Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), is a fundamentalist Christian organization, and they have been increasing their presence on public grade school campuses across America through their Good News Club.
CEF has been around for 70 years and is in over 170 countries. CEF claims that through God they been given a number of unique ministries toprey on and abuseevangelize and disciple children.
They run the Good News Club which is apparently very popular following a Supreme Court victory allowing the club to be in public schools across America. The 5-Day Club® which takes place during the summer months with with teenagers who receive training in the Christian Youth in Action® program.
Christian Evangelism FellowshipI am not sure how this got by me since this is my own backyard. But, an elementary school with the largest school district in my county apparently sent home some pamphlets about an evangelical club.Lucia Mar Unified School District administrators are trying to figure out how pamphlets for an evangelical club made their way into students’ homework packets at a local elementary school.
Beginning Jan. 10, students at Ocean View Elementary brought home homework packets, which include assignments, announcements, and other materials. The packets typically go out each week without controversy, but this time they included a permission slip for participation in an after-school Bible study group.
The pamphlets were sent out by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, promoting a group called the “After School Good News Club.” According to its website, the organization is a “Bible-centered, worldwide organization that is dedicated to seeing every child reached with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, disciplined and established in a local church.”
“I was shocked. I could not believe they would allow this to go out to everybody,” said one parent, whose first-grade daughter attends Ocean View and asked not to be named to protect her child’s identity.
She contacted the school, which didn’t know how the pamphlet was included in the homework packets.
According to Principal Cynthia Ravalin, materials must be approved by the district’s curriculum department before they’re distributed to students. The district’s director of curriculum was out of town as of press time and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Kevin Baker, Lucia Mar’s executive director of facilities, maintenance, and operations, told New Times he didn’t know how the permission slips made their way out to students, but that it shouldn’t have happened in a public school.
“We’re still investigating,” Baker said. “I don’t know that they did go out to everybody, but so far I can [say] we’re not getting the full story.”
Baker said he was contacted by a concerned parent regarding the pamphlets. Principal Ravalin, whose daughter attends Ocean View, also said she’s been contacted by parents, but that her daughter didn’t receive the pamphlet in question in her homework packet.
Under federal law, public schools aren’t allowed to endorse or promote organizations or clubs that are religious in nature.
Dan Johnson, director of the local chapter of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, said the organization had the right to send the pamphlet out and that it adhered to school district policies.
“The main thing is that they have to treat us the same as any other group,” Johnson said. “The school district has to be consistent.”
Johnson said there’s confusion regarding the separation between church and state. In June 2001, the Child Evangelism Fellowship won a case before the federal supreme court, which ruled a public school in New York violated the club’s freedom of speech when it excluded the club from meeting after hours at the school.
Ravalin said Ocean View is currently allowing the Good News Club to meet on school grounds after school hours, but that the pamphlets probably shouldn’t have been distributed by the school. She said the school has a tenuous history with the group, which has been provided a classroom in which to meet.
“They’ve been quite aggressive,” Ravalin said. “And we want to make sure we follow the proper process.”
She added that she understands parents’ concerns and that she’s awaiting direction from the superintendent’s office.
New Times could not reach Lucia Mar Superintendent Jim Hogoboom for comment.
Image via WikipediaSchools may again require moment of silence
Giles schools give God space; will return Ten Commandments display to buildings
School board: Graduations to stay at church
Oklahoma House Bill 1551 (rtf) and Senate Bill 554 (rtf).
Mississippi Student Religious Liberties Act Of 2011
Of course, if distributing the Proclaimer to dying Haitians isn't enough how about the Bible Stick available in NIV and KJV versions. Oh and do not miss the KIDZ Bible Stick full of children's 
Lastly, from CES 2011 comes the ioPrego Electronic Rosary. 
"Kerusso Challenges Students to Share Their Faith on Campus! ... Students have First Amendment rights on a public school campus that cannot be denied without reason. Among their rights regarding religion on campus is the free distribution of Christian literature when class is not in session. In addition, students have the freedom to communicate Christian messages through apparel and/or school supplies and the freedom of voicing to others their beliefs as long as it does not interfere with class time. ... "I certainly wouldn't expect a school to arbitrarily ask a student to remove a Christian themed t-shirt any more than I would an atheist themed t-shirt. However, many schools have policies prohibiting sayings on t-shirts. I think I see an issue coming.
