Northern Ireland’s Leading Political Party is Creationist
Whilst not openly saying so openly, it appears that the teaching of creationism in Northern Irish schools is the official party position of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Although the party’s 2007 Manifesto is entirely silent on the issue, the evidence over the last few years suggests that there are very strong pressures within the party to get creationism into schools. Indeed, on the 26th September 2007 the Belfast Telegraph quoted an unnamed DUP spokesman as saying that teaching of creationism in schools was “in keeping with party policy”.(1) The words are mealy mouthed to put it mildly but it looks near-impossible not to interpret them as meaning it is official party policy.
The DUP is the largest Northern Irish political party in terms of the number of seats it has both in the Northern Ireland Assembly and in Westminster. It holds 36 out of 55 Protestant seats in the 108 seat in the Assembly and 9 of the 18 Northern Ireland seats in Westminster. It is believed that around half or more of DUP MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) are members of the tiny Free Presbyterian Church although the latter’s membership is less that 1% of the population of the province.(2)
As is the case in the USA, getting creationism into Northern Irish schools appears to involve a considerable degree of sneakiness as well as extreme language and paranoid claims by its proponents. The martyrdom complex is openly displayed as well. However, the DUP’s position undoubtedly reflects the rampant belief in creationism amongst evangelicals in the province so the DUP is not working in a social vacuum. As there is no official, public, DUP position on the matter it is not clear how widespread the support for creationism is in the party. The evidence so far suggests that a core of, maybe, around half a dozen very senior politicians within the DUP, are actively promoting it.
As has been repeatedly pointed out, the head of the DUP and first minister in the province, is a young earth creationist. As far back as the 1970sm, he was calling for the teaching of creationism in Northern Irish schools. He is, of course, The Rev Ian Paisley. Widely regarded in the UK as a byword for sectarianism and intransigence, Paisley appears to have kept quite in public about the matter in the last couple of years. From his beliefs and his past public statements on creationism, though, it is very difficult to believe that he is not active in supporting the teaching of creationism in state schools. His church runs a number of private schools that teach creationism.
Who is Behind the Plan
The core activists within DUP members of the legislative assembly appear to be a group of about half a dozen religious fundamentalists. The most active of these, perhaps the leader of the group, is David Simpson who also happens to be an MP at Westminster. What isn’t clear is whether he has been charged by the party to get creationism into schools or just representing a movement within the DUP. Nevertheless, Simpson is a very senior person within the DUP and is seen by some as part of the faction that will take control of the party when the ageing Ian Paisley steps down or dies in office. It is not so much that they will become the leaders as a matter of taking control of the levers of power in the DUP.
Others in the faction include Mervyn Storey, David McConaghie and, until he died recently, George Dawson. Edwin Poots may also be a member of the group. They have been described as Unionism’s new puppet masters. Simpson, Dawson, Storey and McConaghie has also been described as “the gang of four” whose principal objective its to advance the cause of an ultra-conservative and fundamentalist unionism by creating an interlocking power base for themselves that takes in all parts of the unionist community.
Simpson, though, is not really representative of Protestantism in Northern Ireland. Most Protestants (or unionists if you like) are simply not religious fundamentalist. The two main Protestant denominations, the Anglican and Presbyterian churches, are not fundamentalist. He certainly does not represent the religious at large – the biggest denomination is the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover a lot of Unionists are wary of the DUP because of fears of it having a hidden religious agenda. One suspects that in the pursuit of votes, the DUP is exceedingly careful in trying to play down much of its deep roots in religious fundamentalism.
The Petition to Get Cretionism Into Schools
The issue of teaching creationism in Northern Irish schools began to emerge around late 2005 or early 2006. The professional creationists from the mainland of the UK and North America had been highly active in the province (they still are). It appears that a petition was raised amongst school students to get it taught. According to the Caleb Foundation, the petition attracted 900 signatures and seemed to have largely centred on the Methodist College in Belfast.(3) The irony is that the Methodist College is not, strictly speaking, a state-owned school, although it does receive public funding.
The petition is certainly comprehensive in its sweep. It is calling for the teaching of creationism throughout the province’s education system including at university level, Specifically it states: “I agree that intelligent design should be taught as science in schools in Northern Ireland as part of the curriculum from key stage 1 to university level alongside the theory of evolution.”
