The Anti-Defamation League is calling on state Rep. Ben Bridges to apologize for a memo distributed under his name that says the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools because it is a religious deception stemming from an ancient Jewish sect.

Bridges (R-Cleveland) denies having anything to do with the memo. But one of his constituents said he wrote the memo with Bridges' approval before it was recently distributed to lawmakers in several states, including Texas, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"Indisputable evidence -- long hidden but now available to everyone -- demonstrates conclusively that so-called `secular evolution science' is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate `creation scenario' of the Pharisee Religion," the memo says. "This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic `holy book' Kabbala dating back at least two millennia."

The memo calls on lawmakers to introduce legislation that would end the teaching of evolution in public schools because it is "a deception that is causing incalculable harm to every student and every truth-loving citizen."

The intent here is pretty clear: since the argument that ID is a science has gone nowhere, Marshall Hall, author of the memo, decided to come at the problem from the opposite direction and declare evolution a mystic religion traceable to  the Pharisees, who Marshall later in the memo calls an anti-Christ "Judaical sect".

Hall, whose wife, Bonnie, has been Bridges' campaign manager for over a decade, says he showed Bridges the memo for his approval and got it. Bridges doesn't deny reading it but -

"I did not put it out nor did I know it was going out," Bridges said. "I'm not defending it or taking up for it."

If Hall is telling the truth. Bridges didn't tell him not to "put it out", either. So the question now, is: did he approve of it? Well, um, yeah, he did.

Bridges acknowledged that he talked to Hall about filing legislation this year that would end the teaching of evolution in Georgia's public schools. Bridges said the views in the memo belong to Hall, though Bridges said he doesn't necessarily disagree with them.

"I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory," Bridges said. "I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?"

So now all I need is somebody to explain how not defending it is different from agreeing with it.

BTW, the memo directs readers to a website where, among other silliness, it is stated as a matter of fact that the Earth neither rotates nor goes around the Sun, a novel theory that leaves us hanging in space like an ornament on a Christmas tree - only without the tree.

Though one may be tempted to dismiss this latest tomfoolery from the anti-evolution forces, we mustn't forget that the "Elders of Zion" forgery/hoax was just as silly, and despite that was seized on by anti-Semites to excuse a string of unbelievable atrocities against Jews for over a hundred years. There are still people who insist it's genuine, and some of them are the same people shilling for ID now.

The ADL's demand for an apology has everybody backing away from the memo at the moment, not just Bridges (who, let's face it, isn't backing very far off).

A Texas lawmaker says he is now "willing to apologize" for giving fellow legislators the memo Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News reported today.

"The stuff that causes conflicts between religious beliefs, you know, I'd never be a party to that," Texas House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum told the Morning News Wednesday. "I'm willing to apologize if I've offended anyone."

It apparently didn't occur to Mr Chisum when he gave the memo to his friends that it was "the stuff that causes conflicts between religious beliefs" until the ADL jumped on it. So even though he's now disavowing it, his inability to recognize junk when he sees it is troubling.

It means that in the circles in which Mr Chisum and other Christian fundamentalists run, these kinds of scurrilous, imaginary "facts" are so common they not only go practically unnoticed, they're automatically accepted as true until somebody starts screaming that they aren't.

We know from a painful past that this isn't going to just disappear. No right-wing Xtian mythology ever does. When the furor dies down, it will be back again. And again. And again. And again. It will appear in right-wing blogs where Hall will be portrayed as a martyr for the cause, it will be sent in emails to lists of the faithful, it will be whispered in undertones on the Xtian jungle telegraph, and it will, for all I know, eventually make its way to Pat Robertson who will feature it on The 700 Club and make it mainstream. It may even find its way into the court system where time and money will be wasted knocking it down. Fantasy-theories just as silly as this have wound up there before.

It's a depressing prospect. It seems there is no bit of anti-scientific balderdash too lame, too odious, or too idiotic to make it onto the Christian Right Hit Parade. If they're prepared to believe that Earth dangles in space like a static yo-yo, what won't they be willing to believe?