.

Although hymns and cards may be removed from holiday assemblies, an even greater witness seems to be building up in the schools on behalf of the Messiah Handel wrote about.

National Day of Prayer

Several students and faculty members at Harvard have launched a campaign to make January 3, the opening day of the ninety-third congress, a national day “of prayer, repentance, and renewal.” They cite an urgent need to pray for national leaders in these times of “moral and spiritual deterioration.” Tell your congressman of your spiritual concern, they urge.

Billy For Breakfast

When 8,500 realtors filed into the Honolulu International Center last month they weren’t looking over a hot piece of property. The property people were gathering for a professional-oriented prayer breakfast scheduled as a spiritual kickoff to the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB) annual convention, which began two days later with 20,000 registered delegates.

Guest speaker for the event was evangelist Billy Graham, and the after-breakfast service was carried live by Hawaiian radio and television. Copies of the videotaped program on 16 mm film will be distributed to local real estate boards across the country.

The prayer breakfast originated last year with Allen Morris, a Miami realtor. The first breakfast, held at a Miami hotel and featuring singer Anita Bryant, attracted 1,200 realtors. Spurred by the success, Morris planned the Hawaiian breakfast and helped arrange similar programs for state and local real estate boards.

During the planning for Hawaii, Morris was told that the breakfast would be the biggest ever served in the islands and that there were not enough coffee urns in the state to furnish coffee for the expected 8,000. Delegates scattered in hotels throughout Honolulu were picked up by 125 buses and transported to the breakfast; some of them arrived nearly two hours ahead of Graham’s speech.

Morris hopes the experiences of the realtors will spur other professional organizations to hold prayer breakfasts “to give God a place in their convention programs.” Since the Miami breakfast, he said, similar programs have been held by the Mortgage Bankers of Florida, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, and the California Real Estate Association.

During the breakfasts, said Morris, laymen—local and national brokers and agents—perform all functions except that of the speaker. “They read the Bible, offer prayers and invocations,” he said. One of the prayers is a “realtors’ prayer” written by Morris that acknowledges God as creator of the land and continues:

Under all is the land. As realtors we are responsible for the use to which the land is put.… We ask His guidance in the way we use the land entrusted to us. Much is required from those to whom much is given. Much has been given to us as realtors.

The Hawaiian breakfast was the largest gathering of realtors in the profession’s history, said Morris; it outdrew even the general sessions of the convention.

JESUS MOVIES COMING

Some offbeat film versions of the Jesus story are expected to keep box offices busy in 1973. Universal Pictures is filming Jesus Christ Superstar in Israel for release in June. Columbia has been shooting Godspell against a contemporary New York background, aiming for release on Easter. An earlier date is set for The Rebel Jesus, a low-budget movie filmed in Tunisia with a cast of unknowns. Producer Larry Buchanan says it will be controversial. It theorizes that Jesus survived the cross, was rescued by a religious sect and nursed back to health by Mary Magdalene, then was pursued by the centurions and killed.

Comments Buchanan: “It is more the Christ of Albert Schweitzer, Father Cavanaugh, and Bishop Pike, as against the Christ of Billy Graham.”

Also on the editing tables: Jesus, produced and directed by singer Johnny Cash, a Pentecostal who hopes to communicate an authentic Jesus. It too was filmed in Israel.

CHRISTMAS CHEER

The Salvation Army’s 400-pound iron pot has turned to gold—and all because of a thief.

On Thanksgiving weekend the big red kettle that stood in front of Macy’s department store in New York for the past twenty years was stolen (moving it would require three men). The New York Daily News offered a $1,000 reward for its return. An artist and an unemployed professional fisherman who had found the pot in a parking lot and were using it as a chair brought it back when they saw its picture in the paper. In all, they planned to give more than half of the reward money to the Salvation Army.

Because of the publicity, the charity organization, which feeds and clothes more than 80,000 people in the metropolitan New York area, has received more telephone donations than usual and expects street donations to increase as well. Said the Army’s local commander. “Miracles are not things of the past.” Nor do pots of gold always appear at the end of rainbows.

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