The issue was rapidly taken up by George Dawson (who has since died), Mervyn Story and David Simpson.
Few appear to have taken notice. At that time the Northern Ireland Assembly had been suspended for a good few years (since 2002). However, whilst Dawson was not a Westminster MP, he had powerful and strong connections with the fundamentalist movement within the province. As we shall see, those connections are very close in nature to those of the other DUP politicians who now are pushing creationism.
Dawson issued a public statement on the matter in February 2006. He tried to dress it up as an issue of teaching Intelligent Design. It was, though, transparently not. The same sneakiness of the Intelligent Design movement was blatantly obvious. The first paragraph of the statement shows why:
“A DUP delegation comprising Upper Bann MP David Simpson, George Dawson MLA and Mervyn Storey MLA has met with a group of concerned pupils and their parents to discuss the question of how subjects like biology, physics and geography are taught in schools across Northern Ireland. These concerns relate to the way in which the age of the earth and the origins of life including mankind came about and the theory of evolution verses intelligent design.”
Intelligent Design accepts the old age of the earth. The give away is that the paragraph refers to geography and physics. These are simply not the subject matters of evolution. You simply don’t need to know anything about the theory of evolution to get qualifications in these two subject matters – at any level. What is being talked about here is nothing but young earth creationism.
The language then became extreme. Dawson claimed that not teaching pseudo-science (bogus science, if you like) was “institutionalised bullying”. The martyrdom complex again:
“We had a very good meeting today with both parents and pupils. They expressed their deep concern at the way in which these subjects are taught and of the way in which young people can be made to feel as though they were the subject of institutionalised bullying.”
The extreme language continued with claims that students’ faith was being denigrated by science (science doesn’t give a toss whether someone is Protestant or Catholic) and that the “education authorities were guilty of indoctrination”.
“It is clear that in our schools the faith of many thousands of pupils is being actively denigrated on a daily basis and that the schools system is being used by education authorities to indoctrinate people against their own religious convictions. This must stop.”
Notice the authoritarian demand that it “must be stopped”. The tirade went even though it is blatantly clear that Dawson didn’t comprehend the difference between Intelligent Design and creationism.
“We are aware that already a petition is being circulated by pupils around some schools in Northern Ireland calling for a change to the curriculum to include equal time and legitimacy for other interpretations of the age of the earth and the origins of life – if full harmony with the available scientific data.”
Dawson claimed that his position had cross party support and as well as support from Catholics. However, no evidence was presented to substantiate this. Indeed, the claim looks to be bizarre as the petition to which he was responding to, may have had no more than 900 signatures on it – not a lot for a province with a population of 1.7 million. One must therefore conclude that Dawson was befuddled about what the ninth commandment meant.
Dawson then outlined what he and his associates were doing to get creationism into the classroom: “Our Party have written to the education Minister requesting a meeting on this vital matter. We have also written to the Chief Executive of CCEA [Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment] requesting a meeting in order to establish just how exactly they plan to address this unacceptable situation.”
Again, this statement seems to very strongly suggest that teaching of creationism is DUP party policy.
The extreme, uncompromising (and, indeed, frightening) language continued with claims that not teaching creationism was “coercion” “bullying” and was “undermining parental authority”.
“When pupils complain of bullying, when parental authority is actively undermined and when teachers are faced with departmental coercion the time has come to act. We are today calling for a proper root and branch review that will bring an end to this situation.”
The Connections to Protestantism
Dawson at the time was grand master of the Independent Orange Order and Chairman of the Caleb Foundation. The Caleb Foundation has actively and strongly lobbied to get creationism taught in schools and is riddled with obscure fundamentalist preachers. He was also treasurer of the fundamentalist Evangelical Protestant Society. Dawson had no background in science. His degree was in English and history. It appears that Dawson pulled together much of the evangelical movement in Northern Ireland through the Caleb Foundation. Dawson was also a member of the Free Presbyterian Church. Thus his connections to evangelical churches and the political process were very wide and far-reaching. In effect, he was one of the leading voices and leaders of extreme religious fundamentalism in the province.
To put the matter in perspective, Dawson’s position went well beyond reflecting the beliefs of the Free Presbyterian Church. The fundamentalist constituency which he helped built and run is much larger that that.
