Attorney: AU Intimidated El Tejon Schools Into Dropping Intelligent Design
by Jim Brown
January 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - As part of a court settlement, a rural school district in California has agreed to stop teaching the theory of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution.A group of parents represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the El Tejon School District last week, saying a class taught by a minister's wife violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution -- the so-called "wall of separation between church and state." The plaintiffs' argued that the class represented an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
As a result of the settlement, Americans United has announced that Frazier Mountain High School will be dropping a philosophy class that discusses the highly debated origins theory known as intelligent design, or ID. That same organization was also involved in a case that resulted in Pennsylvania schools being barred from teaching the idea that evolutionary theory cannot explain life's complexity.
Brian Fahling | |
Brian Fahling with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy says the court settlement filed yesterday indicates the "tyrannical nature" of people like Barry Lynn, who heads Americans United. Members of that group talk a lot and also talk "a good game about free thought and pluralism in our culture," the attorney notes, but he feels their actions do not suggest genuine commitment to these ideals."The idea that they would go in and strong-arm an agreement from a school district, essentially, to not teach, for instance, intelligent design in the future, is beyond the pale," Fahling says. Moreover, he contends, it is questionable "whether or not the school district actually has the authority to agree not to provide a course that is otherwise well within constitutional bounds."
The AFA Law Center spokesman says the school district overreacted to pressure from Americans United and its leader. The zealous church-state separationist Lynn, the pro-family lawyer remarks, "can sniff out a religious purpose in a grape."
However, Fahling feels the school district should not have caved in to the liberal activist group's pressure. He notes, "It was another colossal mistake by the school district to allow Americans United to portray the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in a philosophy course as being the equivalent of teaching it in a science course when, in fact, it is not."
Intelligent design can be taught constitutionally in classrooms as science, Fahling asserts. And, he adds, the AFA Law Center is willing to defend any school that chooses to do so.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
