Tom Headland kicked off the 63rd annual meeting of the ASA, held jointly with the Canadian affiliate CSCA at George Fox University in Newberg, OR, with an inspiring personal account of being a Christian in anthropology. The 183 people registered for the meeting were captivated by his humble account of his achievements and resolution of challenges. He is the world’s expert on indigenous hunter-gatherer populations in the Philippines. One particular experience he recounted was being asked to investigate charges of professional misconduct by a prominent anthropologist who had been particularly vocal in opposition to missionary work in general and the Summer Institute of Linguistics in particular. One charge involved the introduction of smallpox to an indigenous population. Tom’s investigation showed the smallpox had been introduced through a child of missionaries rather than by the anthropologists. Tom’s integrity in clearing the name of his vocal critic gave him considerable respect and prestige. Tom stressed the importance of quality and integrity as professional scientists in our calling as Christians in science. More details on Tom’s work can be found on his website at http://www.sil.org/~headlandt/index.htm.
Saturday morning, Douglas Diekema continued the theme of sharing experiences as a Christian in a scientific vocation. He is a pediatrician and ethicist at the U of Washington Medical School. Doug spoke of his experience on the ethics committee that considered Ashley, a young girl with a cognitive and growth disorder whose parents requested an aggressive high-estrogen therapy to restrict growth. The story can be read at http://www.calvin.edu/january/2008/diekema.htm which is a good summary of his talk. Using this example, he spoke of the key issues involved in making complex ethical decisions and discussed the role of faith in ethics.
The meeting continues with parallel sessions. Today, one parallel session addresses the issue of gender faced by Christians in science while another addresses ecological and environmental challenges.
Randy Isaac