Cobb County adopts new evolution policy
The Cobb county school board voted last night to allow the teaching of alternate origins of species theories. Many of this morning's headlines on the vote announce that creationism is now allowed in the district's classrooms. The Associated Press says, "Ga. school district OKs creationism." CNN: "Ga. school board OKs teaching creationism."
This is exactly the interpretation of the board's actions that board chairman Curt Johnston apparently worried about when writing the board's only statement after making its decision. He said:
We seem to have been caught in the middle of a dispute between various parties who apparently want to use our curriculum to promote their own views. We expect teachers to continue to teach the theory of evolution. We do not expect teachers to teach creationism … Religion has no place in science instruction. The purpose of this policy is to foster critical thinking among students to allow academic freedom consistent with legal requirements to promote tolerance and acceptance of diversity of opinion and to ensure a posture of neutrality toward religion.
The new policy admits that evolution and other theories of origins are regularly debated and challenged in the science community. Thus, it allows teachers to show this debate in order "to foster critical thinking among students, to allow academic freedom consistent with legal requirements, to promote tolerance and acceptance of diversity of opinion, and to ensure a posture of neutrality toward religion."
In a broad-based curriculum, the policy reads, the "discussion of disputed views of academic subjects is a necessary element of providing a balanced education, including the study of the origin of species."
The much-anticipated board vote comes after a parent sued the district for distributing science books with disclaimers. Stickers inside the books warned that evolution should be critically evaluated because it is a theory and not a fact.
When the school board looked at its old policy on evolution instruction, discussion turned to amending it to include other theories. At the time, Johnson said the board wanted to provide open discussion in the classroom. His hope was that the policy would clarify for teachers what they could discuss.
The parent suing the district reacted to the new policy by saying, "I'll see you in court."
Other evolution stories:
- Adam Vs. evolution | Creation scientist argues Earth about 6,000 years old (Tribune Star, Terre Haute, Ind.)
- Darwinism debate fails to evolve | If Columbia College wished to provoke emotion over creationism and evolution in school curriculums, its public "Dinner With Darwin" couldn't have satisfied many appetites. (The Chicago Tribune)
House passes abortion bill protecting hospitals
The House of Representatives has approved a bill that would allow hospitals and insurance companies to deny to perform or pay for abortions without the threat of losing federal funds. The Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R.4691) passed on Wednesday in a 229-189 vote mainly down party lines.
"This bill provides important protections for the conscience rights of healthcare professionals and providers," said Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical Association in a press release. "No one should be forced to violate their conscience by being coerced to take part in abortion."
The bill amends 1996 legislation (42 U.S.C. '238n), which gave health care entities protection against anti-discrimination suits if they declined to train in or perform abortions. The weakness of this legislation was vague language. In application, it has often only covered residency programs and training—and not healthcare professionals or hospitals themselves.
The bill is also significant for Catholic hospitals that merge with secular hospitals. Abortion groups have pressured the staff of the new institution to provide abortions because they were formerlyavailable at the secular hospital.
Focus on the Family calls this a major victory at a crucial time for pro-life advocates. However, observers don't expect it to survive the Democrat-held Senate. The bill may not even reach the Senate floor this year.
Before the House vote this week, President Bush endorsed the bill: "This legislation makes clear that they may not be subjected to discrimination by the federal government, or by any state or local government … because they oppose or choose not to participate in abortions or abortion training."
Other stories on abortion include:
- The choice Nicole had to make | Nicole Appleton, former singer with all-girl group All Saints, has co-authored a book with her sister Natalie, in which she deals in some detail with the events surrounding her own abortion. (The Scotsman)
- Abortion pill slow to win users among women and their doctors | Two years after the abortion pill was introduced in the U.S., abortion providers say that only a small percentage of women seeking abortions are using it. (The New York Times)
Discussions on physical abuse and punishment
Three extreme cases of beating children have created new discussion of physically punishing youth. One case is a trial in Toronto against a nun who regularly beat children. While the cases of two mothers who recently beat their children in public are more about irrational temper than physical punishment, they have been the subject of interesting columns—especially the case of Madelyne Gorman Toogood. She beat her daughter in a department store parking lot (and was recorded by a security camera).
Columnists are discussing when a child should be pulled from a home, the tendency to rationalize sins, and when individuals should interfere in troublesome situations. In The Chicago Tribune, Focus on the Family's vice president of medical outreach gives a qualified endorsement of spanking.
Darby Christopher wrote this week for The Atlanta-Journal Constitution that cases like Toogood's have taken away the "gray areas" of parenting. "A parent either treats their offspring with the utmost patience and respect at all times," she writes. "Or abuses them, necessitating their removal from the home."