In this day and age of technology, far less people visit places of worship than ever. However, a Tech Savvy Florida Church is tackling the issue with the help of technology by providing Live Worshiping for devotees on devices such as iPhone, Android and Blackberry.
The Northland Church has also been using the Facebook platform to allow users to worship from the comfort of their computers. And if that was not enough they have now launched a first-ever live church channel on the Roku set-top device.
Image by Nick Atkins Photography via FlickrEven in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny”
~ Pope Benedict XVI
"[Pope Benedict] saying secularism and atheism = lack of virtue and morality = Nazism."
Public Waldorf schools booming in Sacramento -- but are they legal?
By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Aug. 2, 2010 - 12:00 am
Image via Wikipedia
It seems that the members of the Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church aren't very happy about the San Diego Comic-Con. According to them, it's a gathering of lost souls who are obsessively worshipping false idols like Batman:
Are you kidding?! If these people would spend even some of the energy that they spend on these comic books, reading the Bible, well no high hopes here. They have turned comic book characters into idols, and worship them they do! Isaiah 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: 9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. It is time to put away the silly vanities and turn to God like you mean it. The destruction of this nation is imminent - so start calling on Batman and Superman now, see if they can pull you from the mess that you have created with all your silly idolatry.Members of the church intend on staging a 45-minute protest during one of the least busy days of the convention in order to get everyone back on the right track. [Blastr via Nerd Bastards]
Image via WikipediaCalif. Community College Should Not Impose Religion at Public Events, Americans United Tells Appeals Court
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked a federal appeals court to stop a Southern California community college from proselytizing and imposing prayers at public events.
The legal action comes in a lawsuit filed last year by Americans United on behalf of several students and faculty. At issue is the South Orange County Community College District’s practice of including prayer and other religious content in its events.
“Officials at these public schools are forcing religion on students, faculty and staff,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Their actions are unconstitutional and insensitive, and it’s time for this to stop.”
Plaintiffs assert that school officials routinely sponsor official invocations at events for students and faculty at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, including scholarship-award ceremonies, commencements and training programs for faculty.
AU filed the lawsuit in November of 2009. In May, a federal district court denied AU’s motion for a preliminary injunction, saying the request was too broad – although the court conceded that some of the district’s actions might be unconstitutional.
In a legal document filed yesterday, AU asks the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling.
“Unless this Court intercedes, students and faculty will continue to be subjected to religiously divisive messages as the price for partaking of college life,” asserts the filing.
The Westphal v. Wagner lawsuit notes that students and faculty members have protested the mandatory prayers many times over several years. The student government of Saddleback College has twice passed resolutions opposing the prayer practice, and similar resolutions have been passed by the faculty’s Academic Senate of Saddleback College, the Academic Senate of Irvine Valley College, the statewide Academic Senate for California Community Colleges and the South Orange County Community College District Faculty Association.
Officials ignored the complaints and, in response, actually increased the religious content of these public events, attacking religious minorities and nonbelievers.
In August of 2009, Saddleback officials showed a video titled “God Bless the USA” during a faculty training session. The video included religious images and closed with two pictures of military personnel carrying a flag-draped coffin. Superimposed on those images was the following text: “Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American G.I. One died for your soul, the other died for your freedom.”
Making matters worse, attendance at some of these events is mandatory. For example, students who are awarded scholarships must attend a public ceremony or forfeit the financial aid.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are: Karla Westphal, Alannah Rosenberg, Margot Lovett and Claire Cesareo-Silva, all professors at Saddleback College; Roy Bauer, a professor at Irvine Valley College; Ashley Mockett, a former student at Saddleback and two current Saddleback students who have chosen to remain anonymous.