The issue of creationism in schools now appears to be headed up by David Simpson. He looks to be a very powerful man in the Democratic Unionist Party and is also an MP at Westminster. Simpson basically ousted David Trimble as Ulster Unionist Party MP for Upper Bann in the 2005 general election and probably killed the party off in the process. He is seen as seriously politically astute. Simpson is a member of Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church. Simpson has been a very successful businessman and is believed to be a multi-millionaire. However, he appears to have no background in science. After leaving school his education was at the College of Business Studies (now part of Belfast Metropolitan College).
Amongst his political achievements to date has been the negotiation of local tax relief for Orange halls. That is just blatant pork. The Orange movement has been in decline for years and the tax relief looks to be nothing more than a financial subsidy and a returned favour for supporting the DUP. As a Westminster MP, it appears that Simpson has also acted on behalf of creationists.
Stitching up the Education Minister
On 21st September 2007 Simpson received written relies from the Assembly Minister of Education (Catriona Ruane, Sinn Fein) a series of questions, one leading on from the other, about teaching of creationism. The Minister has one of the hardest portfolios to handle as it involves sweeping reform of education in the province. There is some speculation that Simpson is trying to exploit her position as a Sinn Fein politician in an Assembly that its mostly Unionist. Sinn Fein is not noted at all for being pro-creationism. However, Ruane, to say the least, was soft peddling in her handing of Simpson.
Simpson’s requests for information from her make for disturbing reading. The first of the six questions asked her that as a result of the revised curriculum “to detail the teaching materials that will be made available to teachers in Northern Ireland wishing to teach scientific theories of origins other than evolution.”
Ruane’s reply is also disturbing because it shows that schools are basically free to procure creationist material and was unspecific about whether this applied to science: “It is up to schools to decide what teaching resources they wish to use to deliver the curriculum, in accordance with the needs of their pupils and the ethos of the school. A range of organisations produce teaching materials that schools can choose to avail of.”
Simpson then stepped up the stakes, specifically referring to the theory of evolution and GCSE qualifications:
“….under GCSE science specifications allowing for the explanation of theories other than evolution to explore the development of life on earth, what resource material will be made available to teachers wishing to explore other such scientific explanations with pupils”.
Ruane then repeated her previous reply. Simpson’s third question, though, is seriously alarming. It suggests that the aim of the DUP is to reduce the GCSE science qualification to worthlessness by allowing creationist pseudo-science explanations to have the same marks as science explanations.
Specifically he asked her “to confirm that pupils who answer examination questions outlining (i) creationist; or (ii) intelligent design explanations for the development of life on earth, will not be marked lower than any pupil who answers giving an evolutionist explanation.”
Ruane’s reply was as equally alarming as it suggest no commitment to keeping creationism out of the science lesson at all: “I am not involved in the setting or marking of public examinations. I am informed by the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment that public examinations are based on specifications which form the basis for teaching and learning throughout the two years of Key Stage 4. These stem from criteria agreed across the Regulatory Authorities. However, not every area of a specification lends itself equally well to an examination question. Therefore every pupil’s examination answers are marked solely in accordance with the awarding body’s Mark Scheme for the relevant question.”
It passed the buck.
Simpson then stepped up the stakes again in what subsequently looks to have been the killer question, asking “what training will be given to teachers to help them to explore scientific explanations for the development of life on earth, other than evolution.”
Ruane fell for it hook, line and sinker, replying: “Teachers are currently involved in a phased programme of training to support the introduction of the revised curriculum. Any in-service training for teachers follows the requirements of the statutory curriculum and GCSE specifications which do not include any specific reference to alternative explanations of the origins of life. The Education and Library Boards have not received requests from any school or teacher for support on this issue.”(4)
The Consequences
Within a few days DUP local politicians had put in train events that would lead to such requests. It does not look to be a coincidence at all. The DUP dominated Lisburn City Council voted to write to secondary schools in its area “asking what plans they have to develop teaching material in relation to 'creation, intelligent design and other theories of origin.”(5) Council member Paul Givan (DUP) headed up the proposal. According to press reports he claimed that he was not suggesting that Lisburn City Council dictate what schools should dictate (it can’t, it doesn’t have responsibility for them) but he believed that under the revised curriculum there was as opportunity for alternative theories to be taught. Givan clearly demonstrated how Ruane had been caught out by Simpson when he (Givan) claimed that Ruane had made the same point in the Assembly.
