Are you ready for 'higher ground'?

I have been called names before, but never narrow-minded. I discovered that all you have to do is discuss evolution on a live radio show for that to happen.

As with most name calling, it did hurt a tiny bit, but then I know who I am, and I know what I believe. But can I effectively explain those things?

When the Rev. Bernice A. King spoke at the annual Dr. Luther King Jr. kickoff event at Harris-Stowe State College, I felt it was a speech not to be missed. The youngest daughter of Dr. King did not disappoint.

As the co-emcee, I sat quietly backstage like a little mouse as she began to speak. I'd positioned myself so that the majority of the audience could not see me but I could see and hear her. At least I could see her back and her profile.

She told us that she never thought of her father as a civil rights leader, but as a man of God who impacted the civil rights movement. She told us that she believed the reason animals facing the tsunami were unharmed is because they knew instinctively to move to higher ground. And she believed her father was sent here by God to show us how to move to higher ground in God and through God.

Shortly after that enlightening evening, I was asked to fill in as a co-host for a colleague who was on vacation. To be honest, after not hosting a show for over six months now, I wasn't eager to jump back in. But I obliged my manager. I would come in for the third and fourth hours of the four-hour shift.

An out-of state court case was one of the topics my co-host selected. "No problem," I said. Right now, I'll tell you that is not what I was really thinking.

The issue at hand: Should a school board be allowed to put stickers in science books that say evolution is one theory. Two thousand students in this district complained that they were being taught evolution only and not creationism. A handful of students complained about the wording and the stickers. Eventually, a judge ordered them to be removed.

I don't remember much about my junior high science classes, but I wondered on the air why a student couldn't bring up his belief about creation.

"Because it's not science, and only science can be discussed in a science class," my colleague told me.

It was at this point that I again thought of what Bernice King had to say about her father. He was an educated, well-spoken man who moved a nation in the name of God. I felt ill-prepared. I felt I certainly hadn't moved to higher ground or been able to take others with me.

A couple of men reacted via e-mail, writing that I seemed like many who really don't understand the Bible but just parrot what they've been taught since childhood. I was called unreasonable, superstitious and narrow-minded to say that students should be allowed to bring up God when evolution is discussed in a science class.

Worse happened to Dr. King for stating so eloquently what he believed in. And even worse happened to Jesus, whom I believe in, for trying to get humanity to move to higher ground.

While I am moved to study this issue more, I can certainly handle a few venom-filled e-mails that question my beliefs. I think the whole experience moved me to higher ground.

So, just like me, you may think you know what you believe in. But are you ready to defend it and explain it?

Carol (Keeler) Daniel of St. Louis is on KMOX radio every weekday afternoon. She formerly was a news anchor on KZIM radio in Cape Girardeau. She is married with two sons.