Controversy Over Grand Canyon Book Revs Up Again

by Juli Cragg Hilliard, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 1/31/2007

A three-year-old controversy over a book espousing a young-earth Creationist view being sold at the Grand Canyon visitors center has resurfaced, with renewed media attention and more they-said, they-said hullabaloo.

In spite of the ongoing squabble, a National Park Service spokesman said it's unlikely to review the sale at the Grand Canyon National Park of a popular book that says the canyon was created during the global flood recounted in the Bible. "The fact that we haven't done anything in the last three years is kind of a decision," David Barna, NPS chief of communications, told RBL.

Since 2003, when New Leaf's Master Books published it, the store has sold Tom Vail's Grand Canyon: A Different View. The arguments began right away. All seem to agree the book contains exquisite photos, but the storm has been over Vail's assertion the Grand Canyon was created just a few thousand years ago.

At this point, said Barna, the book is shelved under an inspirational category. The scientific community wants the book gone, but Barna said the park's interpretive staff wants it to stay "because they're not afraid of alternate views. And they think debate itself is healthy." Barna drew a comparison to Civil War battlefield sites, where visitors may find books with various perspectives of the war's causes.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has tried to keep attention on both the fact that the NPS said it would review the Grand Canyon matter and on agency guidelines, titled "Director's Order #6," (see the NPS Web site) which mandate that interpretive and educational materials must "be based on the best scientific programs" and programs "must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes."

Barna said the NPS doesn't micromanage the stores. "These are policies from the national office, they're not laws and regulations. It's guidance."

That was news to PEER executive director Jeff Ruch, who said he had never heard the NPS take that position. With the arrival in October of a new NPS director, Mary A. Bomar, PEER wanted to put the issue "back on their radar," Ruch said. They succeeded with a December news release–itself controversial, since it said the Grand Canyon's interpretive staff was under a gag order over the issue of the canyon's age.

PEER apologized (http://www.peer.org/wordpress/) and has tried to clarify its position in subsequent writings (http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=805). Said Ruch, "It was more that we were trying to convey there was an official policy of ambiguity that was confusing. And we're still confused."

New Leaf reports the book is one of its top titles, with 60,000 copies sold. The NPS has sold 4,800, according to Barna. "So the controversy certainly has been helping out the author," he said.