Givan is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church and is also believed to be a school governor. He also had the support of Ulster Unionist Party politicians on the council. It should come as no surprise that Givan has no background in either science or education. His degree is in business studies and his full time job is in public relations. According to the DUP’s official web site he is 23.
The Role of Answers in Genesis
The professional creationists were also active in Lisburn (part of Belfast) in September 2007. Paul Taylor of Answers in Genesis was at Wallace High School there on the 15th of the month. He was at Hillsborough Free Presbyterian Church on the 14th and 16th September and at Lisburn Free Presbyterian Church on the 16th. Hillsborough is in Lisburn. The three days are what Answers in Genesis describe as a Creation Weekend,
According to Answers in Genesis, his presence in Lisburn may have influenced Givan’s motion. Taylor claims that he was presented with a clock by the mayor of Lisburn, Councillor James Tinsley (DUP), who welcomed Answers in Genesis to Lisburn “as providers and preachers of biblical truth”.(6)
Lisburn’s Deputy Mayor Ulster Unionist Ronnie Crawford has also jumped on the creationist bandwagon. He called for cross-party support for Givan’s proposal and pointed out that Pope Benedict XVI was a firm believer in creationism.(7) Well, no he isn’t. Nothing could be further from the truth. Benedict has come down massively against young earth creationism. Indeed, the Catholic Church made up its mind in the 4th century AD that biblical literalism was a very bad idea and has never changed its mind.
One of Lisburn’s DUP councillors is Edwin Poots. As Minister for Arts and Culture in the Northern Ireland Assembly, he backed Simpson’s questions to Catriona Ruane about creationism. He is a former Apprentice Boy member and is also a school governor. His background is in farming and he has been through an agricultural college. He is a deacon in the Free Presbyterian Church and a member of Lisburn Orange Lodge. It does thus appear that Poots is one of the core of the DUP pushing the creationist agenda. He has made it clear that he is a creationist.
Let’s have a closer look at some of the others in this group.
More Connections
Mervyn Storey MLA is vice-chairman of the Caleb Foundation, a senior lieutenant in the Independent Orange Order and a member of the Apprentice Boys. He does not have a degree in any subject. He is a committee member of Ballymoney Free Presbyterian Church.
In mid-Summer 3007 Storey intervened in a meeting of the Assembly’s education committee to demand that the Education Minister (Catriona Ruane) bring forward proposals “to ensure that scientific explanations, other than Darwinian evolution, are taught in schools as scientific explanations”.(8)
However, Storey’s track record in pushing creationism is more substantial than this suggests. Storey appears to have no background in science at all, having had no more that a secondary school education. He does not appear to have a degree in any subject. Yet Storey appears to have set himself up as an authority on the geology of the Giant’s Causeway, one of Britain’s best know geological features.
The Giant's Causeway Connection
In a letter to the pro-Unionist News Letter newspaper published on 6th June 2006 George Dawson stated: “Over recent months myself and colleagues, David Simpson MP and Mervyn Storey MLA, have been pressing government on the need to ensure that interpretation at the new Causeway interpretative centre is inclusive of the views expressed by Rev Dr Greer and elaborated upon in the article by Dr Tas Walker. This is a matter of equality and tourism opportunity. In equality terms it is incumbent upon government not to discriminate against this equally scientific viewpoint and those who believe it.”(9)
Greer was then a minister at Tandragee Presbyterian Church but is now a full time creationist as a speaker for Answers in Genesis. Interestingly Dawson and his pals have been claiming that their effort to get creationism into Northern Ireland schools is based on a petition which turns out to have 900 signatures on it (out of a population of 1.7 million) but in this letter claims that creationism has the support of 44% of the population of the UK. Greer has two PhDs from the European Theological Seminary in Greenisland. Strange isn’t it - the support seems to waver so much. 26 million or so in one claim and 900 in another? The statistics seem as flaky as the science qualifications of Messrs Dawson, Storey and Simpson.
In the original 3rd June 2006 article Greer claimed that the Causeway was formed 4,500 years ago during Noah’s flood. Greer pushed the pamphlet on the Causeway by Tas Walker of Answers in Genesis. Presumably Greer was angling to get Answers in Genesis material in the Causeway Centre. Greer’s arguments about the age of the Causeway, no doubt entirely lifted from the AiG material are risible. Science strongly suggests it was formed about 60-65 million years ago.
