Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

The Embarrassing Speculations of Ken Ham

by in Christian Issues

This guest post is by UC supporter Pete Lefevre.

Out of a morbid sense of curiosity, I watched the Bill Nye/Ken Ham debate this past week. For me, the origins of our earth and our species have been amply explained through scientific inquiry and those who argue for a 6,000-year-old earth — who treat Genesis as a science and history textbook — have not fully considered the numerous and powerful arguments that might disturb their closed system.

That accusation might well be hurled back at me, so if you’ll allow me some special pleading, I was an adherent to the creationist view for many years. I’ve spent inordinate amounts of my life in American Evangelical Conservative Protestant churches. While this particular subculture of religious expression may not have a printed list of required political, historical, and scientific beliefs I can assure you that if you show any deviance from the expected norm (if, for example, you accept observation of redshift as a reliable dating mechanism for the universe, or accept natural selection as an explanation for the development and variety of life) you may find yourself isolated if not shunned. These churches are not open-ended discussion groups. It’s believe or leave.

So I suited up, showed up, and saluted the flag in a manner of speaking. But my inveterate reading habits did me in. I took great comfort and courage from much of the Bible. I also took great comfort and courage in reading Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Michio… [Read more…] about The Embarrassing Speculations of Ken Ham

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Challenge to the Church

by in Book Reviews

“Race, as both a social construct and a visible reality, is the gigantic elephant in the American living room that some insist will disappear if only we would just ignore it.” So says Edward Gilbreath in the opening pages of his book “Birmingham Revolution: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Epic Challenge to the Church” (InterVarsity Press).

Gilbreath goes on to explore the history of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr.’s pivotal role in that movement and the ongoing challenges that America still faces regarding race. Through the lens of King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Gilbreath offers an extended reflection on where we’ve come from and where we still have to go in terms of race and the church.

In his Birmingham letter, King opined:

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Those timeless words offer a challenge that many responded to in 1963, but has all too often been ignored by today’s Christians. Gilbreath wrestles with that loss, interacting with present-day civil rights and church leaders and examining the challenges we have overcome and the lessons that history can teach us.

“Birmingham Revolution” isn’t… [Read more…] about Martin Luther King Jr.'s Challenge to the Church

Did the Ham/Nye debate really happen?

by in Christian Issues

While there’s plenty to discuss about what was (or wasn’t) said during the Ham/Nye debate, I think the crux of the whole affair comes down to how one understands science.

The foundation of Mr. Ham’s argument is his distinction between what he calls historical and observational science:
There’s experimental or observational science as we call it, that’s using the scientific method: observation, measurement, experiment, testing … all scientists, whether creationists or evolutionists actually have the same observational or experimental science … When we’re talking about origins, we’re talking about the past, we’re talking about our origin, we weren’t there, you can’t observe that, whether it’s molecules-to-man evolution or whether it’s the creation account. And when we’re talking about the past, we like to call that origins or historical science, knowledge concerning the past.
For Mr. Ham, this differentiation between past and present methodologies has profound implications:
You can’t observe the age of the earth, and I would say that comes under what we call historical origins science. Now, just so you can understand where I’m coming from, yes, we admit we build our historical origins science on the Bible … There’s only one infallible dating method, it’s the witness who was there, who knows everything, who told us, and that’s from the word of God.
But differentiating between observational and historical science is a contrived manipulation that bisects science in a way… [Read more…] about Did the Ham/Nye debate really happen?

Something needs to change here

by in LGBT

Over on the Unfundamentalist Christians Facebook page, a student at Wheaton College shared with us the above photo of a sheet of paper he found stapled to a campus bulletin board. What’s typed on the paper is below.

Does the person who wrote this sound like a deviant moral reprobate, a danger to our nation and our children, an offense to God? Or does he just sound like a reasonable, good-natured, decent guy who only wants to be treated with the care and respect with which anyone living in a civilized society should expect as their natural due?

