RE: [asa] Rubber Meeting Road -- My Kid in Public School

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of David Opderbeck
> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 2:47 PM
> To: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: [asa] Rubber Meeting Road -- My Kid in Public School
>
>
> This afternoon was one of those "rubber meeting the road" times. My
11-year-old daughter, who goes to public school, adores her science teacher.
Today, however, she came home very upset. It seems they've begun to study
evolution, and my daughter is feeling an enormous conflict with what she's
been taught in Sunday School. This is so difficult and delicate a thing to
have to start navigating. One the one hand I don't want to nip her respect
for the church and her Sunday School teachers or to bring her into conflict
with any of her Christian friends; on the other, I don't want her to be
afraid of science; and on yet another, I don't want her to think scientists
necessarily have the last word. I did my best to start explaining how there
are different ways of looking at how God created the heavens and the earth,
and that some things -- like that there is a God and that God is the
creator -- are primary while others -- like how old the earth is or what
natural processes God used to create -- can be discussed. Anyone have any
tips, resources, etc. for helping a kid this age start to navigate this
minefield?

  -----Original Message-----
  From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of David Opderbeck
  Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 4:20 PM
  To: SKrogh
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Subject: Re: [asa] Rubber Meeting Road -- My Kid in Public School

  On 1/5/07, SKrogh <panterragroup@mindspring.com> wrote:
  Maybe its time for a different Sunday School.

  It's easy to say something like this, but not so easy or desirable to live
it. There's no perfect church, and the Sunday School workers who have been
teaching my daughter are good people who perhaps aren't well informed or are
misguided on this particular question. And, I doubt there are many good
churches near where I live in which at least some of the folks won't be
influenced by YEC views. I'm convinced that God's design is for me to
fellowship with people even when I disagree with them about these things,
and not to withdraw into the "First Church of Dave." That said, if I felt
that the Sunday School teachers were specifically hounding on YEC'ism, I'd
have to confront that, and maybe eventually withdraw from the fellowship if
it couldn't be resolved. I don't think that's the case, though. It's just
spillover.

Didn't mean to come off so flippant. I have gone through something similar.
After our church finished its new building, the first group it hosted was
ICR and their dog and pony show, which I have yet to receive a response to
an email I sent, expressing my disappointment, to a friend of mine on the
ministerial staff. And then our current interim pastor went on about all the
"scientific evidence" proving that dinosaurs and humans coexisted and that
the earth is young. There was only so much I could take before my brains
started flowing out my ears. Fortunately, I don't have any children that
would be getting exposed to this.

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Received on Fri Jan 5 17:46:21 2007