Jay Allan Sekulow announced he has discovered the root sources of the recent surge in school shootings:  abortion, evolution, and lack of religion in public schools.

Abortion:  "We have legalized abortion-on-demand and that has devalued human life," the sincere and dramatic Sekulow said on his national radio show, Jay Sekulow Live1.  "That sets a mindset."  Sekulow didn't show any evidence to prove this nor have any of the recent school killers raised any comments about abortion or have said absolutely that the purpose in killing innocent human beings is a direct result of a Supreme Court decision that took place years before they were born.

Secondly, England, Japan, and Western Europe all have legalized abortion and few if any school killings have flourished.  Statistically, the single best predictor of handgun deaths is the accessibility of guns within a country.  In 1992, for example, the United States, a nation where guns are obtainable by virtually anyone with a clean record, had 13,220 gun deaths; internationally, however, gun deaths are rare.   Canada experienced 128 handgun deaths, Switzerland 97, Japan 60, Sweden 36, and Great Britain 33¹ (TIME, 1993).  All of these nations, remarkably, have legalized abortion and also freely exhibit violent and sexually-oriented programing.

Despite rhetoric that our current era is a "culture of death," homicide rates have also plummeted to 6.8 murders per 100,000, a low since 1968, when the average was 6.9 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports, 1950-97).  Statistics show a low homicide offender rate for those under fourteen.  Since 1993, offending rates for teens and young adults have declined but still remain considerably elevated over earlier levels (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Supplementary Homicide Reports, 1976-97).  While these trends do look promising, one thing is for certain with regard to finding a "cure" to violence:  "There is no one-size-fits-all solution"² (quoted from Reason Public Policy Institute, 1997).

Surprisingly, however, Jay Sekulow is unaware that school shootings occur in states with restrictive and lax abortion rates--with more in states that restrict abortion access.   Out of 13 school shootings since 1989, 8 have occurred in states (Miami, Fl;  Grayson, Ky; St. Louis, Ms; Pennsburg, Pa; Littletown, Co; Conyers, Ga) where abortion access is restricted.  Restrictions include a declaration of the state legislatures (KY and PA) that once Roe v. Wade is overturned, "[T]he laws of this state shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development, all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state." Other anti-abortion restrictions include bans on "sex-selection"; informed consent; waiting periods; minor access; partial-birth abortion bans; and viability testing; and mandatory literature from the state.  The five shootings occurring in states with lax abortion laws are California (1989 and 1992), New York (1992, 1997) and Maryland (1994) (NARAL, 1999).

 Easy access to abortion, of course, doesn't cause fewer school shootings.

The teaching of evolution in public schools has also created violent teens, according to Sekulow.  "We have had this consistent thoughts in our schools on the teaching of evolution that man has basically done nothing but evolve from animals, so what do you expect human behavior to be, we're nothing but animals, anyway?  There is no restraining force out there."

This argument isn't new.  Christopher P. Toumey said in 1994:  "...this monkey mythology of Darwin is the cause of abortions, permissiveness, promiscuity, perversions, pregnancies, prophylactics, pornotherapy, pollution, poisoning and proliferation of crimes" (Rutgers).

According to Lawrence Moran, evolution can be defined as "a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations" (Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy, 1997).  Evolution applies to everything from humans to plants.  The definition Sekulow -- and many other creationists -- use to define evolution is inaccurate.  Moran explains:  "When someone claims that they don't believe in evolution they cannot be referring to an acceptable scientific definition of evolution because that would be denying something which is easy to demonstrate. It would be like saying that they don't believe in gravity!"   Apparently the real problem is "that the public, and creationists, do not understand what evolution is all about. This person's definition of evolution was very different from the common scientific definition and as a consequence he was unable to understand what evolutionary biology really meant."

With the definition of evolution defined, it is best to define what the theory of creationism entails.

Brian Young⁶ describes it lucidly:

"Imagine a fellow telling you -- with a straight face -- that the earth was created by a Supernatural Hand as described in the Book of Genesis over the course of six literal days beginning at 9:00 A.M. on October 23 in 4004 B.C.E. Imagine this fellow then telling you that in the 22nd century B.C.E. a man named Noah in anticipation of The Great Flood built a large ark from gopher wood; that he and his family collected representatives from each of several million living species of flora and fauna (including bacteria, cacti, kangaroos, blue whales, penguins, polar bears, dinosaurs and the AIDS virus) and placed them in this ark; that after forty days and forty nights of Very Heavy Rain and a year afloat, the ark then ran aground on a mountain top in the Middle East and then each of the plants and animals somehow managed to transport themselves to their respective continent(s). Then he informs you that all 5.2 billion humans on earth today are descended from those persons who were aboard the ark about 4000 years ago. You look puzzled as this fellow continues to maintain his serious expression. Finally, he says that he calls this account of origins Creation Science."

The demographics of people who believe in evolution or creationism are also quite startling.  Men (11.5%), college graduates (16.5%), upper-class individuals (17%) were more likely to agree with the statement "Man has developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. God had no part in this process" than women (6.6%), high school dropouts (4.6%), and those who earn less than 20,000 (6.5%) (Gallop, November 21-24, 1991).  Apparently, college graduates and upper-class individuals were able to show some restraint despite the fact that -- according to Sekulow -- humans who believe in evolution should mimick the acts of animals despite our distinct and evolutionary developed brains and motives.  It even appears that the more disadvantaged and uneducated an individual is, the more likely they will reject evolution and support creationism.

It is also questionable whether school terrorists apply their reasoning from animals.  Animals are mentally unable to cause widespread terrorism with advanced weapons and bombs.  Guns, bombs, and suicide are human-initiated.

Finally, while atheists make up 8-10% of the population, they make up "1% of the population in prisons" (American Atheists, 1998).
 

SOURCES:

1.  American Center for Law and Justice's "Jay Sekulaw Live":  June 22, 1999.
2.  Data cited in Time (December 20, 1993) and various newspaper reports (March 2, 6, 1994).
3.  School Violence Prevention: Strategies to Keep Schools Safe Policy Study No. 234, October 1997.
4.  NARAL - Who Decides? A State-by-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive Rights (1999).
5.  Rutgers University Press (1994).  "God's Own Scientists: Creationists in a Secular World."
6.  Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy.  "What is evolution?"
7.  Young, Richard.  Why Creation 'Science' Must Be Kept Out of the Classroom.
8.  Gallop.  Evolution vs. Creationism, November 21-24, 1991.
9.  Silverman, Dave.  "Coming Out - Atheism: The Other Closet."  American Atheists, 1998.

-- MICHAEL REHNQUIST