She argues that all parents lose their temper and the public needs to look at itself. Christopher writes:
As a culture, we are like the religious zealots who came to Jesus wanting to stone a woman caught in the act of adultery, only now we have a woman caught losing control and striking her child. To paraphrase Jesus' response, if there is a parent among us who without fear or hesitation would allow the world to view all of their parenting moments on videotape, may he or she cast the first stone.
More articles
Bioethics:
- Embryo cell research a step closer in Australia | National parliamentarians sided three to one in a rare conscience vote to support proposed laws to give the go-ahead (Reuters)
- South Korea bans all human cloning | Anyone convicted of cloning a human in South Korea would face 10 years in prison. (Newscientist.com)
Berkeley study:
- Youthful conservatism | Baby Boomers' kids take right turn on prayer in school, abortion, survey says (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Also: Berkeley study finds youths more conservative than parents (Associated Press)
- Survey reveals conservatism of younger generation | Results differ with elders' in areas of religion, abortion (The Daily Californian, UC-Berkeley)
Books:
- Brigham Young massacre allegation continues to gain attention | Church historians vehemently disagree with the premise of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. (Associated Press)
- Religious leaders accused of heresy | Chief rabbi and new archbishop face grillings over books. (The Guardian, London)
- Also: Denounce gays or quit, church body tells Williams (The Telegraph, London)
Media:
- Church pulps magazine in Prince Charles row (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Ex-editor says Kirk censored magazine | A former editor of the Church of Scotland's official magazine, who was compelled to pulp 50,000 copies of it after an article about the Prince of Wales was deemed inappropriate, has accused senior Kirk figures of censorship (The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland)
Education:
- More Hungarian children attending religious schools | Now six percent of total educational system, just eight years after communism (Voice of America)
- Christian ministry helps new students | InterVarsity Trojan Christian Fellowship, and they serve as both missionaries and advisers to younger classmen (Daily Trojan, USC)
- State probes tiger incident | Misdemeanor charges possible; injured boy returns to school to say he's ok. (The Mercury News, San Jose, Calif.)
- Campus religion majors on rise | Many schools have noted a broad upsurge. They attribute it to a renewed desire for deeper meanings. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Other religions:
- Listening to Islam | An American hears music over the talk-radio din (The Boston Globe)
- Islam attracting many survivors of Rwanda genocide | Jihad is taught as 'struggle to heal.' (The Washington Post)
- Does any religion speak with one voice? | Debates on Islam — and in other faiths — center on who's entitled to define right belief (Jeffrey Weiss, The Dallas Morning News)
- Not peace-loving, after all | Is Islam itself a threat? (Rod Dreher, National Review Online)
Interfaith relations:
- Sharon to Christians: This land was promised only to the Jews, pope told me (The Jerusalem Post)
- Clerics urge peace between Christians, Muslims | American foreign policy called major hurdle (The News-Press, Fla.)
- After 9/11, inmates search for true nature of Islam | The landscape of jailhouse Islam has changed in the past year (The New York Times)
Abraham:
- The legacy of Abraham | He is beloved by Jews, Christians and Muslims. Can this bond stop them from hating one another? (Time)
- Also: Writing a new book of Abraham | Why Fieler believes that this figure's legacy could help unite the three religions (Time)
- 'Abraham' an engaging trip into religious history | Bruce Feiler's book is an exquisitely written journey that takes readers by the hand and guides them through the world's most volatile region (The Boston Globe)
Church life:
- Church bucks trend toward informality | While a growing number of congregations nationally are relaxing dress codes and forsaking formal worship spaces, leaders of a Charlotte megachurch have begun preaching about honoring God by how you look and act (St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Charlotte Observer)
- The mind and faith | For Christians, study is essential to a fully developed spirituality (Editorial, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo)
- Some drawn to 'centering' prayer | One of its gurus, a Trappist monk named Thomas Keating, once was an abbot in Spencer, Mass. Keating, who now lives in Colorado, founded the practice, or rather resurrected it — he says contemplative prayer was practiced in medieval monasteries — 30 years ago (The Boston Globe)
- A new generation of worship | Many parishes now offer family-centered programs, a fresh view of the Gospel (Springfield [Mo.] News-Leader)
- Spiritual seekers often shun churches | Traditional religions inadequate, they decide (The Columbus Dispatch)
- PowerPoint: Preachers' latest sidekick | More pastors are clicking their way through sermons (Religion News Service)
- Even for Baptists, Sunday has grown less restful | It's a touchy topic, judging from telltale omissions in an Aug. 26 article on the plank for the Baptist Press news service (Associated Press)
- Greek Orthodox Cathedral is reaching beyond ethnic roots | St. Sophia Church and its Latino neighbors are finding a unity of spirit that was long lacking (Los Angeles Times)
Christians and Israel:
- Our Christian friends | The growing popularity of the annual Jerusalem march among Christians worldwide is a testament to the rising support Israel enjoys in various Christian quarters, particularly among Evangelicals in the United States (Editorial, The Jerusalem Post)