Being Gay at Wheaton: A Summary of my 9 months out of the closet
The following list includes examples of things that I have experienced as a gay male at Wheaton, and that other gay men might experience too. …

Guys will stop touching you. I’m not just talking about hugs. This includes handshakes, high-fives, and even squeezing past someone in a crowded area. Guys will also stop smiling at you, since it’s well-knwn that all gay people are innately attracted to all members of their gender.
Any guy that is seen hanging out with you on multiple occasions will have their sexuality questioned. For this reason, many of your friends might stop hanging out with you.
Your roommate’s friends will stop visiting their apartment, simply because you live there.
You will be extremely lonely.
You will have to sit through a New Testament class where the professor decides to spend an entire class period discussing his… [Read more…] about Something needs to change here

Burned out (by God?)

by in Uncategorized

While walking with my wife Wendy the other night, our conversation took an interesting turn. She has been reading Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, and told me about how, in the early 70s, Smith and artist Robert Mapplethorpe would spend long evenings at Max’s Kansas City hoping to connect with Andy Warhol. For some reason, Smith thought it worth mentioning that they waited under the red glow of a light sculpture commemorating the bloodshed of the Vietnam war.

My wife is a good storyteller and the mention of a light artist jogged my memory — I was pleased to remember a New York Times piece about Dan Flavin, who turned out to be the creator of that sculpture in the back room of Max’s. The article detailed the challenges of preserving and presenting Flavin’s work: after his death and with the increasing value of his sculptures, Flavin’s off-the-shelf practicality often gave way to meticulous attempts to preserve his ephemeral creations.

What happens when a Flavin bulb burns out? Can you replace it with a bulb from the corner hardware store? Leave it dark? Or must you only purchase hand-crafted copies of the original bulbs that are officially licensed by the Flavin estate?

As the conversation wandered, my wife raised questions about the nature of certain religious experiences. Delusional? Bullshit? Philosopher Harry Frankfurt would say intentionally ignoring the truth of a claim and instead focusing solely on the desired affects of that claim is the very… [Read more…] about Burned out (by God?)

You know how sometimes

by Eric Booth in Uncategorized

You know how
sometimes people
in our lives
with whom we’re not terribly close,
(which includes nearly everyone)
like work colleagues for instance,
will, quite inadvertently, say or do something
that must obviously be a personal trigger
instantly teleporting you back across time and space
into that room you’ve been running from
and trapped in your whole life
and your anxiety level skyrockets
but unfortunately and thankfully,
you’ve developed
the keen survivalist talent of hiding your fears
so well the trigger-happy,
soon-to-be ex-colleague/friend,
blissfully and unknowingly continues
dancing with stilettos on your heart,
believing you to be interested
because you are, actually, looking right at them
while looking right past them
while the psychologically bound Pavlovian dog
part of your psyche forever unfairly associates
the person’s face, voice, and scent
with that room
and everything in it you want
to keep getting away from
but the meeting isn’t nearly over,
the problem isn’t nearly solved,
the delivery to the client is looming,
and you catch not nearly enough words
to further any of these noble petty
causes, delaying escape
and lengthening exposure
radiating from otherwise good, rational people
who have their own damn shit and
with whom you have no desire to share any of this
so these people become rather impatient with you
for not hearing them,
causing the inevitable second wave
comprising the winning package of
guilt and shame and self-flagellation
because you fear it’s… [Read more…] about You know how sometimes

Is "Biblical Truth" all that matters?

by in Christian Issues

One of the hallmarks of American Evangelicalism is its dogmatic biblicism. This understanding of the Bible goes far beyond mere love and respect for Scripture, instead functioning as a distorted trinity composed of God, Jesus, and the Bible, with the Bible acting as virtually the only means through which we can properly come to God.

It is the Bible that is at the center of Fundamentalist and Evangelical faith, and it is the absolute, inerrant, and infallible authority of the Bible that many Christians cling to as the essential doctrine of Christianity. The Holy Spirit is relegated to an afterthought. Logic and reason are of questionable value. Experience and emotion are sure to mislead. Tradition and church teaching have their place, but only insofar as they support Scripture.

This biblicism was succinctly expressed in a commentary by conservative pastor Jim Garlow entitled “The Source of Wisdom.” Dr. Garlow said:
There is truth that goes beyond us. It predates us. It will outlive us. It’s called ‘Biblical Truth.’ … What’s your source of wisdom? Ultimately my opinion matters little. And sorry to say, neither does yours. But there’s a truth that does matter. It’s called ‘Biblical Truth.’ Some will say, ‘Well, according to who’s interpretation? The answer: according to the collective minds of authentic followers of God for the last two thousand years. Others will argue, ‘well it’s his interpretation against yours, right?’ No, the Bible was written plainly.… [Read more…] about Is "Biblical Truth" all that matters?