Tas Walker, incidentally, is a professional creationist and his PhD is not in geology at all. It is in engineering. Although he has a first degree in geology, he has never been a professional geologist.
To illustrate the utter idiocy of Greer’s geology, I quote from his News Letter article: “Since there were torrents of water around at the time of the Great Deluge this lava was able to flow huge distances. The lava flowed over the flooded land causing lots of steam which bubbled under the lava The surging water quenched these lava lakes. The lakes solidified into basalt which cracked into long columns as it contracted….” Alas for Greer’s credibility, the presence of water does not make molten basalt “flow”. Indeed, if anything, the presence of water accelerates its cooling and reduces the flow. Greer is not a geologist and has no training whatsoever in the subject matter.
It appears that the Causeway centre ha not yet decided to push creationist pseudo-science explanations of its formation – not at least according to the web site of the curent Causeway centre.(10)
However, there is a bizarre twist to this all. The original Causeway centre was burned down in 2000 and has been replaced with temporary buildings. In September 2007 Environment Minister Arlene Foster (DUP) provisionally approved a privately financed visitor’s centre. Both the developer, Seymour Sweeney who is a member of the DUP, and the DUP have denied that Sweeney has given financial support to the party. Nevertheless, at the time of writing there is an unholy row about the matter, including the precise relationship between Ian Paisley Jnr (Ian Paisley’s son and also an MLA) and Sweeney.
Just as disturbing is a report in the Belfast Telegraph on 25th September 2007 that Ian Paisley Snr has been closely involved in the whole affair and that involvement seems to suggest that he intended to use Sweeney’s Causeway Centre, with Sweeney's consent, to promote creationism.(11)
According to the newspaper, Sweeney made an application in 2002 to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant for the Giant's Causeway World Heritage Trust, a charitable body intended to oversee his visitor centre. Sweeney named Ian Paisley Snr as one of three people who would shortly be trustees of the trust. The application was turned down in 2003.
The Belfast Telegraph also stated that the Giant's Causeway World Heritage Trust remains in existence, but is described as a dormant company in returns to the Government's Companies Registry. The Belfast Telegraph did not state who the other two trustees were to be. However, it also appears that Paisley Snr has been a fierce critic of alternative public sector plans for a visitor centre which he has described as “fool’s gold”.(12)
The stakes for the creationists are very high. The Giant’s Causeway attracts some 500,000 visitors a year and is Northern Ireland’s largest tourist attraction. Both for school children studying geography or geology it is a major element in field studies. Getting creationism into the new Causeway visitor centre, believed to cost around £20 million, will be a huge coup for the creationists. No wonder they are putting so much effort into it. Again, it is exactly the same game being played by fundamentalists in the United States with the Grand Canyon.
The Causeway is owned by the National Trust which has also severely criticised the Sweeney plans. Indeed, the civil servants who advised Foster came down against it. UNESCO seem to have formed the view that the private development would interfere with the World Heritage Status of the Causeway.
More Connections
Whilst not an MLA, Pastor David McConaghie is believed to be Simpson’s chief of staff, press officer and speech writer. McConaghie is a minister in Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church and a founding member of the Caleb Foundation. He is a member of the Evangelical Protestant Society which appears to be yet another fundamentalist movement in Northern Ireland.(13) He has been pushing hard for some years to get creationism into the classroom. McConaghie is a senior lieutenant in the Independent Orange Order. He is noted for his very aggressive and semi-articulate “style” of debating. His debating style is basically to shout people down. There is no doubt that he is deeply anti-science.
He was minister of Maghaberry Elim Church before switching to Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church. He is seen in some circles as one of the contenders to replace Ian Paisley as moderator or the Free Presbyterian Church. However, McConaghie has also been deeply involved in politics. In 2005 the Times described him as a “DUP apparatchik managing the campaign to unseat David Trimble in the Upper Bann constituency.”(14) He was also the Evangelical representative on the Northern Ireland Civic Forum.
