Lansing, USA - A Christian-oriented law center has threatened to sue Gull Lake Community Schools unless two middle school science teachers are allowed to include an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution in their classes.
The "intelligent design" theory says the universe is so complex it must have been created by an unspecified higher power. Critics say that's a secular version of regarding God as the creator, so teaching the theory in public schools violates separation of church and state.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit last year against a Pennsylvania school district that requires students to hear about intelligent design in science classes. The Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor is defending that district.
The Thomas More center, also pursuing the Michigan case, says Dawn Wendzel and Julie Olson included intelligent design theory in their seventh-grade classes along with Darwin's theory the past two years. But now the district superintendent has ordered them to desist.
Thomas More says that violates teachers' academic freedom and students' right to learn about the controversy.