The Sad Truth I’ve Learned about the Creation/Evolution Debate, YECist Fundamentalism, Progressive Christianity, and the Culture War

I’m not sure how I want this post to be structured. The fact is that over the past few months, a whole bunch of thoughts have been swirling around my brain and trying to form themselves into some kind of coherent thing about what the title of this post is about. Yet is has been just hard for me to really articulate what those thoughts have been. So, allow me in this post to just ramble a bit, in the hope that by the end of this I will have been able to achieve some clarity.

Winesburg, Ohio
One book that has left an indelible impact on me is Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. It really is a collection of short stories about various fictional characters living in a particular town in Ohio in the early 20^th century. Each story gives a little insight into the odd and quirky characters in the town. The main “theme” of the entire book, though, is spelled out in both the introductory chapter, as well as in one of the early stories.

The introductory chapter tells about an old writer who had certain “dreams” that weren’t really dreams. In his imagination as he was falling asleep, he saw figures in a procession walk before his eyes. They were all grotesques—all odd or misshapen in their own ways. The writer eventually wrote a book about them, entitled, The Book of the Grotesque, but never published it. Sherwood Anderson, though, said he once saw it and it left a huge impression on him. I will now quote the passage about the “one central thought” in the writer’s book that I have always found interesting.

“That in the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as a truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were the truths, and they were all beautiful. …Hundreds and hundreds were the truths, and they were all beautiful.

“And then people came along. Each as he appeared snatched up one of the truths and some who were quite strong snatched up a dozen of them. It was the truths that made the people grotesques. The old man had quite an elaborate theory concerning the matter. It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood.”

Later on in Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson tells a short story about a character named Dr. Reefy. He was an old man whom the town had largely forgotten about, but, as Anderson writes, “In Dr. Reefy there were the seeds of something very fine.” Dr. Reefy made it a habit of writing various thoughts—the ends of thoughts, the beginnings of thoughts—on pieces of paper, then rolling them up into tiny balls and stuffing them into his pockets. These were his thoughts from which he forms various truths. This is the way Anderson describes Dr. Reefy’s habit:

“He worked ceaselessly, building up something that he himself destroyed. Little pyramids of truth he erected, and after erecting, he knocked them down again, so that he might have the truths to erect other pyramids.”

“Out of many of them [the paper pills], he formed a truth that arose gigantic in his mind. The truth clouded the world. It became terrible and then faded away and the little thoughts began again.”

My Writing of The Heresy of Ham
Back in 2016, when I wrote my book, The Heresy of Ham, I wrote it as a way to make sense of what had happened to me at a school at which I taught, where a YECist headmaster made it clear that he didn’t want me at the school anymore because I didn’t buy into Ken Ham’s YECist ideology. In the course of my researching Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis, I was alarmed at how militant, zealous, unscientific, and unbiblical their thinking really was. I also came to realize that AiG’s real concern wasn’t really proper science or even proper biblical interpretation. They saw the issues of the age of the earth, evolution, and the correct way to interpret Genesis 1-11 as nothing more than various battlefronts in the culture war—and that is what was really important.

Sadly, it was obvious that in their zealousness in fighting that war, they had hurt a whole lot of people. And over the course of these past six years, I’ve met or read about quite a few former Christians who had been hurt so badly by YECist zealots that they had either ended up ditching the Christian faith altogether, or had “deconstructed” their faith and now, instead of identifying as “conservative” or “Evangelical,” they label themselves “progressive Christians.” And sadly (although this certainly does not apply to everyone), many of those who had been hurt by YECist Fundamentalist zealots have, in my opinion, have simply run to the opposite edge of the political spectrum, yet have retained that same “zealous culture warrior” mindset. The result being that now in America, in both Evangelical and “ex-Evangelical” circles, we have a whole bunch of zealous culture warriors who are using the name of Christ to justify their particular battles in the various political and culture wars.

Now, when I wrote The Heresy of Ham, the subtitle to the book was, “What Every Evangelical Needs to Know About the Creation-Evolution Controversy.” I made it a point not to attack Evangelicalism as a whole. I grew up in Evangelicalism, that is where my Christian roots are. Even though I now embrace Orthodoxy, I’ve lived in the Evangelical world most of my life and most of the Evangelical Christians I know are good, sincere, faithful believers. And for most of them, even those who say they “don’t believe evolution” or say they believe Adam was a historical person—those issues aren’t really big issues for them. To allude to my Winesburg, Ohio quotes, most Evangelicals I know don’t cling to those issues so much that they become “grotesques.”

Therefore, the purpose of my book was to warn the good, sincere Evangelical Christians I have known all my life about the dangers of what YECism was doing. Again, to allude to Winesburg, Ohio, YECist Fundamentalists like Ken Ham have constructed their own “truths” and have become “grotesques”—and those “truths” that they have made their truths have become falsehoods. I wanted people to see that investigating the scientific theory of evolution and being convinced of it was okay because it wasn’t a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith to begin with. To make it into a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith is to construct a falsehood and turn yourself into a grotesque.

