Hat tip to johndiii.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator.

This story has been brewing for about a year, and from time to time I hear about it and scratch my head a bit. The first time, I thought it was a fluke of one nutjob politician, Karin Wolff, the education minister for the German state of Hessen. (Hessen is the state where Frankfurt is located, right in the middle of Germany.) But the issue just won't die.

You see, Minister Wolff wants to introduce creationism and/or intelligent design into biology classes in schools in Hessen. Here is an early report from Deutsche Welle in English:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/globalsearch/0,,1432,00.html

And the conservative party in Hessen, the CDU (which is the ruling party there), is backing her, according to this article in German:

http://www.welt.de/politik/article999798/Schoepfungsgeschichte_im_Biologieunterricht.html

And a member of the Bundestag (lower house of Parliament) from the CDU's sister party, the CSU, chimed in with his support:

http://www.welt.de/politik/article1006014/CSU-Politiker_unterstuetzt_Wolffs_Bio-Schoepfungslehre.html

The part that I find doubly mind-boggling about this is that the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and CSU (Christian Social Union) are both actually predominantly Catholic parties. (They are the descendants of the old Zentrum party, which was literally the Roman Catholic Church's mouthpiece in the pre-war period.) In its official teachings, the Roman Catholic Church very clearly denies "intelligent design" and creationism as being scientific. Indeed, as Die Welt points out, Benedict XVI himself chimed in, saying he personally accepts evolutionary theory:

http://www.welt.de/politik/article1057226/Benedikt_XVI._glaubt_an_die_Evolution.html

To my knowledge, no one else of authority in the CDU/CSU outside of Hessen backs it, at least not openly. Why the CDU people in Hessen are suddenly pushing this is utterly mystifying to me.

Worse, the presiding minister (equivalent to a governor) of Hessen, Roland Koch (also from the CDU), is supporting Wolff in her ideas...and he's often been touted as a future chancellor.

What is also odd: The main German Protestant church, the EKD (a sort of umbrella of the big regional Lutheran and Reformed churches), has also clearly distanced itself from the idea of teaching intelligent design. Thus neither the Catholics nor the main Protestants want it. So who's really pushing this?

Lovely. Just lovely.

The good news, perhaps, is that all the other parties -- SPD, FDP, Greens and Leftists -- are all decidedly against. So while it is vaguely possible that something may happen in Hessen, there will be a lawsuit challenging it in no time, and Germany's Basic Law does have fairly iron-clad separation of church and state -- and no other party aside from these loons will support creationism or ID getting into schools. Even within the CDU, Annette Schavan, the federal minister for education, said she was against the idea and opposed it.

The other bit of good news is that, as noted above, with her latest speech in favor and Koch's announcing his backing, the EKD quickly announced their opposition, and the Catholic bishop of Limburg as well as the Pope noted their protest -- so hopefully that will also quash any idea of their being a religious basis for wanting this.

Even so, it is astonishing to see people trying to bring it up here in places where you'd least expect it -- in Frankfurt, one of Germany's metropolises. Definitely a case of WTF.

Meanwhile, to add to the WTF element: Karin Wolff, shortly after wanting creationism in schools, announced she's a lesbian in a relationship:

http://www.welt.de/politik/article996431/CDU-Ministerin_outet_sich_als_homosexuell.html

Uh ya, OK. That's a mite unexpected.