The claims by the church member claiming to be a scientist, were that human and dinosaur foot prints could be found side by side by the river near Glen Rose.  Thus the conclusion was that men walked with dinosaurs and the world could not be millions of years old.  This is part of Creationist's ideology along with the concept that the world is only 6,500 years old.  I have had church members tell me there are now in South America living dinosaurs that have not been discovered.  Creationists are seeking to introduce these doctrines into public education across the nation. There was even one denomination that mandated professors and pastors must believe the world is only 6,500 years old.
      Research on the human footprints in Glen Rose came to the conclusion the prints there were not human but from other dinosaurs.  Now well informed Creationists even reject the research done at the Paluxy River claiming these were human prints.  The legend does not stand on solid scientific research.  (There are other claims of human footprints at other sights I am told.)  The idea of dinosaurs in hidden jungles appears to be some urban legend passed on at youth campfires.  In my own area legend has it Bigfoot resides in the East Texas forests.  In my region there is a game cam for every two hundred yards looking for whitetail bucks with huge racks.  If such a creature as Bigfoot existed it would be hard to figure out how he got by without being caught on one of the game cams.  Legends make for good folklore, but do we want to teach them as scientific fact in public schools?
     Princeton writer Robert Wuthnow notes in his latest book that Cyrus I. Scofield was a divorced man before he put together the Scofield Bible.  I was taken back by such a revelation.  Most Fundamentalists shun divorce as quickly as they do women preachers.  The fact that Scofield left behind two daughters and a wife makes him unclean meat as far as the ministry is concerned.  Yet, Cyrus's Bible, laced with Premillennialism theories, is a standard for these preachers.    His legend does not live up to the historical facts.  The divorce did happen before his conversion, but to Fundamentalists this does not change the fact he cannot be a clergy person.
     Harvey Cox's claim that the Pentecostal movement in America has broken down the race barrier is also interesting.  The movement is traced back to a Kansas Bible teacher, Charles Parham, who was a hard core racist adhering to British Israel legends.  That is the theory that white people are the lost tribe of Israel and Queen Elizabeth is a descendent of King David of the Old Testament.  The racist minister was so hard core he would not allow the Black minister in attendance to sit in the same room with him while he taught his theories on speaking in tongues.  The Black minister went to Los Angeles and started the Pentecostal movement through the Azusa Revival, which then spread to the rest of the nation.
     The Christian nation myth is gaining momentum in the nation.  Many now believe expelling God from the public arena is an invented concept from the Supreme Court.  The legend goes that founding fathers all were part of a common faith thread that existed together in early America.  There is little understanding of the fact that colonists were forced by the Crown to recognize the Crown as head of the church.  The ministers in America were forced to use the Common Book of Prayers or face criminal charges.  Author John Barry has written a book named, Roger Williams and The Creation of the American Soul.  Barry notes that in early America single men and women were forbidden to live alone.  Pg. 170  One man was excommunicated from the church for marrying a woman considered too vain.  Pg. 173  Dissenter Roger Williams found a cold reception from the church in Plymouth.  Williams thought the idea that the English Christian King had a right to take Indian lands from them on some Biblical theory was absurd.  He thought the Indians had a right to lands in America.  Pg. 161
     Barry's book notes that all was not as well in "Christian America" as some might like to think.  The Puritans, seeking religious liberty from the likes of a King who declared himself head of state and church, were not that welcoming to other dissenters.  Puritans in early America began to persecute people who held to different doctrines than they had.  Religious liberty was a myth until people like Williams demanded a new concept foreign to all nations in the world.  
     Calvin's attempt at a religious state in Switzerland was another example. Calvin had Michael Servetus burned at the stake. Calvin set up a state which was supposed to be Christian yet he tortured to death Servetus as an example he tolerated no dissent to him as chief authority on religion.  Many American Fundamentalists claim Calvin is the building block for our  nation.  The oldest Southern Baptist seminary now has a faculty stacked with Calvinist theologians.  
     Legend is often divorced from historical fact in these circles.  Problems arise when seminaries and public education are presented with these legends to teach to potential church leaders.   Do we really want to believe early American settlers fought dinosaurs and American  Indians who were the Amalekites of the  Old Testament? The Colony was now the new Israel expanding the Kingdom of God?  Late Baptist historian William Estep said Madison believed the establishment of a state church led to "pride and indolence in Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."1  Estep noted there were two versions of America.  One was the view that taking lands from the Indians was like the expansion of Israel into the Promised Land.  The other view was led by people like Roger Williams who advocated the separation of the church and state.  Those two views are still being argued in our public square and the conflict has yet to be settled.

1.     William Estep, Revolution Within the Revolution,  Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1990.  Pg. 147