Saturday, December 8, 2007

THE EBONY AND IVORY TOWER

“Study to shew (show) thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

On Friday, I attended a luncheon for (mainly) pastors at historic Park Street Congregational Church in downtown Boston. The event was promoted by “Vision New England” (formerly “Evangelistic Association of New England”) and was funded by the Day Foundation. (The Day Foundation was set up by the original owners and founders of the Days Inn motel chain...it funds many evangelical Christian events, especially educational events.) The topic was “Evangelicals and Intellectualism” and featured noted Christian intellectual writer and speaker Os Guiness and noted historian Dr. Mark Noll who is a Professor at Wheaton College in Illinois.

This is REALLY embarrassing, but to show you how much of a non-intellectual I am, I signed up for the event when a promotional mailing arrived, but I COULDN’T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS ABOUT! All I remembered is they were serving a free lunch!

I went into Boston by public transportation. I arrived at Park Street Church around 20 minutes before 12. Renovations are being done on the exterior of the church building, and it was a little confusing at first to find the correct door, but once inside, I was surprised to follow directional arrows to THE CHURCH SANCTUARY. One pastor from Attleboro sat down and chatted with me for a few minutes.

“Wasn’t this billed as a LUNCHEON?” he asked.
“Yeah, I was really surprised we’re in the sanctuary.” I replied.

The event was promoted as running from 12 Noon to 1:30. At around 7 minutes after 12, the Senior Minister of Park Street Church greeted us, and introduced a Professor from Boston University who gave an overview of what we’d be listening to for the next hour. I’m now pretty far removed from academic circles, and I’m kind of embarrassed to say I’m one of the few pastors around who has only gone to the Bachelor’s Degree level. (Well, I’ve got one Bachelor’s Degree in History, and one in Bible. Does that count for something?!) Many of my colleagues have Master of Divinity or Doctor of Ministry degrees so that sometimes makes me feel a little inferior.

Anyone who believes all evangelicals are right-wing nuts may find what I’m about to write surprising. Os Guiness said “there is a need for the restoration of evangelicalism”. He decried the direction the evangelical movement has taken over the past thirty years. Guiness urged pastors present to stay away from partisan politics and political ideologies. He also lamented the lack of civility and the worldliness in evangelical circles. Historian Mark Noll called for the abandonment of “creation science”. Noll feels Christians who defend the literal Biblical account of creation have essentially committed intellectual suicide. He believes society would be far better served if the born-again Christians would just get on board with evolution. It may surprise readers that recent surveys indicate that 16% of born-again Christians believe in Darwinian evolution and that percentage is steadily growing. All that said, I have no plans to throw in the towel on Genesis chapters 1 and 2!

Following presentations by Os Guiness and Mark Noll, the floor was opened up for questions and answers. The big mistake Park Street Church made is there was no “floor mike” for the questioners so nobody could hear the questions! One person requested that Guiness and Noll REPEAT the questions so we could hear what they had been asked, and they refused to do that!

At around 1:05, we were dismissed to the fellowship hall for Panara Bread Box Lunches. The box lunch was O.K. Not great but O.K. I happened to sit at a table with a chemist from Mass. General Hospital who’d attended the meeting and absolutely loved it. I was pleased that free books were given out to the pastors. I got Mark Noll’s “Turning Points” and D, Michael Lindsay’s “Faith in the Halls of Power”. Lindsay is a Professor at Rice University and was present. Lindsay did not speak at the Park Street event, but all three academics were actually in town because they’re speaking at a forum at Boston University.

On this week’s “The Office” the “Michael Scott” character visited a
university campus and referred to it as “the tower of ebony and ivory”. Well, I feel like I visited “the tower of ebony and ivory” today. I know some of my fellow evangelicals will think I’ve visited the tower of Babel after reading this!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

1 Corinthians 2:14 The man without the Spirit of God does not accept the things of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Lee Strobel: Random undirected evolution is incompatible with Christianity

For More Information:
http://www.leestrobel.com/LS_CFC_interview.htm

Anonymous said...

that's stupid. all that insanity for a mediocre box lunch.
that guy sounds crazy-- besides, people forget evolution is just a theory. and furthermore, darwin never said that people came from monkeys or whatever. he suggested that species addapt to their environment-- but in his theory, birds still stayed birds, they didn't evolve into cats or something.
not even repeating the questions people ask? that's lame.

Anonymous said...

In fact, prominent evolutionist William Province, Cornell University condidly conceded that if Darwinism is true .. then there are 5 inescapable implications:
1.) there's no evidence for God
2.) there's no life after death
3.) there's no absolute foundation for right and wrong
4.) there's no ultimate meeting for life
5.) and people don't really have free will

God is alive !

Anonymous said...

I had a discussion with my nephew about this Darwin stuff sounds good except what happen to let thier be?