- Christians show support for Israel | Some urge Sharon to be tougher with Palestinians (Associated Press)
Politics and law:
- Clerics to hold meetings over draft of Kenya's constitution (The Nation, Nairobi)
- Religions too quiet about Alabama tax ills | So says Susan Pace Hamill, professor of law at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- Some target bias in faith initiative bill | A coalition of civil rights groups and liberal House Democrats has mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign to block President Bush's faith-based initiative in the Senate unless the bill explicitly prohibits religious charities from discriminating when hiring (The Boston Globe)
- Conservatives join ACLU in attacking Ashcroft tactics | Paul Weyrich among those who say war on terrorism threatens personal liberty (Scripps Howard News Service)
- Christian lawyer to challenge Arafat | Ghassan Barham says if he were to win the election, he would see to it that Arafat and many of his officials are brought to trial for corruption (The Jerusalem Post)
- Democrat puts dream job over party to quit house | At the end of the month, Mr. Hall, a longtime advocate for the hungry, will go to Rome as the United States ambassador to United Nations food and agriculture agencies (The New York Times)
- Arizona ruling allows lawsuits over hiring, licensing of church pastors | 'Resolution of these claims does not require the interpretation of religious doctrine or ecclesiastical law,' state appeals court says in reviving woman's case (Associated Press)
Persecution and violence:
- Signs removed from Pakistani churches after maps of Christian sites found on suspected Islamic militants (Associated Press)
- U.S. pastors fight healers | The pastors attacked the shrine of Mukasa Kiggundu Kamulali at Misaali in Nyendo and chased away his clients, but a group of youths repulsed them (New Vision, Kampala, Uganda)
- At the heart of Rwanda's horror | General's history offers clues to the roots of genocide (The Washington Post)
- Christians mourn Karachi victims (BBC)
Crime:
- Republicans 'confirm priest was IRA bomber' | Three car bombs exploded without warning in the town of Claudy, Co Londonderry, in July 1972, killing five Catholics and four Protestants aged between nine and 65. (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Pakistani man angered over children's relationships with Christians kills wife and six others | Former employee of Pakistan's Interior Ministry turned himself in to police in the capital after committing the crime (Associated Press)
Church and state:
- 'God' dropped from Honolulu Police Department oath | The department acts in response to a complaint that the language did not comply with the state Constitution (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
- One nation under God? | Pledge case opens another front on separation of church and state issue. (Associated Press)
- School district drops religious-speech ban | A Texas school district has revised a policy that caused an employee to be censured for using her office e-mail to send President Bush's proclamation that designated May 2 as the National Day of Prayer 2002 (The Washington Times)
Other stories of interest:
- Board Games' higher calling | Instead of buying up Boardwalk in "Monopoly" or climbing Gumdrop Mountain in "Candyland," players are saving lost souls in "Redemption" and wading through gefilte fish in "Kosherland" (Fox News)
- Religion News in Brief | Anglican schism, praying Americans, Jim Bakker, Christians opposing Fred Phelps, and other stories (Associated Press)
- Eritrea's 'spiritual father' dies | Since the early hours of this morning, Eritreans have gathered at the main Orthodox church in Asmara to pay their final respects to Abuna Filipos (BBC)
- The unchurched | A new study puts Washington as the second most irreligious state. I'm not so sure. (David Klinghoffer, National Review Online)
- Investigating history | A Tampa police veteran digs into the department's past to compile stories of historic proportion (St. Petersburg Times)
- Pat Robertson praised in Quad Cities | Television host talks about prayer at breakfast meeting (Quad Cities Times, Davenport, Iowa)
- Eviction of loud Christians overturned | Two Christians accused of frightening neighbors by praying too loudly in their apartment have had their eviction notice overturned (Canadian Press)
- William Tyndale: A martyr's memory heals old wounds | Bible-translator brings Catholics, Protestants together (The Japan Times)
Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere
Suggest links and stories by sending mail to weblog@christianitytoday.com
See our past Weblog updates:
September 26 | 25 | 24 | 23
September 19 | 18 | 17 | 16
September 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9
September 6 | 5 | 4 | 3
August 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26
August 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19
August 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12
August 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5
August 2 | 1 | July 31 | 30 | 29
Annual & Monthly subscriptions available.
- Print & Digital Issues of CT magazine
- Complete access to every article on ChristianityToday.com
- Unlimited access to 65+ years of CT’s online archives
- Member-only special issues
- Learn more
Read These Next
- From the MagazineAn Alternative to the Bonhoeffer OptionChristians today can learn from WWII-era theologian K.H. Miskotte about resisting without resorting to political violence.
- Editor's Pick‘Are You Ready to Open Your Doors … And Your Toilets?’French evangelicals are working together to show people Jesus at 2024 Olympic Games.Français