Creationism - National Center for Science Education

information on the topic (SOR 1983-1984). It consists of listings of books and articles
sorted by date, title, and author.
Maranatha Campus Ministries, headquarted in Florida, is a charismatic
organization which functions as a denomination (Maranatha Christian Churches) and
evangelizes aggressively on campuses across the nation—so aggressively that
mainstream evangelicals have accused it of cult-like tendencies, excessive
authoritarianism, and “questionable theology” (Frame 1984). Maranatha regularly
attacks evolution and promotes creation-science in its free newspaper The Forerunner,
widely distributed on campuses, and on its Forerunner TV program. Rice Broocks,
Maranatha’s number two man after founder Bob Weiner, founded the Society for
Creation Science in 1984, which provides materials and training for campus chapters.
Broocks plans to have creationism taught at every major college, at first by registering
SCS as a campus organization and teaching the SCS course to the Christian community,
and eventually as regular university course. Broocks was the keynote speaker at the 1987
National Creation Conference in Seattle, which was co-sponsored by Maranatha Campus
Ministries and the Bible-Science Association. In his talk (“The Battle Has Just Begun”),
Broocks exhorted Christians to militant advocacy of creationism.
Maranatha’s Society for Creation Science is under the leadership of David
Skjaerlund, a doctoral candidate in animal science at Michigan State, who wrote the
course manual for the ten-week SCS college seminar, Creation- Evolution:
Understanding the Issues at Hand (1987). The stated goals of SCS are to: “Evangelize
the College Campuses,” “Influence the College Curriculum,” and “promote sound
scientific investigations and to take dominion in the earth with Christians as the
originators of future scientific discoveries” (undated SCS promotional brochure). The
SCS pilot course has been taught at UCLA, among other campuses, beginning in 1987.
The March-April 1988 Society for Creation Science Newsletter contains testimonies of
UCLA students who took the course. Some UCLA comments:
In an age where evolution is used by students as a means to avoid and disobey the Gospel, the SCS
Creation Course gives you just enough to destroy their arguments and bring them face to face with their
Creator. I have already used the information I learned and it is very effective.
The SCS course, using scientific facts, powerfully refutes the very core doctrines of evolution. The course
manual and homework really helped me to understand scientifically why I believe in Creation.
By taking the SCS Creation Course, I was quickly made aware of just how much evolution has attacked
Christianity. I realize how important it is to share the truth of God as the Creator in order to counter the
evolutionary thought that has been taught to us.
The National Association of Christian Educators, a fundamentalist organization
based in Costa Mesa, California, which is dedicated to defeat of “secular humanism” and
has become an effective lobbying force, has produced a manual titled Communicating a
Christian World View in the Classroom (Simonds 1983). It promotes creation-science,
and includes a section “Student Questions to Use in the Classroom,” provided by Bliss of
ICR.
Chick Publications of Chino, California publishes fundamentalist and creationist
books, comic books, and tracts. Jack Chick’s comic-book format tract Big Daddy?
(1972), in which a courageous Bible-believing college student stands up in class and