A couple of stories caught my eye last week about evangelicals and the academy. On the one hand, evangelicals rock:
The media often portrays scientists and Christians as incapable of peaceful coexistence. But results from a recent survey suggest the two are not as incompatible as one might think. In fact, 2 million out of nearly 12 million scientists are evangelical Christians. If you were to bring all the evangelical scientists together, they could populate the city of Houston, Texas.
Sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund and her colleagues at Rice University and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reported results from the largest study of American views on science and religion at the association’s annual conference in Chicago on Sunday, February 16. More than 10,000 people, including 574 self-identified as scientists, responded to the 75-question survey. Among the scientists, 17 percent said the term “evangelical” describes them “somewhat” or “very well,” compared to 23 percent of all respondents.
On the other hand, evangelicals fear rocks:
For years, Christians have complained that academia has been an unwelcoming place for them. They’re probably right. While the evidence about whether colleges and universities are encouraging Christians to lose their faith is mixed, the anti-Christian humanist bias within academia is relatively clear—both to the disproportionately low number of Christians within the academy and to researchers, like me, who’ve taken the time to study them.
Given the hostility towards Christians, we’re left asking how Christians should approach higher education. Do they belong in academia at all?
Evangelicals follow the lead of Americans who generally sense that they are either in the mainstream or part of the aggrieved, excluded from a place at the table. The former could do their neighbors an immeasurable favor if they learned (and taught others) to live without a desire for acceptance or dominance but simply conceded that no group is in control, or conversely, that every group feels beleaguered. And if James Madison was right, that the key to a constitutional republic was the more factions the better, then the less Americans or evangelicals identify either as a dominant majority or a persecuted minority, the more likely they might be to accept that all positions are contested, that few agreements are possible, and that we walk on egg shells out there in public.
Of course, it’s more comfortable (as some less formal folks count comfort) to walk around in your underwear, as if you owned the joint. But if everyone lived like they were renters and had to worry about music being too loud or unwelcome cooking odors, the United States might be as hospitable a place as is possible this side of the ultimate Downton Abbey in the sky.
Old Life 
The human condition?
Hmm..
Yes and no….
Whilst I noodle on this, I stop by only to say:
Good peice, D. Lates.
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OK, I’m game – just exactly what is an “evangelical scientist?”
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George, my wife was raised and is still a conservative presby, received a license in our state as a Professional Geologist, after achieving 3 years experience and passing the exam.
She might be grouped in with the category CT is mentioning here.
Though in our family, we tend to shun the eeeevangelical label (hello Zrim).
So yeah. Dunno.
Aloha.
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Oh, and we’re fans of this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0830828761
And we dig the OPC and her acceptance of old earth views.
That’s all. Peace.
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I was thinking about polishing my street cred at this year’s upcoming PCA GA by arguing that the earth is roughly 79 years old, and that all pre-existing cultural artifacts (not to mention scientific ones) were only placed here to give the appearance of age. Can’t be scientifically sillier than some of the stuff the AIG’ers promote.
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George and Andrew, which is like wondering what a Christian school is. And since that answer seems to have more to do with environment than academics (i.e. a school made up of Christians), maybe this term as more to do with identity politics (i.e. a scientist who is an eeeevangelical).
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Ahoy Zrim,
Ding.
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Zim: George and Andrew, which is like wondering what a Christian school is.
Isn’t the answer that a Christian ______ is whatever makes the person feel happy and comfortable with it?
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kent, well, yeah. We must always consider feelings.
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A scientist who agrees with the ASA statement of faith?
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dgh— evangelicals could do their neighbors an immeasurable favor if they learned (and taught others) to live without a desire for acceptance or dominance but simply conceded that no group is in control, or conversely, that every group feels beleaguered… the less evangelicals identify either as a dominant majority or a persecuted minority, the more likely they might be to accept that all positions are contested, that few agreements are possible
mark: Hart hits a homer.
“Of course, it’s more comfortable to walk around in your underwear, as if you owned the joint”.
mark: people who say “we” a lot sometimes forget that not all of us are us…
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I rarely watch CNN but caught a few minutes of Anderson Cooper interviewing the Arizona legislator who is behind a religious freedom bill that homosexuals are strenuously opposing. They might as well have been from different planets. Each was pushing their own agenda so single-mindedly that it was excruciating to even watch. Have we no common humanity?
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On some of this stuff I actually find myself siding with the gay lobby. My company rents apartments. If two guys want to rent an apartment do we ask if they are gay? No. Do we care if they are gay? No. Do we care if they pay their rent? Yes.
If I have a photography business or a wedding cake business would it kill me to take a gay couple’s photo or bake them a wedding cake? Let them put the little topper on it with two guys instead of a guy and a girl if it kills you. A cake is a cake, though. A customer is a customer. These vocations are common and ordinary and God probably cares much more about you making the cake well than He does about who you sell it to.
Now if a gay couple demands that your minister marries them in your church, we have a different issue and the 1st Amendement will be on our side on that one.
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But, Erik, if we lose our moral superiority, then we will lose our leverage in society, and then we won’t be able to push history in the direction God would be pushing it if God had a vote. Don’t forget our duty and mandate to have dominion over those who are not us.
http://www.faith-theology.com/2008/05/on-moral-superiority-of-gays.html
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Mark,
Hauerwas reminds me of Fran Lebowitz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG21S11IciU
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If God’s on our side we don’t need leverage.
If God’s not on our side I don’t want leverage.
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Likewise me, nor visit their website. However, I do on occasion like to know what they are cooking up..
I’m more of a drudge man myself, for the pics, if nothing else.
Sayōnara.
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Erik, you do know I was being sarcastic, right?
:I Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will frustrate.”
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called
Erik – So would you say the reason that some do not accept the gospel is that they are not reasoning properly or they lack intelligence?
Mark: Amen! The word of the cross is the power of salvation to those who are called.
Romans 1:16 the gospel is the power of God for salvation to as many who believe the gospel
Mark: It is not our believing and hearing that makes the gospel work. The Holy Spirit with the gospel (not something humanly appealing) which causes the effectually called to hear.
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Giddy up!
And the next up on the tee is. ______________
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Erik,
Dude, you may want to pray for those of us in AZ who are trying to fend off the culture warriors in our churches who are all in a dither about this. It’s getting hot down here.
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Jed,
I’m going to be at the PCA GA this year as well, I’ll second your motion. We need to hang out.
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Mark,
Yes, I know.
Richard,
I can imagine. Arizona appears to be a conservative state in all the bad ways. I know a guy down there who is a staunch conservative. He abandoned his wife and 4 kids a few decades ago and married the other woman. Now he’s defending God, mom, and apple pie down in the dessert.
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