The litigation is being conducted by AU Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan, AU Assistant Legal Director Richard B. Katskee and AU Madison Fellow Jef Klazen, as well as Christopher P. Murphy of Mayer Brown LLP in Los Angeles.
Image by DavidDMuir via FlickrA School Prays for Help
LAKELAND, Fla.—When his budget for pencils, paper, and other essential supplies was cut by a third this school year, the principal of Combee Elementary School worried children would suffer.
Towns Tap Businesses, Churches to Shore Up Budgets
By JENNIFER LEVITZ and STEPHANIE SIMON
Then, a local church stepped in and "adopted" the school. The First Baptist Church at the Mall stocked a resource room with $5,000 worth of supplies. It now caters spaghetti dinners at evening school events, buys sneakers for poor students, and sends in math and English tutors.
The principal is delighted. So are church pastors. "We have inroads into public schools that we had not had before," says Pastor Dave McClamma. "By befriending the students, we have the opportunity to visit homes to talk to parents about Jesus Christ."
Short on money for everything from math workbooks to microscope slides, public schools across the nation are seeking corporate and charitable sponsors, promising them marketing opportunities and access to students in exchange for desperately needed donations.
The dash for private funding has raised concerns. The Oklahoma Senate last month voted down a bill that would have allowed advertising on school buses, a move supporters said would prevent teacher layoffs. "Do we want our school buses to look like Dale Jr. (NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr.) is driving them?" says state Sen. Steve Russell, an Oklahoma City Republican who opposed the bill. "What's next? How about Starbucks on the side of our M1 tanks?"
In Florida, meanwhile, alliances between churches and schools are igniting debate about church-state boundaries. "I have great concerns about churches who see public schools as, well, what shall I say, church membership," says Harry Parrott, a retired Baptist minister who runs a local chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Combee Elementary School is one of many schools seeking private help amid the orange groves of central Florida's Polk County, which has an unemployment rate of 12.1% and the fifth-highest rate of suburban poverty in the nation, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C. think tank.
Nearby Frostproof Elementary asks local businesses to sponsor classrooms, in return for promotion on the school marquee. Among those that stepped in is Rogers & Walker Gun Shop, which earned billing for donations totaling $300 to two classes.
At Sikes Elementary, principal Ann Tankson hands out fliers urging families to flock to "McTeacher's Night" at the local McDonald's, where volunteer teachers flip burgers as "celebrity employees." The franchise gives a portion of proceeds to the school.
"You do what you have to do," she says.
Public agencies across the spectrum, not just schools, are doing what they have to do. Already hit by a fall in sales and income taxes over the past two years, local governments now are wrestling with a drop in property-tax collections as home values are adjusted to reflect the downturn.
The police department in tiny Bayport, Minn., sought donations from a pet-food company to buy and feed its first trained police dog, a black-lab mix named Keylo. The public library system in El Paso, Texas, recently formed a nonprofit foundation to raise corporate funds to buy children's books and Spanish-language literature. Costa Mesa, Calif., is hunting for businesses to sponsor dog-poop bag dispensers.
Short of funds to provide homeless services, the Florida Department of Children and Families recently gave nearly $260,000 to the First Baptist Church Leesburg, an hour from Orlando, to buy and renovate the old Big Bass Motel in Leesburg. The church will open it this month as a shelter for homeless families. Residents will be required to attend church, though it doesn't have to be First Baptist, says Chester Wood, director of the inn.
Such alliances "are forcing a kind of essential re-examining of the public-private compact," says Mark Muro, a public policy analyst at the Brookings Institution. "We're going to be seeing more and more of this in the next year or two—and we're going to be seeing some experiments."
Public schools are making some of the boldest moves. Traditionally, private donations—including foundation grants and money raised at bake sales—have amounted to just 1% of K-12 funding nationally, according to the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit think tank. The money generally has been spent on extras like new computers or playground upgrades.
Now, it's for essentials. "They're asking for simple things: books for the classroom, art supplies, paper," says Sean McGraw, executive director of a nonprofit foundation that supports public schools in wealthy Douglas County, Colo.
