John Donald McLeroy Quotes
Somebody’s got to stand up against these experts.
The “experts” were scientists and science educators who had testified that Creationism, a notion that some religious Christians believe is a more valid explanation of the development of plants and animals than is Evolution, is a religious belief, not a science and should not be taught in a science curriculum. McLeroy believed that even in teaching science, scientific thinking and expertise should not be given more weight than religion in general and Christianity in particular. Some fundamentalist Protestants find Evolution distressing in that it contradicts the literal Biblical narrative. Other Protestants, Jews, and Catholics do not see anything in Evolution that conflicts with their spiritual view of God. They see Evolution as the mechanism that God created for the development of life. McLeroy was defeated in the next election after taking this anti scientific position, and was replaced with another fundamentalist Protestant—but one who did not believe that a particular Protestent, Christian view of the world which scientists generally reject should be taught as science in public schools.
John Donald McLeroy, Chairman, Texas State Board of Education (Republican), Statement at a Board Meeting on the Teaching of Evolution, Quoted on PBS Need to Know, August 26, 2011
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A teacher had been arrested and threatened with jail because he had taught Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in a high school science class. The ACLU paid for famed attorney, Clarence Darrow, to defend Scopes in the famous trial that exposed the ignorance and bias of the schools that prohibited teaching about evolution as it contravened the Protestant fundamentalist Biblical version of the creation of humans. While the ACLU had a major victory, even today many school systems—mostly in the South—still prohibit such teaching and while no teacher can be jailed, they can be fired for not following the curriculum of the local school board.
The school board had been pressured by religious fundamentalists throughout the state of Georgia to affix these stickers ({586989}) to all textbooks as there were no textbooks that met curricular standards that did not teach evolution. As soon as they started this practice, a suit was filed in the Federal District Court which ordered the stickers to be removed.
She had just defeated the previous board chairwoman, Linda Holloway,who had voted with the majority the previous year to revise the standards so that evolution would not be included. See Linda Holloway {603677}.
Vanderbuilt University was then under the Control of the Tennessee Methodist Episcopal Church and Bishop McTyeire served as the University President. Winchell had written that man had been on earth long before that dates that hade been officially proscribed to Adam and Eve by most church theologians, The university asked for the Professor’s resignation, and when he refused (See {612831}), he was fired. There was no such thing as Academic Freedom at Vanderbuilt at the time. But this case spurred its adoption throughout the country.
Vanderbuilt University was then under the Control of the Tennessee Methodist Episcopal Church and Bishop McTyeire served as the University President. Winchell, a member of the church, had written that man had been on earth long before that dates that hade been officially proscribed to Adam and Eve by most church theologians, The university asked for the Professor’s resignation (See {612709}), and when he refused, he was fired. There was no such thing as Academic Freedom at Vanderbuilt at the time. But this case was one of those that spurred its adoption throughout the country.
