Justice in Joes: how we fought a Colorado creationism battle. (Perspective).

I like to take side trips. During my recent visit to Australia, I could not pass up a "nature museum," housed in a giant reproduction of a worm, advertised as the only place to view a species of six-foot long earthworms.

So, on a recent speaking trip to northern Kentucky, I looked forward to visiting Big Bone Lick State Park. This site, originally discovered by Lewis and Clark, once contained fossilized remains of mammoths attracted by a salt lick but then sucked into a tar pit for millennial preservation. It was the source of a giant bone that was once presented to Thomas Jefferson himself.

Fossils aren't just lying around the park these days. Most of them have been moved to universities for study or display and are one more heap of pro-evolution evidence. Their presence has enraged "creation science" advocates, including Ken Ham with the Answers In Genesis Ministry, who is currently constructing an "anti-evolution" museum a few miles away.

Alas (and I am not making this up), I couldn't make it to the park. A doublewide trailer had fallen off a truck on the curvy country road that seemed to be the only access I could find to the park.

I was especially disappointed because creationism had been on my mind a lot at the time. Just two days earlier, Americans United had played a key role in defeating an unwise proposal under consideration by the school board in tiny Joes, Colo. A unanimous board, just a month earlier, had endorsed a plan to require "equal" consideration of evolution and creationism in high school biology classes.

The plan to teach creationism was being pushed by Douglas Sanford, a school board member who is also a Baptist minister. After Sanford's initial success with his board colleagues, AU staffers began to get e-mails and telephone calls from people in the area asking for help. What made this all the more remarkable is that Joes is somewhat isolated in eastern Colorado and has a population of only about 300.

One teacher there wrote, "I know we teachers are afraid to speak up for fear of losing jobs.... I see the handwriting on the walls. For the first time in my career, the books I'm choosing have been questioned ... Is there anything that can be done ... Any help from you?"

One county parent, whose children graduated from the local high school pleaded, "I feel an outside source is necessary to validate our concerns."

An activist Methodist church lay person told us many women in the church wanted to find ways to make the case that the issue of whether God started the universe or has a purpose for humanity today -- theological questions unanswerable by science -- is entirely different from the process of evolutionary development.

Most of our contacts said they needed both credible arguments and a credible threat of a lawsuit. Luckily, we could provide them with both. We worked with the National Center for Science Education and with citizens eager to challenge the new policy in court if that became necessary. We also had our legal director, Ayesha Khan, and another staff attorney, Allison Pierce, immediately prepare a letter to all board members expressing our intent to sue if "scientific creationism" were put into the classroom.

The board had made our job easy. The policy they were considering was essentially the same as a state law passed by Louisiana legislators back in the early 1980s. That law required "balanced treatment" between evolution and creationism in public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated it in 1987, holding that creationism is religion, not science.

The possibility of an AU lawsuit in Joes got extensive coverage in the Denver-area newspapers and even sparked a national Associated Press story and coverage on CNN. Americans United chapter leader Steve Sand appeared on television, and other activists were in touch with reporters. Locally, our concerns were bolstered when other groups, including the Colorado Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, also sent letters to complain about the creationism proposal.

The board scheduled a meeting for April 9, at which it would make a final decision on the proposal. Reporters wanted to get my home phone number so they could call when the final vote occurred. There is a two-hour time difference between Colorado and Virginia, but I didn't mind being awakened from slumberland to get the news that the 5-0 vote in favor of creationism in March had evolved into a 5-0 vote to drop the "balanced treatment" scheme. As I told those late-night callers, "This is a great victory for quality science education and respect for constitutional precedents."

This was hardly a major resource drain for American United. It was, however, a nearly textbook example of how national groups can work with each other and with community residents to stop a dizzyingly bad church-state violation from occurring. It was also a good example of Americans United's truly national reach. Working together, we'll keep the victories coming.

Barry W. Lynn is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.