Bake sales no longer cut it. Manatee County, Fla., just received a $20,000 check from a local cucumber grower, Falkner Farms, which wants to sponsor and name an elementary-school engineering program. District officials are reviewing the deal as they continue to solicit sponsors for other courses.
The San Diego Unified School District is seriously considering opening its middle- and high-school cafeterias and gyms to corporate advertising, a move that could bring in $30,000 to $50,000 a year per school, says Bernie Rhinerson, chief district relations officer.
"We wouldn't put tobacco or anything objectionable to young minds," Mr. Rhinerson says.
But he can see Nike advertising in the gym. "That $30,000 could buy a part-time music teacher, a resource teacher, or books for the library," Mr. Rhinerson says.
North of San Diego, administrators in the Vista Unified School District are already reaching out to private-sector sponsors. Dentist John Coleman runs periodic promotions offering free teeth-whitening for patients who write a $150 check to a magnet school across the street from his office. The school sends home fliers advertising the deal; teachers talk it up among friends. The dentist says he's raised $5,000 for school science programs while bringing in more than enough new patients to make it worth his while.
This summer, the Houston Independent School District plans to launch a commercial online radio station in partnership with a private firm, RFC Media. The station, accessible from the district website, will play rock and rhythm-and-blues, air school news and sports highlights, and include five minutes of commercials each hour from a local supermarket chain, a furniture store and other sponsors. RFC Media, which has long experience in Houston radio, expects the district's share of the profit to top $300,000 the first year.
Some parents say they're grateful when the private sector steps up. "If a minor-league baseball park can have commercial sponsors, why shouldn't a high school, if it alleviates the tax burden and helps balance the budget?" says Dick Lee, a mortgage broker whose three children attend public schools in Newton, Mass. That district is considering selling naming rights to the theater, gym, swimming pool and athletic fields at its newest high school.
Other parents feel the alliances go too far. In Nashville, parent Mortimer Davenport is irked at a deal approved this spring by Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. In return for $150,000 in cash and in-kind donations, the Tennessee Credit Union will open a bank branch in Antioch High School's cafeteria that will be run by students and staff and serve the school. The high school's business program has also been renamed, "The Tennessee Credit Union Academy of Business and Finance."
Mr. Davenport isn't crazy about having teens handle other peoples' money. And the deal with the credit union disturbs him.
"If a business is willing to pump money into a public-school system, they should just give it to the school to buy things it needs," says Mr. Davenport, whose daughter is a senior at Antioch High.
The school district says the bank branch will allow young people to get hands-on business experience.
Some educators and parents worry that schools in affluent areas have an advantage in finding private donors, exacerbating inequities in the classroom. They also fret that if schools are too successful at raising donations, lawmakers will cut their public funding even more deeply. "Legislators will begin to factor in outside donations when setting school budgets," says Arnold Fege of the Public Education Network, which represents school-advocacy groups.
In Polk County, situated between Tampa and Orlando, educators say they must run after every available dollar. Declining property-tax revenue has forced the school district to strip $76 million, or nearly 10%, from its budget over the past two years, even though the student population has grown, says Superintendent Gail McKinzie.
At Combee Elementary, funding for basic school supplies is down 33%, says principal Steve Comparato. In recent months, he's received donations from a local fertilizer company and a grocery chain. But Combee's most active sponsor is First Baptist Church at the Mall, a 9,000-member congregation that uses golf carts to shuttle worshippers from its palm-tree-filled parking lot to its main chapel, which used to be a Sam's Club.
Last fall, a school staffer who worships at the church told pastors about the school's plight. In a visit to Combee shortly thereafter, Mr. McClamma, the church's senior associate pastor of evangelism and missions, offered to start by opening a "resource room" stocked with supplies.
"I said, 'Amen,'" recalls Mr. Comparato. "This was like a prayer answered."
While Combee gained resources, the church gained access to families. At Christmas, the school connected the church with parents who said they wouldn't mind being visited at home by First Baptist. The church brought gifts, food and the gospel. Of about 30 families visited over two weekends in December, 13 "came to the Lord," says Mr. McClamma, a 58-year-old motorcycle buff who drives a black sports-utility vehicle with the bumper sticker "Christ First."
