Writing in the New Orleans Times-Picayune (September 26, 2007), columnist James Gill takes Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) to task for his proposal to grant $100,000 of federal funds to the Louisiana Family Forum "to develop a plan to promote better science education." The Louisiana Family Forum, as Gill observes, "has said the theory of evolution 'has no place in the classroom' and has blamed Charles Darwin for Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot." "The Web site," he adds, "leaves no doubt that they would ban evolutionary theory altogether if they could; there is no incentive to give equal billing to what they see as heresy."
Acknowledging that the director of the Louisiana Family Forum, Gene Mills, "does his best to adopt a moderate tone, declaring that he wishes not to supplant but to supplement Darwinism," the columnist remains skeptical nevertheless. Quoting Mills's claim that "We think that in order to teach controversial topics successfully, you have to teach both sides," Gill retorts, "But that would make sense only if the scientific questions really were unsettled. Creationists will always trot out the occasional deranged Ph.D. who supports their cause, but, to the vast majority of scientists, evolution is not up for debate."