Oh nos! People acting on their beliefs!

The AP is horrified to find the majority of those who reject public schooling aren't interested in simply recreating its dogmas at home:

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 percent 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.

Um, if that's the case, they have no business teaching anybody. Homeschoolers who want to teach from a Darwinist perspective should have NO trouble finding supporting material. Homeschooling's rapid rise has been fueled in no small part by the desire to get away from the one-sided view that pervades the entire culture. Creationist homeschoolers are the counterculture here, not secular homeschoolers. But sympathizing with the latter furthers the dominant narrative that secular Darwinists are the besieged defenders of reality against those crazy superstitious Christians...

I'm not surprised to find a hit piece like this on the wire services. But I was soundly disappointed to read this:

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.

Why the backpedaling? Was it really an 'editing error' that caused BJU Press to publish an uncompromising statement regarding the need for a holistic Christian worldview? If so, that's highly troubling. It's even more troubling if this exchange does indeed result in a change to future editions (I'm sure the AP will follow up).

I make no apologies for distinguishing between variations within a kind, and the theory of transspeciation. Or for teaching my children the reasons why I do.