Mr. McClamma says adopting Combee goes far beyond providing resources like school supplies. "The purpose is to show them the church cares, and that there is hope, and hope is found in Jesus Christ."
"If they want to come in and help, who am I to say no?" says Mr. Comparato, the principal.
He says he would welcome congregations of any faith as sponsors, but adds of his students, "My personal conviction is that I hope through this they'll know Jesus and they'll get saved."
Asked if the principal's comments indicated he was promoting one particular religion, Ms. McKinzie, the Polk County superintendent, says, "He personally can hope anything he wants, as long as he offers programs at the school for parents who don't believe in the Baptist faith or anything at all."
Loretta Deal, a Combee parent, says she's not a churchgoer, but she appreciates the help from First Baptist, particularly after the church brought her gift certificates at Christmas. Ms. Deal, who is disabled from a stroke, says the church encouraged her to come to their church but she felt comfortable refusing. "Yes, they did, but I have never been a churchgoing person," she says.
On a recent muggy afternoon at the school, the lanky, 57-year-old principal strode down outdoor walkways painted with cougar paws (for the Combee mascot) with two pastors from First Baptist.
"Can I have a word of prayer with you?" asked Pastor McClamma. The principal, his assistant and the two pastors from First Baptist stood in a circle outdoors, outside the main office. Pastor McClamma asked for "Combee Elementary, Lord, just to excel."
As he walked through classrooms, Pastor McClamma jotted down notes of what the school was short on.
"How are y'all on the colored pencils? Need some of these?" he asked the principal, holding up pencils. "If you're getting low on supplies, let me know."
Image via Wikipedia
Schools can increase our religious literacy
Religion professor Stephen Prothero is tired of teaching students who come into his class with little basic knowledge of religion - even their own. One way to fight that, he says, is to make two courses mandatory in all public schools: one on the Bible and one on world religions.
We couldn't agree more.
Prothero is a professor of religion at Boston University and the author of the New York Times best seller "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn't." He spoke Wednesday at Union University as part of the Union Forum.
We are grateful to Union for this continuing series, which never fails to draw speakers who make us think in new ways about matters crucial to our society.
Prothero's proposal should not be misunderstood. He does not want these courses used to create converts to Christianity or any other faith. His point is this: To understand the world around us - everything from art, to music, to politics, to international relations - we must have a working knowledge of the Bible and of the world's religions.
Religion, Prothero said, is a key motivator and, in fact, "is the most powerful force in world history."
Prothero notes that religion, specifically Christianity, is playing an ever larger role in the American political world. A lack of religious knowledge means voters are not able to make sound judgments about those who use religion in creating their political identities. It means journalists aren't able to ask important questions. It is a matter of accountability.
On the world stage, a lack of religious knowledge can lead to misunderstanding and even war.
To use public school courses to promote a particular faith would be unconstitutional, and that is not what Prothero, or we, recommend. But a framework has been established in this state that would allow all schools to offer Bible courses without worry of losing a lawsuit.
The General Assembly approved a bill in 2008 that was sponsored by state Sen. Roy Herron and state Rep. Mark Maddox, both of Dresden. The bill directed the state Board of Education to develop a curriculum for the academic and non-sectarian study of the Bible. The state attorney general issued an opinion confirming that the bill is constitutional.
Herron said Thursday that the state Board of Education recently completed its work on the curriculum, which should be available for use in public schools next school year.
While many schools in Tennessee already offer Bible courses, this new system, if properly implemented, offers a higher level of constitutional safety.
We encourage all public school systems to offer the type of Bible course promoted by Prothero and made available under the bill sponsored by Herron and Maddox. And we encourage the schools to go a step further in offering studies on world religions, as Prothero suggests.
The value of the lessons learned will be beyond measure.
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Image by woodleywonderworks via FlickrTop home-school texts dismiss evolution for creationism
By Dylan Lovan, The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Home-school mom Susan Mule wishes she hadn't taken a friend's advice and tried a textbook from a popular Christian publisher for her 10-year-old's biology lessons.
