Philadelphia-based evangelistic organization Repent America is executing its plan to teach creationism in public schools by holding a creationism seminar at Dover Area High School next month.

"It's not in the classroom, but inside the walls of the high school," said Michael Marcavage, the group's director. The session is planned for a Friday night and Saturday in March.

The group had hoped to include a debate between evangelist Kent Hovind and a scientist who supports Darwin's theory of evolution, but evolutionists have turned their backs, Marcavage said.

He said he has contacted professors and scientists from area campuses -- such as York College, Penn State, Franklin & Marshall and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg -- but no one has agreed to debate evolution.

"We've been trying, but it seems that no one wants to debate the issue," he said. "It's just another example of how evolutionists are crawling back under their rocks when it comes to defending their beliefs."

Biology chair invited: The list of invitees includes York College's Deborah Ricker, chair of York College's biology department.

According to David Salter, spokesman for the college, the biology department does not want to debate evolution because it's already made its position known in a statement that it released supporting evolution.

"If you've looked at (Marcavage's) Web site ... it most likely wouldn't be a fair debate,"

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Salter said.

Dover school board president Bernadette Reinking summed up her sentiments about the group by saying "everyone's entitled to their opinion."

The group had petitioned the school board for a waiver of the fees it will pay to rent the high school's auditorium. Because the school board refused, Marcavage said his group will pay about $1,500 for the two-day seminar.

Announced purpose: Marcavage said the purpose of the seminar is to "convey the truth about our existence, what the Bible teaches, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Though a schedule of topics has not been set, he said the speaker will touch on some of the issues surrounding public schools, such as "lies in the textbooks."

He said Hovind, a former high school science teacher who will teach during the seminars, has spoken internationally. The stop in Dover was spurred by a recent federal lawsuit against the school district and its board over the teaching of intelligent design in high school biology classes, he said.

"This is ground zero, if you will, for the debate on whether or not ‘intelligent design' should be taught ... in public schools."

In 2004, 11 parents filed a lawsuit to remove a policy put in place by a former school board. The policy called for mentioning intelligent design, which says living things are so complicated they had to have been created by a higher being, in biology classes.

The parents won, and U.S. Middle District Court Judge John E. Jones banned the teaching of intelligent design and said it is a form of Christian creationism.

Marcavage said the decision was "outrageous" because it says suggesting God as the creator is unconstitutional.

Marcavage said there is no "separation of church and state" in the First Amendment.

Two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Christy Rehm and Cyndi Sneath, said Repent America is not interested in having a fair debate.

Rehm said she didn't bother to learn much about the group because it's "a waste of time."

"They just want to keep opening the wounds (of the community) ..." she said. "And I don't appreciate it."

She said she hopes people just ignore the group.

Sneath said the group doesn't really want evolutionary scientists to turn out; the evangelists want to say the scientists were too afraid to show up.

Marcavage predicted a huge audience for the seminar. He said he has been receiving e-mails and phone calls from people as far away as New York and Ohio.

About the seminar

Repent America, a Philadelphia-based evangelistic organization, is holding a two-day creationism seminar in the Dover Area High School auditorium, 46 W. Canal St., Dover.

The event is at 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 17, and 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 18. It is free and open to the public. -- Reach Christina Kauffman at 505-5434 or ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com.