The Evangelical Protestant Society is another fundamentalist organisation with deep connections to the Orange Order and the Independent Orange Order. The Society published the Bulwark magazine. Whilst it has a strong presence in the evangelical churches in the province, it also has influence within the mainstream churches there as well Nevertheless, it appears to be controlled, or at least strongly influenced, by the same group controlling the Caleb Foundation.
Dawson and McConaghie were (and the latter still is) members of the ruling committee of the Evangelical Protestant Society, behind the ‘Bulwark’ magazine. Recently the United Protestant Council, based on the mainland of the UK, split over membership of the Orange Order. The EPS then formed its own version of the organisation which meant that Dawson and McConaghie were central players in this as well. The tentacles spread far and wide.
So, what is beginning to emerge is a picture of a group of highly influential people within the DUP and with exceedingly strong and wide reaching connections with the Orange movement, the Caleb Foundation, the Free Presbyterian Church and the creationist movement who are hell bent on wrecking the province’s education system. Between them, none has any more knowledge of science than the average person in the street.
The Rampancy of Creationism in the Province
Its worse that that, though, because the group is being perceived as the very top layer of the DUP movement, a clique or whatever you might want to call it, that is set to take control of it. So why the obsession with creationism? Well it looks as if most of the Evangelical churches in Northern Ireland are now basically creationist or thoroughly riddled with it. The only one that is not is the Presbyterian Church in Ireland but even there creationism is very widespread. The denominations that are basically creationism free are the Catholic Church (whose members are highly unlikely to vote DUP), the Anglican Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church. (There will be a few camp creationists amongst these, though.)
The rest are pushing creationism hard – the Brethren movement, Baptists, Elim Pentecostal, Congregational, Congregational Reformed, Free Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian, Evangelical Presbyterian, Free Methodist, Independent Methodist, Independent Evangelical and Baptist churches and so on. Nobody should doubt that creationism is now widely accepted amongst such churches. A Protestant church in Northern Ireland is seven times more likely to be creationist than the national norm for the UK.(15)
One also has to remember that church going in Northern Ireland is far more common that it is on the mainland of the UK. Some 50% of the population attend a church at least once a week (a figure probably close to that of the USA).(16) The figure for the UK on average is around 6%.
The professional creationists visiting the province attract very large audiences. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis has attracted nearly 2,000 at a single event. Ham described that event, in March 2005, as the largest creationist meeting in Europe.
Worse still, it is the smaller, creationist denominations that are growing and, it appears, some very fast. It is exactly the same pattern as on the mainland of the UK and in the United States. The DUP creationists are basically pushing for votes amongst the new and growing denominations such as the Pentecostals and the Brethren. Whilst the fundamentalist movement in Northern Ireland has its roots in rural areas, it is increasingly an urban phenomenon. Given the geography, that means Belfast. Again, we see the US experience being repeated.
Nor is it confined to the rough parts of Belfast. The fundamentalists are too clever by half. Perhaps the largest single church pushing creationism is the Brethren Crescent Church in the heart of the prosperous university area. This attracts mostly young people, many of which are students at Queen’s University or up and coming professionals. Monty White is due to speak there in October 2007 and, from past experience, is likely to draw and audience of around 1,000 plus. One of the lay preachers there is Professor Norman Nevin, generally regarded as one of Britain’s leading geneticist. That gives the fundamentalists serious street credibility amongst certain elements as Nevin has come out as a creationist.
It is astonishing that a person of such repute should be dabbling with such a deeply anti-intellectual and anti-scientific movement. Th province is flooded with pastors with degrees in theology from the creationist European Theological Seminary – including the pompously self-titled the Rev Dr Robin Greer of Answers in Genesis. Its degrees are worthless. It offered bachelors degrees for £250 and PhDs for £500. To give some indication of he worthlessness, it costs Oxford University, on average, some £36,000 to provide a student with a first degree. That, Professor Nevin, is the quality of education that your fundamentalist movement is being judge against.
The bizarre side of this is the Queen’s, Northern Ireland’s best university, is increasingly being seen as a Catholic/Nationalist university. Protestants increasingly take their degrees on the mainland of Britain and don’t go back to the province.
The professional creationists are not going to leave the still deeply troubled province alone. Monty White, head of Answers in Genesis, is undertaking a 12-day tour of the province in October 2007, one month after Taylor’s visit to Lisburn. Amongst other professional and senior creationists that have been active in the province are Phillip Johnson (Discovery Institute), Stuart Burgess (Truth in Science) and Andy McIntosh (Truth in Science).
