Going Ape: Florida's Battles over Evolution in the Classroom

7. “One of the Primal Evils in Our Country”

122 | “One of the Primal Evils in Our Country” Efforts to promote creationism in Volusia County had been ongoing for years, but they had never made a big splash. Advocates were no less passionate there than in other counties, but they were stymied at every turn. They felt their views were ignored by the public school system while secular humanism was give preferential treatment. Resident Dick Smith said in 1991, “The losers are the kids. They are being brainwashed.”1 The Volusia County creationists had worked on state legislators and school board members in an effort to be heard, but without luck. Then they talked directly with teachers and school system administrators in an effort to show them the supporting evidence for creationism. They lamented the fact that the school district used textbooks that either never mention creationism or mention it in a negative light. However, their efforts were constantly frustrated. The district’s science specialist, Billie Wisniewski, was matter-of-fact about the issue: “It has not, really, a place in a science textbook. It’s not a science.”2 Creationism was one of several points of contention in a growing conflict between Volusia County–based Stetson University and one of Stetson’s benefactors, the Florida Baptist Convention. The convention had given the school more than a million dollars annually in the late 1980s, but tensions grew between the private school and the religious 7 “One of the Primal Evils in Our Country” | 123 organization. Their relationship started in 1885, but more than a century later the university wanted more control over its own affairs. At the same time, the convention had grown more conservative and disagreed with many things the school was allowing. Control of the convention was turning over to fundamentalists who felt they should have a louder voice in Baptist schools’ academic programs. The convention leadership didn’t like Stetson’s liberal and historical take on the Bible, its omission of creationism from the curriculum, and reports that condoms had been handed out on campus by a student group. In the early 1990s an agreement was struck that the university would have greater academic freedom and more control over selecting its own board of trustees, while the convention would decrease its funding . By 1993 all funding had stopped. Stetson’s president at the time, Douglas Lee, had helped broker the deal in the name of academic freedom . The convention has “become so narrowly focused on theological issues that we, as an educational institution that fosters diversity and an open search for the truth, cannot continue (the same relationship),” he said.3 “An Educated Guess” Anti-evolution sentiments had certainly made big splashes in Manatee County over the years. Even though no one made lasting headway into challenging the teaching of evolution in schools, the feeling that schools were “shoving evolution” down children’s throats still bothered many residents in the early 1990s. The Manatee County Ministerial Association decided to take action in 1991 by raising money to purchase copies of the book Of Pandas and People. The books would then be donated to public school libraries. Association chairman Rev. Cornell Haan explained , “Schools are just teaching one theory. Neither one is proven, they are both still theories. Both should be taught in school.”4 The county’s science supervisor, Dr. John Bernreuter, said it would be up to the appropriate review committees whether the books made it into libraries, but they definitely wouldn’t appear in science classrooms. “The book presented views in a religious manner, which is not appropriate for science,” he said.5 Bernreuter started his job right at the tail end of the last wave of creationism efforts, but he was already confident in 124 | Going Ape his stance. Evolution was taught in the schools, he confirmed, and it was an important concept for students to understand. Creationism isn’t a science. “It’s based on faith and it’s difficult to teach that in science,” he said. “Theory is based on evidence. Where’s the evidence that there’s somebody moving things around? That’s faith.”6 There were those in the school system who disagreed with Bernreuter , though. The chairman of the science department at Palmetto High School, James Pauley, said that ever since the Supreme Court had banned prayer in schools, things started going downhill. He had taught honors biology, which includes a section on evolution. At the...