April 6, 1982 My letter to Cullen Davis

Back in the 1970's and the 1980's I lived in Euless, Texas.  Cullen Davis attended the First Baptist Church in Euless and launched a vicious attack against my neighbor who was running for the school board.  Cullen believed in creationism and did not want the schools in the HEB area to teach evolution.  My neighbor was the minister of a Methodist church and Cullen offered $200,000 to prove evolution.  Cullen also called my neighbor a blasphemer.  The $200,000 offer was "made to the church itself for irrefutable physical evidence that proves that 'the Particles to People' theory of evolution is a fact.

My children were attending the HEB schools and I waited for a rebuttal letter to his offer which had been printed in the Mid-Cities Newspaper.  My guess was that people were afraid to make comment because of his acquittal of murder charges.  Below is from Wikepedia

Thomas Cullen Davis (born September 22, 1933, Fort Worth, Texas) is an American oil heir and member of a prominent family. Davis is best known for being acquitted of murder and attempted murder in two high-profile trials during the 1970s. At the time of his first trial, Davis was believed to be the wealthiest man to have stood trial for murder in the United States.

First he was accused of murdering his stepdaughter on August 2, 1976, during a contentious divorce from his second wife, Priscilla Cullen. He was found not guilty. The second trial, two years later, involved allegations that Davis attempted to hire a hitman to kill both Priscilla and the judge overseeing his divorce from Priscilla. Again, Davis was acquitted

I finally decided to write an editorial and send it to the Mid-Cities News.  I no more than dropped it off when the paper called me asking permission to print it.

Below is my response.  I will print out what I said in the editorial:

My letter is in reference to Cullen Davis's Letter to the editor published on April 6, 1982.  I believe he is out of line in his accusations toward the Rev. Thomas Q. Robbins.

I voted for Rev. Robbins in the last election because I believe there is a very real danger of having a conflict of church and state.  All it takes to have this potential conflict is to elect a majority of people who are all of the same religious persuasion to public office.  At that point they are free to pass laws legislating the morals and beliefs of the people that they supposedly represent.

In the case of the HEB school board elections, the controversial issue was whether or not to risk a lawsuit by including creationism in the curriculum.  Both creationism and evolution are theories at this point and it is certainly not worth spending unnecessary money on a lawsuit in order to defend a theory.

And the issue of creationism is just a beginning.  Next there could possibly be removal of "objectionable books from school libraries, removal of "uncooperative" teachers, etc.  

Davis's $200,000 challenge to the church to prove irrefutably the validity of evolution is obviously a farce, if he is the sole judge.  It is like having two people in a debate with one of them being the judge.

Davis is so prejudiced against evolution that if the evidence stared him in the face, he would never acknowledge it.

I believe Davis is out of line in his reference to Rev. Robbins as an anti-Christ.  It seems to be popular to label someone who does not believe with our particular religious viewpoint as an anti-Christ.

I do not really understand the concern Cullen Davis has about the Rev. Thomas Robbins since Cullen does not live in the HEB area and Rev. Robbins lost the election.  Is he out to get Rev. Robbins because of disagreement of a viewpoint?