Conclusion
The issue of creationism in Northern Ireland is not going to go away. Whilst Ian Paisley is stepping down as moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church, its influence with the DUP remains well organised and entrenched. Its members within the party look highly inclined towards the formation of a theocracy in the province. They are not inclined towards the compromises and coalition building that is the bedrock of stable democracy,
The would-be theocrats may be riding off the back of more pragmatic DUP politics but they have thoroughly organised themselves within major movements of Protestantism – the Evangelical churches, the Orange movement (including the Orange Order, The Independent Orange Institution and the Apprentice Boys) and theological training. Their current target is education. The main Orange Order has broken its long-standing official links with the Ulster Unionist Party and is now, at least partially, linked to the DUP through the joint Loyal Order initiative. The party has probably killed off its worst enemy, the Ulster Unionist Party. Even the deputy first minister of the province has described the DUP as the Taliban, specifically referring to the “free Presbyterian fundamentalists”.(17)
What doesn’t appear to stack up is the argument that the DUP is now a broad-based organisation. Its electoral successes in 2005 and 2007, which established it as the dominant Protestant party in the province, were more of a protest vote against the Ulster Unionist Party and its “compromises” with Sinn Fein than a ringing endorsement. It attracted the “no” vote, “no” being the favourite word in Ian’s Paisley’s lexicon.
It looks largely irrelevant that Ian Paisley has been forced to step down as moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church because of his decision to share power with Sinn Fein. The Free Presbyterians within the DUP have built up an alternative power base within conservative Protestantism. The Free Presbyterian Church is simply too small, exclusive and inward looking to be the underlying power base of the DUP once it obtained real political power in the province.
Whilst the DUP was formed as the political wing of the Free Presbyterian church, Paisley had moved it to more broader appeal in the 1980s. What he didn’t do was pull in the Orange Order. That has changed. What now looks to have emerged is a Free Presbyterian and fundamentalist agenda within the DUP which has much deeper and stronger foundations. Unionist politics looks to be being reorganised along the lines of the Moral Majority in the USA. Fundamentalism is being thoroughly politicised in Northern Ireland.
(1) See Tussle of Biblical proportions over creationism in Ulster schools, Belfast Telegraph 26th September 2007 - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/article2999003.ece
(2) I have identified the religious position of 22 of which 12 are members of the Free Presbyterian Church.
(3) See http://www.calebfoundation.org/page6.htm
(4) The full written answers can be seen at http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/qanda/2007mandate/writtenans/070921.htm#4
See http://www.lisburntoday.co.uk/news/CREATION-MOTION-PASSED-BY-COUNCIL.3233193.jp
See http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/10/02/creation-row-ireland
See http://www.lisburntoday.co.uk/news/CREATION-MOTION-PASSED-BY-COUNCIL.3233193.jp
See http://stormontwatch.blogspot.com/
See The views of all must be taken on board, the telegram, 6th June 2006 at http://www.newsletter.co.uk/letters-to-the-editor/The-views-of-all-must.1546647.jp
http://www.giantscausewaycentre.com/content/?id=139&l1id=64.
See Twist in Causeway plan row by David Gordon, Belfast Telegraph, 25th September 2007 - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2996386.ece
Ibid.
See http://www.bcseweb.org.uk/index.php/Main/CalebFoundation for further details.
See Trimble has back against the wall in election fight, The Times, 24th April 2005 - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/election2005/article384963.ece
Source: Unpublished research by the author.
See http://www.ark.ac.uk/publications/updates/update41.pdf for a detailed analysis of church going in Northern Ireland.
See the BBC news report McGuiness labels DUP Taleban, 27th June 2006 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5120648.stm
Updates
Are Religious Politicians Nutters? BBC Northern Ireland William Crawley's blog considers the issue at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2007/12/are_religious_politicians_nutt.html#more Follows on from Edwin Poots MLA claiming he is a creationist.
Stephen Moore responds at http://www.dunlucechristianfellowship.com/?page_id=65
His pressure group opens a web site with nothing worthwhile on it: http://www.causewaycreation.com/
The DUP creationists continue to push in the Northern Ireland Assembly: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/qanda/2007mandate/writtenqfora/wq8.htm#4
