We mention this just to remind you that creationism isn’t entirely an American phenomenon. The headline we found is: Biblical creationist joins Chilliwack school board race.

It appears in the Chilliwack Progress, British Columbia’s oldest community newspaper, published in Chilliwack, the seventh largest city in British Columbia, Canada. They have a comments feature. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [ like this ]:

The latest candidate to step forward to run for the Chilliwack school board on Oct. 20 said he wants to see “inclusivity for all” and a “quality, fact-based curriculum.” This despite several social media posts expressing homophobic and transphobic views, and a belief in Bibilical creationism, often referred to as Young Earth creationism.

Sounds like a great guy! Then we’re told:

Darrell Furgason who has a PhD in religious studies [ Ooooooooooooh! ] and who has lectured at Trinity Western University, said he has been involved in education for 35 years, teaching in Australia, the U.S. and Canada. […] And despite his desires to achieve academic excellence; inclusivity for all; quality, fact-based curriculum; and parents rights in education, it is among his postings on his Worldview Studies Center page where there are links to websites expressing Islamophobia, homophobia, and claims that the world is actually 6,000 years old.

Here’s a link to Furgason’s website: Worldview Studies Center, which he describes as:

an educational ministry that seeks to equip Christian teachers, professionals and students with the “critical thinking” tools necessary for the development of a comprehensive Biblical perspective on every area of life …

Back to the Chilliwack Progress, which quotes the candidate:

“Theistic evolution is a wrong view of Genesis, as well as history, and biology. Adam & Eve were real people….who lived in real history….around 6000 years ago,” he posted on his page with a link to Creation.com.

The newspaper goes on and on, describing his other views, and then they quote his full campaign statement, which you can click over there to read if you like. We’ll give you just one more excerpt:

Furgason is the eighth person to officially announce a candidacy, following Barry Neufeld, Willow Reichelt, Dan Coulter, David Swankey, Kelly Janveaux, Erma Vietorisz and Kaethe Jones.

Now it’s up to the people of Chilliwack to express their preference. The election will be on 20 October. We’ll be watching to learn how things work out. Stay tuned to this blog!

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