MISSOULA (AP) -- A Christian legal defense organization is offering to defend the Darby School Board if it is sued over its newly adopted policy of including ''objective origins" theory in science classes.

Lincoln attorney Bridgette Erickson will meet with the board on Feb. 24.

She is affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Ariz., which was founded by prominent Christian conservatives including James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Don Wildmon of the American Family Association.

''I'll be letting the board know a little more about ADF and how it works," Erickson told the Missoulian newspaper by phone Friday. ''This is just preliminary discussion so they're more aware of ADF's services.

ADF's Web site includes this mission statement: ''The Alliance Defense Fund is a servant organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense and advocacy of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and traditional family values."

The fund made an official offer to the board in a letter dated Feb. 2 to defend the new policy in state or federal court.

Erickson said she followed the Darby situation closely in news reports. She said she believes the proposal would, in general, survive a constitutional challenge, in part because the policy only ''encourages" teachers to instruct students on criticisms of current scientific theory.

''If it were mandatory, then there might be something more to argue about," she said.

Critics of the new policy argued that ''objective origins" is creationism under a different name and does not belong in science classes.

Darby minister Curtis Brickley, who proposed the curriculum change, and the three board members who voted for it say they have no religious motivations. They say ''objective origins" is valid scientific criticism of evolutionary theory.

The school board's attorney, Elizabeth Kaleva, urged the members to submit any proposed curriculum change to the state Office of Public Instruction. Otherwise, she said, the district may have accreditation and funding problems because it will no longer be in line with state teaching standards.

Kaleva also told the board it opened up itself to a lawsuit if it passed a science curriculum that may blur the line between religion and science.

Despite Kaleva's recommendation, the board voted 3-2 in favor of ''objective origins."

''That isn't science," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch said later. ''That's exactly what it's all about, is teaching creationism. It doesn't matter what you call it. Creationism is not a recognized science."

She agreed that the school district runs the risk of violating the Montana Constitution and jeopardizing funding if it adopts a policy and curriculum that introduce creationism into science classes.