Georgia Southern University has warned a creationist professor that if he doesn’t stop promoting his own religious beliefs in the classroom, he will face personnel action, “up to and including” firing. It started with student complaints about the professor and contact to the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Now, the creationist professor will have to keep his beliefs out of class assignments, or face repercussions.

Professor Emerson McMullen receives mostly good ratings on sites like Rate My Professor, where students consistently say the same things about him: he’s fair, he’s knowledgeable, he’s passionate about his topic — and he inserts his religion into everything. Many ratings mention that the professor asks students to memorize Bible verses unrelated to course material, that he pushes students to support his conservative Christian views, and that he denies climate change and evolution.

As a professor of History, History of Science, and a Science and Religion course, McMullen’s pressing of his own beliefs over established historic and scientific fact concerned students, who eventually contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The FFRF, together with Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne, contacted the university back in October, and Georgia Southern promised to investigate.

This week, GSU responded to the FFRF, saying that Professor McMullen had been reprimanded for pushing creationist beliefs on students, and enclosing a copy of the warning the professor was given. You can see the whole letter here (pdf), but below are some key points.

The practice of asking students to identify one of the Ten Commandments as extra credit on tests must go. The rationale, that a study by Dan Ariely (professor of behavioral economics and psychology) showed students were less likely to cheat if asked to quote from the Ten Commandments before a test, was insufficient, since the same study showed that having students quote the school’s honor code had the same results.

An extra credit assignment based on the movie God’s Not Dead (inaccurately titled “Is God Dead” in the memo) may have crossed constitutional lines, depending on arguments given in class. If these arguments included pushing the professor’s creationist views on students, such activity must cease.

GSU recognizes Professor McMullen’s right to hold his views, express them freely on his own time, and respond to questions about them. GSU only intends to restrict the professor’s injection of those beliefs into class materials, to an extent that students do not feel coerced, as some have complained that they currently do.

The creationist professor’s signature appears at the bottom of the memo, acknowledging receipt, but he has made no public statement about the matter.

[Photo credit: Richardelainechambers]