In the This Sunday's Washington Post  (8/8/99) there is an article
about Creationism problems in Kansas. (Scopes lives again)

Read on before you say this is a religous issue---It just might
touch on deeper problems--The following is a quote from that
article.
 >>>> The movement's recent success may in part be a reflection of the
fairly widespread sympathy for some of its basic principles.
According to Gallup polls, about 44 percent of Americans believe in
a biblical creationist view, that "God created man pretty much in
his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years." About 40
percent believe in "theistic evolution," the idea that God oversaw
and guided the millions of years of evolution that culminated with
humankind. Only one in 10 of those surveyed held a strict, secular
evelutionist perspective.

 While the movement's incrementalist tactics are new, what's at
stake for fundamentalist Christians has not changed much since the
first time they encountered Charles Darwin.<<<<

The numbers really piqued my interest.  I recently read a
book, "Towards a Christan Republic", about the north west USA
between the revolution and 1850. It is a scholary work-not
thesistic, but it discusses how the descendants of the Puritans and
John Calvin were so violently against the Freemasons who were
upsetting *their* ways. It discusses the Morgan Affair, and in
reading, one could assume the abduction of Morgan could be a
hoax.
Anyway, when I read this article this morning, I started
thinking about the "Puritans" of today. If the Gallop Poll figures
are any where near correct (I can't believe them), no wonder we have
problems.

I wonder what others might make of this concept--am I wet, of maybe
a lead.  Just please don't shoot me <VBG>


Preston Burner, PM  MPS
Concord 307, Vienna  Va


