There is much to criticize in the 139 page decision handed down by Judge John Jones after the Dover ID trial, and we'll take a look at some of that in the days ahead. The undoing of this case for the defense, however, was the perceived, or actual, dishonesty on the part of a couple of the Dover school board members. The saddest legacy of this whole affair is not that the board sought to inform students that there are legitimate alternatives to the materialist narrative on origins but rather the discredit that some of them brought upon the word "Christian" by publicly denying having said what they evidently did say and, worse, by denying it while under oath.
Secularist and Darwinian blogs are touting their conduct as typical of Christians in general, and ID advocates in particular, and surely the message will be repeated and amplified by the media, in ways both subtle and not so subtle, that anyone who advocates ID is a liar and that Christians can not be trusted in positions of civic responsibility.
Christianity Today concludes a fine report on the court's decision with these words:
The impression left by the conduct of a few people, no matter how well-meaning their original intention, has probably done far more to set back the cause of ID than all the expert testimony offered by the plaintiffs and all the negative media commentary spawned throughout the trial. People will accept or reject ideas they don't feel particularly competent to evaluate themselves on the basis of whether or not they feel they can trust those who do have expertise to be telling them the truth. To the extent that one or two of the board members have been called liars by the trial judge and to the extent that those individuals are identified with Intelligent Design, ID will have been wounded and discredited in the eyes of a public that is largely confused about the philosophic and scientific questions ID addresses.
The lesson for all of us, whichever side of this debate we're on, is that no matter how right we think we are, our opinions on matters like these are not so important that we should ever sacrifice our integrity to promote them.
