(CCU Faculty) In their recent New York Times op–ed, “The Evangelical Rejection of Reason,” Karl Giberson and Randall Stephens, former and current professors at Eastern Nazarene College, apologize to the Times’ readers for their Evangelical brethren. Their premise is that all thoughtful people believe in global warming and Darwinian evolution. Giberson and Stephens allege to Times readers that these Evangelicals:
- Reject science
- Are “textbook evidence of an unyielding ignorance”
- Fit the definition of “simplistic theology, cultural isolationism and stubborn anti-intellectualism”
- Are not “intellectually engaged, humble and forward-looking”
- But instead are “literalistic, overconfident and reactionary”
- Are in “denial” about cultural change, and have been
- “Scarred” by the secular onslaught
- Believe homosexuality is a “choice”
- Believe in “spanking children”
- Reject knowledge and are, thus, “an intellectual disaster”
- “Embrace discredited, ridiculous and even dangerous ideas”
This is considerable calumny in a 900–word op–ed. So, Drs. Giberson and Stephens, let me humbly offer the following:
- It’s possible for people to disagree with you without being idiots.
- Granted, the New York Times won’t have much use for us but we still might be right.
- Even though our Bible does not lead us to completely capitulate to the Liberal elite we might still be reading it correctly.
- I know we are your embarrassing crazy cousins and you hate to admit your relationship with us in polite company, but is it possible that we better reflect the God of the universe better than you do? Or, at least as well as you do?
- May I disagree with you without your trashing me in the elite media?
- Do you allow any of these bumpkins to teach at Eastern Nazarene? Probably not, but if you do have you run any of this by them? Or, your fellow Nazarene, James Dobson?
- Do I have to agree with the New York Times on economic policy in order to be considered a scientific thinker? Foreign policy? The handling of OWS protestors?
I like Dennis Prager’s response to your column: “This Jew will take the evangelicals’ values and the evangelicals’ America over those of left-wing intellectuals’ any day of the year.” (In fact, if it were not for Prager, I wouldn’t know you guys exist.)
One more thing. Please, the next time you write a screed like this please title it correctly: “The Evangelical Rejection of Leftist Orthodoxy.”
