Does "spell" mean "goodwill"?

WASHINGTON, D.C., is full of smart, hard-driving, in-teresting people. A wide variety of religious faiths are represented, as well as a significant proportion of atheists and agnostics. When I was invited to speak at the annual men's dinner at a highly regarded Protestant church just outside the District, I gladly accepted. It was an inspiring evening as prominent leaders, teachers, and blue-collar workers collectively let their hair down to talk earnestly about their faith, and to ask penetrating questions about how science and faith can contradict or reinforce each other. For a good hour of discourse, goodwill filled the room. And then one church member asked the senior pastor whether he believed that the first chapter of Genesis was a literal, step-by-step, day-by-day description of the origins of the earth and of humankind. In an instant, brows furrowed and jaws tightened. Harmony retreated to the far corners of the room. The pastor's carefully worded response, worthy of the most deft politician, managed utterly to avoid answering the question. Most of the men looked relieved that a confrontation had been avoided, but the spell was broken.