By Mark Kennedy, ACSI Regional Director, Canada
Not too many years ago Creationism was the overwhelmingly accepted view about origins for evangelicals while evolution held a similar position in secular, liberal and nominally religious communities. That is changing, for us at least. The Intelligent Design movement has opened the door for a variety of evangelical perspectives on origins including a Christian evolutionist point of view (which personally I find difficult to reconcile with scripture). A few months ago I received a letter from a fellow ACSI Director asking for some input on how to deal with the increasingly heated clashes between member schools that hold the Intelligent Design perspective and schools that take the Creationist point of view.
Here is part of my response:
We would have no hesitation in using both (ID and Creationist at our conventions).
The instructions we give to people speaking on the topic of origins is that they are not to mock, ridicule or otherwise treat disrespectfully people or beliefs with which they disagree (including evolutionists and evolution). Nevertheless, they are welcome to state their position and refute other positions as long as they do so respectfully. Francis Schaeffer said that we Christians don’t have the luxury of fighting our battles on just one front. Concerning origins, I think that means applying the policy above. All of us need to be reminded that the folks with whom we disagree hold their beliefs just as sincerely as we do and often, those beliefs take on religious dimensions- and sometimes they may be smarter than we are. If we mock those beliefs we lose credibility in their eyes. Wrong attitudes speak louder than correct arguments. No sensible Christian would witness to a Buddhist or Muslim by telling demeaning jokes about Buddha or Mohamed. The Christian might win the battle of whose beliefs are technically more credible but, because of his insulting words, he/she would lose the war for the person mind and soul. Similarly we need to learn to hold our convictions without rancor towards those with whom we disagree.
As a post middle aged radical I would be tempted to have a debate at convention between Creationists and ID people and evolutionists with the ground rules as per the above. It is a dangerous idea but if it worked some folks might start to think Christianly about the topic instead of just choosing up sides, applying demeaning attitudes towards their opponents and dividing the body of Christ.
The “ don’t touch it” approach to this issue may seem the safest for now but in the long run it fails to deal with the significant problem of one group of believers warring against its allies. Matthew Arnold describes the condition in his poem “Dover Beach”:
“And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggles and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
The 'ignorant armies’ to which he is referring clashed in ancient Greece. The result of their battle in the dark was that each side slaughtered its own troops. We need to fight our battles in the light of both truth and mutual respect.
No comments:
Post a Comment