New Movement Reveals the Philosophical Ineptitude of Church Leaders

Right now, 12,000+ leaders of our Christian community have signed onto “the Clergy Letter,” unequivocally declaring that there is no contradiction between religion and science (please read the note hyperlinked: they are not discussing normative science vs. religion, but rather evolution vs. religion). Even more regretfully, the United Methodist Church as a whole, as well as branches of the Episcopal and Lutheran Church, have endorsed the contents of this letter.

There are multiple, crucial problems with this movement. First, the leaders agree that the historical literal translation of the Bible is improper and that many of the stories of the Old Testament are merely metaphorical. Of course, then we have to wonder how you distinguish the metaphorical stories from the literal ones, and if your only way of delineating is by comparing the Word of God to the normative world of science, then you might as well throw out the miraculous acts of Christ himself, including his resurrection. Since the stories of Genesis and of Jonah are written in a historical narrative style, then why wouldn’t you also question the writings of the Gospels?

Of course, there’s no attempt in the letter to try and harmonize the doctrines of the church and of evolution, and I think in this case, and with this bold of a claim, there needs to be some sort of explanation. For instance, if I started an online petition suggesting that the God of Israel, Christianity, and Islam were in fact the same being, I would likely need to explain myself before I’d expect anyone to take it seriously. But instead of explaining how the religion of Christianity and evolution are compatible, it is merely stated, “the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist.” I’m interested in how these leaders are explaining original sin, death as the punishment of sins, and Christ’s redemptive work as the second Adam to their followers. Dr. Zimmerman, the originator of this letter, has yet to do just that. (see here) Until I read this explanation, I will see these signatures as no more than an admittance of ignorance and the dysfunctional relationship between religion and evolution.

While the diminishing of the inerrancy of scripture is frightening, and the lack of explanation is frustrating, what scares me the most about this letter is the complete lack of understanding of the nature of truth. The end of the letter reads, “We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.” Forms of Truth? I didn’t know that you could have different ways that things could correspond to reality. In fact, they can’t. If something corresponds to reality, then it just does. Either the Biblical stories are true or they aren’t. Either evolution is true or it’s not. God exists; or not. We’ve evolved from other species, or we are specially created in the Image of God. The core of these beliefs cannot coexist. (Of course, there can be portions of both that are true or false, but foundationally- the main doctrinal views cannot both be true at the same time and sense.)

In a Baptist sermon, you can see the problem overtly expressed. Pastor Gary McCaslin said this from the pulpit at his First Baptist Church in Painted Post, NY, “Soul liberty simply means that every person in this gathered community has a responsibility to say what is true about God from his or her heart.” (see here) Thus, truth is not founded on the natural revelation of the world around us, or special revelation of Scripture, but rather the subjective feelings on each of the hearts of his church’s constituents. Nothing should scare us more. My feelings don’t matter; God’s truth is His truth, whether it be revealed in science or scripture, God knows the truth because he has created reality, and he often chooses to reveal it to us (the Bible) or leads us to discover it (via science). These two fields are compatible, but the compatibility of evolution and Christianity is truly mistaken for explanation.