April 2017 Church & State - April 2016

S.D. Lawmakers Reject ‘Intelligent Design’ Bill

  AU admin

South Dakota’s House Education Committee has rejected an anti-science bill that would have allowed public schools to teach “intelligent design,” a code term for creationism.

Senate Bill 55, which the House committee voted down 9-6 on Feb. 22, asserted that public school teachers can introduce “in an objective scientific manner the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information.”

Dubbed an “Academic Freedom Bill,” the bill didn’t explicitly mention evolution or creationism, but its broad language has appeared in other states and has been used to give teachers leeway to introduce creationism in class.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Jeff Monroe, had tried to introduce similar legislation in 2014 and said his next attempt would be generically worded, as SB55 was. Americans United sent a letter to House committee leaders on Feb. 3 expressing opposition to the bill’s content.

“Rather than promote scientific thought, (the bill) would authorize teachers to discuss and teach ‘intelligent design’ as a ‘critique’ or ‘weakness’ of evolution,” AU’s Legislative Director Maggie Garrett wrote.

While South Dakota’s bill is dead for the legislative year, other states with similar bills pending are Indiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


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