Republican Member of the Texas House- Evolution Is a Jewish Conspiracy

Editorial

From the Chronicle-

Feb. 15, 2007, 8:13PM
Not in Kansas anymore
Just when Kansas returns science to the classroom, Rep. Chisum tries to goad Texas toward Dark Ages.

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

It started off as a such a good week — both for science and for the American students who must understand it to compete with their peers abroad. The Kansas Board of Education finally joined most of the United States in accepting the teaching of evolution in public schools.

Then Texas' own state Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, had to mail colleagues a freakish memo denouncing evolution as a religious plot disseminated by one "Pharisee Religion."

The mix of nonsense, free-floating anti-Semitism, misuse of power and seeming obliviousness to all of the above were like a dip into the Dark Ages.

Evolutionary science, Chisum's memorandum told lawmakers, was the creation of "Rabbinic writings" in the "mystic holy book Kabbala." As such, the memo went on in a medley of type fonts, underlined sentences and misplaced capitals, teaching evolution in public school violates the Constitution.

The document linked to Web sites including "fixedearth.com," which asserts that Earth is the center of the universe. Chillingly, the links also offer overtly anti-Semitic rants, contending that evolutionary science supports a "centuries-old" Jewish conspiracy against Christian teachings.

Circulated under Chisum's letterhead as Appropriations Committee chairman, the memo actually was penned by Rep. Ben Bridges of the Georgia Legislature. "I ... greatly appreciate his information on this important topic," Chisum assured his Texas colleagues.

Chisum has offered — wanly — to apologize about the Jewish references.

Unsavory as they were, though, the memo's incoherent ravings about rabbis and Kabbala may not be its most dangerous offense. Most literate people know the Hebrew Bible and rabbinical writers as the sources for Judeo-Christian accounts of Creation. Chisum's far-fetched theology doesn't quite track.

But recent events in Kansas do show how religious agendas can distort education and economic decisions. Until this week, Kansas was known internationally for high school science class guidelines that challenged evolutionary science.

Voters resolutely routed the guilty Education Board in the last election. The new members have restored Kansas' science class guidelines to the scientific mainstream.

In Kansas, as elsewhere, battles over evolution have been fought by advocates of "intelligent design," who urged that science teachers introduce theological assumptions as if they were hypotheses based on empirical observation. The campaign took what might be a mortal wound last year in Dover, Pa., when a federal district judge ruled teaching creationism in science classes was unconstitutional. Kansas seemed the last redoubt of this campaign — until Rep. Chisum revived it.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Chisum said he's "willing to apologize" about his references to Jews. He said he didn't know about the ranting on the memo's recommended Web sites.

But presumably he knew, and liked, the preposterous contents of his memo itself. It's hard to know what's worse: Chisum's careless spreading of words he condemns — or his unremorseful promotion of ideas that would fling Texas' students and economy years behind their competitors.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/4557923.html