Sunday, April 02, 2006

"Darwinian Evolution is Viscerally Unacceptable to Many Americans" comment

Herald Leader
Letters to the Editor
fax 231-3332
Attn: Gallman, Gatton

RE: "Evolution theory on last legs, says seminary professor" H-L, April 2.

Professor Dembski at Southern Baptist Seminary calls Darwinian evolution "viscerally unacceptable" to most Americans (Herald-Leader, April 2). Should we be curious what else has been "viscerally unacceptable" to Christians of all stripes throughout history?

The idea of equality for the slaves was so repulsive to American Baptists in the south at the time of the Civil War that they separated from their northern brethern despite congregational autonomy given to local Baptist groups. This is the origin of his jurisdiction. Freedom for slaves was viscerally unacceptable to most Christians (as well as to the founders of this country) for nineteen hundred years.

The idea that any Christian could make up their own mind what to believe was repulsive to Christian authority, both Protestant and Catholic, and cost countless peoples their lives and their property over many hundreds of years. The independence of science from control of the church was so viscerally unacceptable that Galileo who proposed that the earth was not the center of the universe was restricted to his home for the rest of his life. The idea that society could be based on human rights apart from church oversight was condemned repeatedly by Roman Catholic authorities. Celibate priests still condemn the right to use birth control to determine the size of one's family or to prevent AIDS.

Many churches condemned the idea that one could pray to God directly. There is no end to ideas and rights condemned by the Christians and "Christian" authorities over two thousand years because at some time they were "viscerally unacceptable."

I suggest that whether something is viscerally unacceptable to most Americans is not an adequate criteria of either truth or God's truth. The actual gospel of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is viscerally unacceptable to many Americans including church-goers and "Christian" authorities still.

I invite the professor, in the interest of honesty and potential bias, to tell us what else is so repulsive to his current Southern Baptist convention that the Seminary has been "cleansed" of reputable scholars and now a number of individual congregations are withdrawing from the convention?

Paschal Baute
Lexington, Ky
tel 293-5302

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home