To be clear: I wasn’t attacking Evangelicalism. I was warning Evangelical Christians about the dangers of YECism. I wanted them (and everyone) to see that no one should treat the scientific inquiry into evolution or the exegetical question regarding how to interpret Genesis 1-11 as if they were fronts in the culture war. To rope the scientific theory of evolution and the issue of how to interpret Genesis 1-11 into “fighting the culture war” is to distort everything, create a lot of division and hostility, and to, yes, become a grotesque. This is exactly what Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis have done. And yes, they have most certainly lined themselves on the “right wing/extreme conservative/ultra-fundamentalist” side of the culture war. That’s bad. No sincere Christian should allow themselves to be roped into that.

The Sad Truth I’ve Come to Realize
I’ll just get right to the point. Despite my contention that the issues of evolution and the proper interpretation of Genesis 1-11 should not be treated as part of the supposed culture war, the sad fact is that they are—they are and they always will be. The various “controversial issues” that dominate the culture war—abortion, gay marriage, LGBTQ+ issues, teaching sexual orientation and gender identity in grade schools, immigration-border issues, etc.—all of them are being driven by partisan politics, and all of them are being pursued with a religious fervor coming from both the right-wing, ultra-fundamentalist, YECist types within Evangelicalism, as well as the left-wing, ultra-progressive types within ex-Evangelicalism.

Simply put, there will always be very difficult issues that will pop up that every society and culture will have to try to figure out and address. It’s inevitable. Ideally, Christians will be able to maintain a clear understanding of the Christian faith and, no matter their political views and leanings (we all have them and that’s okay), will not allow themselves to be taken captive by any particular political ideology and to mistake the Christian faith for the GOP…the Democrat party…conservativism…or progressivism—you get the picture.

Now, I know that most Christians—both of the conservative and liberal bent—are able to do that. I know many Christians who are more politically conservative and more liberal than me, but they don’t get caught up in the crazy, political-activist fringes on either side. They are also the ones who, quite frankly, don’t get worked up over the debate over evolution or the issue of how to interpret Genesis 1-11. But sadly, over these past six years since I wrote The Heresy of Ham, I’ve come to realize that it is almost inevitable that, when it comes to the issues of evolution and Genesis 1-11, most people (not all) involved in those debates have a serious and sharp political/cultural axe to grind.

YECist fundamentalists, as soon as they realize you accept “millions of years” and you think Genesis 1-11 wasn’t intended to be read as history, they will pull up their cultural dump trunk and dump every single right-wing caricature of “liberals” and their views onto you: you must be a pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ, secular progressive who applauds drag queen story time for grade school kids!

And many progressive ex-Evangelicals do the exact same thing, but just come at it from the other direction. I’ll say that I don’t think a biological man should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, and…beep…beep…beep…here comes that cultural dump truck backing up: you must be an anti-LGBTQ, white supremacist, conservative, racist “Trumper” who supports insurrection! (And since they might know that I wrote The Heresy of Ham), they’ll then say, “I cannot understand how you can be so right about evolution and Genesis 1-11, but still be taken in by all the pseudo-science and ignorant lies of…Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Donald Trump…ARGH!!!! I HATE THOSE GUYS!”

Of course, I will have never mentioned those people. I will have just stated my view on a specific issue that I feel has nothing to do with evolution or Genesis 1-11. It is just a difficult issue at the time that I stated my opinion on. But instead of engaging in a discussion about that specific issue, the cultural dump truck always backs up and the weapons in the culture war always come out. Any deviation from the very rigid political stances on challenging cultural issues inevitably invites another battle in the culture war. And sadly, far too many Christians are the worst culprits. Why? Because the old writer was right. When people collect thoughts and form them into truths, they are beautiful. But inevitably, when those truths end up consuming people who make them “their truths,” those truths become falsehoods and the people become grotesques.

I obviously have my opinions on a great many things. I obviously have certain political leanings. And sometimes, like everyone, I hold onto views a bit too tightly that I become a bit grotesque. We’re human…that’s what we do. But I guess what I’m lamenting is that one of the core concepts I wanted to get across in The Heresy of Ham—that we should not allow the scientific theory of evolution and the issue of the proper biblical exegesis of Genesis 1-11 to be manipulated and twisted into being battlefronts of the culture war—is wrong. Yes, we shouldn’t allow that to happen, but the fact is, it happens and will always happen. It hurts my heart to admit it, but evolution and Genesis 1-11 will always be used in the culture war, by both right-wing, conservative Evangelical zealots and left-wing, progressive ex-Evangelical zealots.

Yes, I know not all Evangelicals are like that, and not all liberal Christians are like that. But sadly, when it comes to those two issues, as well as the many cultural challenges we face, the zealots will be the ones in the dump trucks and the ones hauling out the heavy artillery, intent on implementing a grotesque scorched-earth battle plan…and they’ll be doing it in the name of Christ.

I’d rather be friends with Dr. Reefy.