the textbooks for the entire state's 4.7 million schoolchildren, where in most other states this selection is made in individual school districts. As a result, it "has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers." Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, said that McLeroy dragged the Texas State Board of Education into a series of "divisive and unnecessary culture-war battles". In 2001, McLeroy voted to reject the only advanced placement textbook for environmental science proposed for Texas high schools even though panels of experts – including one from Texas A&M – found the textbook free of errors. Baylor University in Waco used the same textbook. In 2003, McLeroy led efforts by proponents the pseudosciences of creationism and intelligent design to de-emphasize discussion of evolution in proposed new biology textbooks. He was one of only four board members who voted against biology textbooks that year that included a full account of evolution. Over objections by his critics in 2004, McLeroy voted to approve health textbooks that stress "abstinence-only" in regard to instruction about pregnancy and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. In 2005, McLeroy conducted a sermon in his church, in which he said naturalism is "the enemy" and questioned: "Why is Intelligent Design the big tent? Because we’re all lined up against the fact that naturalism, that nature is all there is. Whether you're a progressive creationist, recent creationist, young earth, old earth, it's all in the tent of Intelligent Design." According to a 2008 article in The New York Times, "Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth's appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion. 'I believe a lot of incredible things,' he said, 'The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the God that created the universe.'" McLeroy's statements regarding science have been criticized. McLeroy and other Board members who want to challenge evolution have received criticism from more than fifty scientific organizations over an attempt to weaken the currently-accepted science standards on the theory of evolution. In particular, biologist Kenneth R. Miller called McLeroy's statements on science "breathtakingly" incorrect. In March 2008, McLeroy was criticized for racially and culturally insensitive remarks saying: "What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book?