#2429: Jack Wu

Jack Wu is a computer programmer, religious fundamentalist and young-earth creationist, and a 2012 candidate for the Kansas Board of Education. Wu’s stated reason for running was that Kansas is “perverse” and that public schools were preparing students to be “liars, crooks, thieves, murderers, and perverts.” Part of the means for achieving those outcomes, according to Wu, is the fact that schools teach evolution. Opposition to teaching evolution was accordingly the centerpiece of Wu’s campaign. According to Wu, evolution is “Satanic lies”. In his own words: “My mission, in running for the Kansas State Board of Education, is to throw out the crap that teachers are feeding their students and replace it with healthy good for the soul knowledge from the holy scriptures. Let’s be specific. Evolution should never be taught in public schools as science. Evolution is false science! God made the heaven and the earth and created humans from the dust of the earth! The very bad teachers that teach that men descended from apes via evolution need to have their teaching licenses revoked. Yes, students should be taught that God created everything.” Removing the teaching of evolution from the schools can ostensibly be defended on secular grounds, too: “Evolution is like a deadly and vile disease, so it would be a cost-saving measure to get rid of the disease spreaders.” (Do notice that Wu talks about getting rid of the disease spreaders, not just the disease.)

 

Even though this is Kansas, Wu didn’t win. An important reason for that was probably Wu’s affiliation with Fred Phelps’s Westboro Baptist Church, which is internationally famous for picketing funerals with deranged anti-gay slogans and proclaiming that American soldiers’ deaths are God’s punishment for the tolerance of homosexuality in the US – Wu apparently attended such picketings, even listing it as his “community involvement” experience in the voter’s guide. Indeed, Wu moved to Kansas from California precisely to attend the church.

 

During his campaign, Wu also asserted that Topeka is evil, that Harry Potter promotes witchcraft, that Christmas trees are pagan idols, and that cancer is a judgment from God. Wu also lambasted then-governor Sam Brownback for being “a vile Catholic”, and showed himself to be proudly stupid and inept in general.

 

Apparently, Wu was too extreme even for creationist organizations like Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research.

 

Diagnosis: A genuine, wannabe comic book villain. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the rest of us, he is as feeble, inept and incompetent as he is vile and wicked.