Re: Dialoging with others - Re: Marcus Ross Re: [asa]

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Mahaffy" <Mahaffy@dordt.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 6:39 PM
Subject: Dialoging with others - Re: Marcus Ross Re: [asa]

>
>
>>>> On 2/14/2007 at 3:17 PM, in message
> <20070214211933.EEF3D71325A@gray.dordt.edu>, "Iain Strachan"
> <igd.strachan@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Yes, I agree ... I've had my faith questioned by YEC people. I
> passed
>> on a post from Christians in Science to the guy who runs the
> christian
>> group where I work - a staunch YEC despite having a PhD in molecular
>> biology. I said it was a good post and represented my views. He
> went
>> into sermon mode and at one point said "Is this guy really a
>> Christian?". Not the wisest thing to say after I'd just pointed out
>> that the poster's views were essentially the same as mine. I've
> also
>> in the last couple of days had a couple of literalist enthusiasts on
>> the CiS newsgroup wantonly distorting and misrepresenting what I
> said.
>>
>> Then there was the whole sorry business of Russ Humphries calling
>> Glenn Morton an "apostate".
>
> In itself we should not be surprised that some YEC think some of the
> evangelical
> scientists (especially if TE) are non Christian. If it is done in a
> charitable
> way we should in some cases respect the fact that from their
> perspective some
> of us are not adhering enough to Scripture or ....
>
> While I am not saying any of us are heretics, almost all heretics took
> their position
> out of love for the church. Is it not true that classical liberal
> theology that
> denies the deity of Christ was an attempt by German theologian to
> salvage
> their Christianity (it is not important that Christ was really God) and
> their science.
>
> But it really makes no difference if some YEC are treating us wrongly.
> We can not
> generalize to all of them and if they are Christian they are still
> brothers or sisters in
> Christ. Some YEC like Marcus or Kurt Wise are fine folks, but it is
> really sad that I
> dare not try and set up dialog with them because of the uncharitable
> way they
> would be treated on this list. In other words we are responsible for
> how we treat them
> and NOT how they treat us.

Their views are at best self-contradictory and incoherent and at worst
Manichaean. If saying that is "uncharitable" then the word "charity" has
become meaningless.
It is akin to the ultra-PC idea that no one's views should ever be called
incorrect: "All have won and all shall have prizes." Yes, we can love
those who have blatantly false notions & recognize them as fellow Christians
but that doesn't make their ideas any truer or less likely to midlead the
unwary.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

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Received on Wed Feb 14 20:15:15 2007