Public employees campaign for removal of creationist book from Grand Canyon

[Ian David]

Public employees campaign for removal of creationist book from Grand Canyon
Petition seeks to reverse "faith-based" illegalities in national parks
http://www.peer.org/campaigns/publiclands/faith-based/index.php

by JewsOnFirst, January 9, 2007

A public employee whistleblower organization has exposed the Bush administration's backtracking on a commitment to consider removing a creationist book from National Park Service bookstores. The book claims that the Grand Canyon formed in Noah's flood, several thousand years ago.

The whistleblower group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), has launched a public campaign for removal of the book, and, more broadly for "an end to "public dollars ... being spent to promote religion" in the national parks. PEER has posted a petition expressing that position here.

http://www.peer.org/campaigns/publiclands/faith-based/index.php

In a telephone interview with JewsOnFirst, PEER executive director Jeff Ruch said he was hopeful that the petition will prompt the new Congress to exercise oversight of the Park Service. Ruch identified two other blatant encroachments on the national parks by fundamentalist Christians -- one involving a video shown at the Lincoln Memorial; the second is a cross on public land in the California desert.

The book, Grand Canyon: A Different View, is published by the Institute for Creation Research and explains the Canyon's geological features in terms of the biblical creation story. It is being promoted by Canyon Ministries, which offers a "Christ-centered motorized rafting trip" through the Canyon; it tells its customers the Canyon was formed in Noah's flood.

The Park Service approved the book's sale in 2003, and according to published reports, responded to complaints with a promise to review the decision. PEER determined through a records request that no reconsideration process ever began.

Ruch said that National Parks Service employees sparked the campaign for the removal of the book. The employees, he said, "felt the law is being broken by giving in to Christian fundamentalist groups." They "wanted to share their unhappiness about the book with their employers, the public."

More:
http://www.jewsonfirst.org/07a/grandcanyon_book.html




National Park Service employees from across the country who are concerned that Bush political appointees are taking our national parks in a new, dangerous direction have contacted PEER to ask for our assistance.

In a series of recent decisions, the National Park Service has approved the display of religious symbols and Bible verses, as well as the sale of creationist books giving a biblical explanation for the Grand Canyon and other natural wonders.

These moves all emanate from top Park Service political appointees over the objections of park superintendents, agency lawyers and scientists. A number of fundamentalist Christian and socially conservative groups are claiming credit for these actions and touting their new direct and personal access to Bush Administration officials.

You can help today by signing on to PEER's growing list of supporters who feel that religion should be separate from our National Park Service...and the Grand Canyon is a bit older than a mere few thousand years!

Take Action Now
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/PEER/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=132&t=Faith_BasedPetition.dwt

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. Grand Canyon: Younger than Glue.

Yup....If the creationists have it their way, that should be the motto of the Canyon.

The Grand Canyon.

Formed 1000 years AFTER the Sumerians invented glue.

[Ian David]

2. Turns out, part of this story is a hoax

See:

Fact Checking 101: How Skeptic magazine was Duped by an Environmental Activist Group
by Michael Shermer (of Skeptic Magazine)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=247&topic_id=8382&mesg_id=8382


<snip>

Unfortunately, in our eagerness to find additional examples of the inappropriate intrusion of religion in American public life (as if we actually needed more), we accepted this claim by PEER without calling the National Park Service (NPS) or the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) to check it. As a testimony to the quality of our readers, however, dozens immediately phoned both NPS and GCNP, only to discover that the claim is absolutely false. Callers were told that the Grand Canyon is millions of years old, that no one is being pressured from Bush administration appointees — or by anyone else — to withhold scientific information, and all were referred to a statement by David Barna, Chief of Public Affairs, National Park Service as to the park’s official position. “Therefore, our interpretive talks, way-side exhibits, visitor center films, etc. use the following explanation for the age of the geologic features at Grand Canyon,” the document explains.

<snip>

The reference to the creationism book being sold in the Grand Canyon bookstore — Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail — is true. It is sold in the “inspiration” section of the bookstore, alongside other books of myth and spirituality. In any case, the story is an old one now, and completely irrelevant to the claim that NPS employees are withholding information about the age of the canyon, and/or are being pressured to do so by Bush administration appointees.

More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=247&topic_id=8382&mesg_id=8382