Navigating Conversations About Young Earth Creationism

Sparks fly when a Greek Orthodox evolution-accepting professor comes up against an Evangelical school headmaster bent on bringing in a Young Earth Creationist curriculum

Why are we doing yet another episode on Young Earth Creationism?  The biggest reason is because it’s still a very potent ideology in Christianity, especially within Evangelicalism.  YECist parents and YECist school systems do their best to instill this ideology into young impressionable minds, and the cycle repeats.  It’s a self-propagating problem which manifests in many ways throughout society: Pew Research tell us that roughly a third of American adults believe that humans have existed in their present form from the beginning of time (and many of them further believe that humans co-existed with the dinosaurs).  And a large number of people who leave Christianity (all too often shortly after they reach college/university) do so because a YECist worldview just wasn’t working for them in a 21^st century world, and they aren’t aware that many other strands of Christianity do not require that short-sighted worldview.

This week, we talk to someone who has a unique perspective on YECist education. Dr. Joel Anderson grew up in a very Evangelical world, and obtained two university degrees at very Evangelical institutions before going on to teach at the high school and college levels in very Evangelical schools.  But during those post-secondary years, he was developing his own theological worldview, reading from Anglican, Catholic, and Greek Orthodox sources.  Eventually, he found that he was most comfortable with the Greek Orthodox expression of Christian faith.  And also quite comfortable with the Theory of Evolution.  For years, he taught in Evangelical schools in the south west USA.  Until a new school headmaster arrived, one who was deeply committed not just to YECism in general, but also to all things Ken Ham.  This is the part of his story that we have much to learn from:

• at Regent College, he was exposed to a less literal, more symbolic/metaphorical view of the book of Revelation, and its literary parallels with the first eleven chapters of Genesis; this inspired him to develop new curricula for teaching high school students
• his first teaching position in California: developed a World View course/program, and another course which unpacked what he’d learned about Revelation and Gen 1-11; these courses were generally well received by the students
• got Masters degree in Old Testament studies at Trinity Western
• started teaching at a school in Arkansas: delivered the same courses mentioned above, but these were less well received here… he was forced to leave
• was recruited to another school in Alabama: those same courses worked reasonably well for several years
• then a new headmaster was hired who insisted on eliminating any and all challenges to Young Earth Creationism, and bringing in curriculum that was created by Answers-in-Genesis and Bob Jones University; sparks fly; toxic relationship; was essentially forced to quit
• adjunct teaching position at U. of Alabama, then moved back to Arkansas
• the main drive in Ken Ham’s work is not so much a literal Gen 1-11 or to understand science better, but to fight the culture war (modern views on sexuality, abortion, etc.) against secular liberals
• we talked briefly about other academics who were forced out by YECist revisionist administrations (Peter Enns is one that our listeners will recognize) … this is how the YECist world works!?
• Theory of Evolution is viewed as equivalent to atheism
• the doctrine of inerrancy is also a major problem
• Joel’s book: The Heresy of Ham: what every evangelical needs to know about the Creation-Evolution controversy and what we can all learn about rigid ideology and fighting the culture war
• for whom was he writing … what is the purpose of the book?
• linking of Evangelical faith with politics ….. culture wars
• many parts of his book resonate closely with what we heard from Dr. Mark Noll last week (“The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind“)
• what advice did he have for how we should interact with family, friends, co-workers, neighbours who are YECist?

As always, tell us your thoughts on this topic …

Find more about Dr. Joel Anderson at Resurrecting Orthodoxy, and find his book at Amazon.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like a similar conversation we had with Paul Enns (host of the YouTube channel Paulogia). You can also peruse our thematic collection of episodes on YECism, including personal stories and analytical deep dives.

Episode image used by permission.

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