Mule's precocious daughter Elizabeth excels at science and has been studying tarantulas since she was 5. But she watched Elizabeth's excitement turn to confusion when they reached the evolution section of the book from Apologia Educational Ministries, which disputed Charles Darwin's theory.
"I thought she was going to have a coronary," Mule said of her daughter, who is now 16 and taking college courses in Houston. "She's like, 'This is not true!"'
Christian-based materials dominate a growing home-school education market that encompasses more than 1.5 million students in the U.S. And for most home-school parents, a Bible-based version of the Earth's creation is exactly what they want. Federal statistics from 2007 show 83% of home-schooling parents want to give their children "religious or moral instruction."
"The majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians," said Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association. "Most home-schoolers will definitely have a sort of creationist component to their home-school program."
Those who don't, however, often feel isolated and frustrated from trying to find a textbook that fits their beliefs.
Two of the best-selling biology textbooks stack the deck against evolution, said some science educators who reviewed sections of the books at the request of The Associated Press.
"I feel fairly strongly about this. These books are promulgating lies to kids," said Jerry Coyne, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of Chicago.
The textbook publishers defend their books as well-rounded lessons on evolution and its shortcomings. One of the books doesn't attempt to mask disdain for Darwin and evolutionary science.
"Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling," says the introduction to Biology: Third Edition from Bob Jones University Press. "This book was not written for them."
The textbook delivers a religious ultimatum to young readers and parents, warning in its History of Life chapter that a "Christian worldview ... is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is."
When the AP asked about that passage, university spokesman Brian Scoles said the sentence made it into the book because of an editing error and will be removed from future editions.
The size of the business of home-school texts isn't clear because the textbook industry is fragmented and privately held publishers don't give out sales numbers. Slatter said home-school material sales reach about $1 billion annually in the U.S.
Publishers are well aware of the market, said Jay Wile, a former chemistry professor in Indianapolis who helped launch the Apologia curriculum in the early 1990s.
"If I'm planning to write a curriculum, and I want to write it in a way that will appeal to home-schoolers, I'm going to at least find out what my demographic is," Wile said.
In Kentucky, Lexington home-schooler Mia Perry remembers feeling disheartened while flipping through a home-school curriculum catalog and finding so many religious-themed textbooks.
"We're not religious home-schoolers, and there's somewhat of a feeling of being outnumbered," said Perry, who has home-schooled three of her four children after removing her oldest child from a public school because of a health condition.
Perry said she cobbled together her own curriculum after some mainstream publishers told her they would not sell directly to home-schooling parents.
Wendy Womack, another Lexington home-school mother, said the only scientifically credible curriculum she's found is from the Maryland-based Calvert School, which has been selling study-at-home materials for more than 100 years.
Apologia and Bob Jones University Press say their science books sell well. Apologia's Exploring Creation biology textbook retails for $65, while Bob Jones' Biology Third Edition lists at $52.
Coyne and Virginia Tech biology professor Duncan Porter reviewed excerpts from the Apologia and Bob Jones biology textbooks, which are equivalent to ninth- and 10th-grade biology lessons. Porter said he would give the books an F.
"If this is the way kids are home-schooled then they're being shortchanged, both rationally and in terms of biology," Coyne said. He argued that the books may steer students away from careers in biology or the study of the history of the earth.
Wile countered that Coyne "feels compelled to lie in order to prop up a failing hypothesis (evolution). We definitely do not lie to the students. We tell them the facts that people like Dr. Coyne would prefer to cover up."
Adam Brown's parents say their 16-year-old son's belief in the Bible's creation story isn't deterring him from pursuing a career in marine biology. His parents, Ken and Polly Brown, taught him at their Cedar Grove, Indiana, home using the Apologia curriculum and other science texts.
Polly Brown said her son would gladly take college courses that include evolution, and he'll be able to provide the expected answers even though he disagrees.
"He probably knows it better than the kids who have been taught evolution all through public school," Polly Brown said. "But that is in order for him to understand both sides of that argument because he will face it throughout his higher education."Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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