Today, Reese and I went to our first incarnation of Cornerstone's new community-focused small church gatherings. We were curious and anxious to see what the leadership had in store for the direction of the new church. We were looking forward to hearing the message that would inspire us as local missionaries and evangelicals who are ready to show the love of Christ to those around us. Would it be a message on the Great Commission? On how to approach strangers? On how to encourage and hold others accountable in their primary mission? On how best to reach large communities?
Nope, wrong, none of the above. Rather, to my great dismay, the message and discussion centered around... wait for it... evolution and the absolute priority that we as Christians must place on destroying this "scientific" mumbo jumbo.
Wait. Huh?
Why in the world would this topic take precedence over every other? This message is essential to our "love your neighbor" focus? The logic for launching these community-focused groups with this message, I can only assume, went like this:
1) Christianity and evolution are incompatible
2) Lots of people believe in evolution
3) If 1 and 2 are true, then Satan's greatest tool to combat Christianity must be evolution
4) If 3 is true, no one can ever come to Christ if they believe in evolution
5) If 4 is true, our new community-focused church is bound to fail unless we arm ourselves against evolution
6) If 5 is true, we must spend 50 minutes spewing straw man arguments against evolution so as to motivate and encourage ourselves to go out and destroy Satan's great lie
Apparently,
groupthink is so rampant that the mere possibility that there might be a believer or two among us who believe in evolution AND have a profound love for Jesus Christ never crossed anyone's mind. I felt like a stranger in a group that should be family. For the sake of courtesy and keeping the peace, I took the coward's way out and failed to speak up, even though nothing I heard made a lick of sense. I fully regret this decision mere hours later. All I accomplished in doing that was feeding the groupthink mentality. Shame on me.
Ultimately though, I have to give a
Stephen Colbert "Wag of the Finger" to Cornerstone, which has consistently confused me by putting such unyielding focus on a matter that I, and
supposedly they find to be largely inconsequential. I say "supposedly" because while their words say one thing (several in leadership positions have said that it is
definitely possible for true believers to be proponents of evolution), their actions show another (continuously harping on the issue as an essential cornerstone of the faith).
The fingers-in-the-ears rejection of evolution is, I believe, more of a threat to Christianity than evolution itself. Most of the anti-evolution positions espoused are ignorant, if not entirely intellectually dishonest, and the flippant dismissal of a theory that is widely studied and accepted throughout the vast majority of those in the scientific community - many of whom have devoted their lives to the study of the subject - is unseemly and can certainly be perceived as arrogant.
No credible scientific explanation has been postulated to combat evolution - ever. Could it be wrong? Sure! But dismissing the only
scientific explanation for the the arrival and development of man without replacing it with another
scientific explanation does no one any good. It's as if Christians think "science" exists to destroy Christianity or discredit God. While some scientists undoubtedly have such an angle, science itself has no other goal than to create a set of models that best describe the
measurable universe. If anything, most scientists I'm sure would love to be the ones to prove evolution wrong, as they would be widely credited with advancing the knowledge and understanding of the world around us, and would probably win the Nobel prize.
Ultimately, for me, it's not even about evolution vs. creation. You don't believe in evolution? You find the evidence presented to be insufficient? Fine by me! My issue lies with those who essentially tell believers who do find evolution to be a resonable way through which God could bring life to this planet - people like my wife, my parents, and myself - that we are not really Christians at all. My beef lies with these same people who essentially tell non-believers that they must choose between creation and evolution if they are to accept the truth that is Jesus Christ. How wrong is that? Before we can even share the most important message in the world, we're slamming the door in our own face by forcing them into a choice they should never have to make.
I want there to be no mistake: I love Cornerstone, I love my Christian brothers and sisters and I love Jesus! I just think we're doing ourselves and the name of Christ a great disservice by making evolution a make or break issue and by approaching the topic in such a dismissive manner.
