Can creationists speak in public schools?

AiG’s Mike Riddle spoke in a public school in Missouri today. This has received much media attention as the group “Americans United for Separation of Church and State” demanded the school cancel the speaking invitation. A newspaper article in Missouri’s Daily Journal reported:

Americans United for Separation of Church and State contends the school district violated Constitutional requirements of separation of church and state when it brought Mike Riddle to speak to high school and middle school students Monday. Riddle works for AIG, a fundamentalist Christian group that disputes the theory of evolution and supports a strict Biblical interpretation of creation. A spokesman for the group said concerned residents of the district contacted them about Riddle's planned appearance.

[...]

Citing Missouri’s Sunshine law, Katskee asked for all documents “referring or relating to any presentations to district students conducted by Mike Riddle or Answers in Genesis, as well as all documents identifying outside speakers at district schools, and all documents relating to the district’s policies for selecting, inviting, or approving outside speakers.”

Davis contends the district did not violate the law because Riddle discussed science, not religion. Riddle’s school presentations are different from those given at churches, he explained.

“We probably have scrutinized this speaker greater than any other speaker we’ve had,” Davis said Monday after Riddle’s first presentation in the high school library. “If there were any thoughts that the Establishment clause would be violated or that we would violate the Constitution, we would not have had this speaker.”

[...]

Even so, inviting a member of a creationist group to speak to students in a public school is against the law, Katskee said.

I wonder how long it will be before this secular humanist group claims that if someone is a creationist, they cannot be employed as a teacher in a public school! The newspaper report indicates that the school investigated Mike Riddle more than any other speaker they have ever had! Creationists sure evoke an emotional reaction from those who insist that the religion of naturalism should be the only religion taught in public schools—as that is what groups like “Americans United for Separation of Church and State” are really doing!

You can read the rest of the article at: School district refuses request to cancel speaker.

ANSWERS IS COMING

The incredible Answers magazine and the special associated website is almost ready for release to the world! Read today’s web article on the special features of this Answers project: Answers—a twenty-first century apologetics tool. If you haven’t subscribed, I urge you to do so in time for the inaugural issue: answersmagazine.com.

The Answers website will be online next week so you can sample what it will be like. Also, we will be releasing the first article in our FREE online technical section. We are thrilled that peer-reviewed technical articles will be released online and available FREE.

Yesterday, Mark Looy and I recorded 45 radio programs of AiG’s daily radio program. Today, I spent the morning recording a reading of Genesis 1–11. It was hard work pronouncing all those names in some of the chapters, but we had a special book that told us how to pronounce them, and with an Australian accent, who knows if I’m right or not! We will be offering the CD of this Genesis 1–11 reading through our monthly letter in June.

Thanks for stopping by,

Ken