Reach for truth

In mid-April I attended two conferences. The first was the Faith & Science Conference offered by BioLogos and held in Raleigh, North Carolina. The second was more local, “Beyond Culture Wars”, sponsored by the Institute for Christian Studies and Martin Luther University College in Waterloo, my hometown. Unfortunately, the conferences overlapped; one started on Wednesday evening and ended on Friday, and the second started on Thursday evening and ended on Saturday. Thank God for the modern technology that has blossomed since the horrible pandemic, making all sorts of events available through online streaming. I was able first to watch sessions from Raleigh on my computer, then attend the local conference in person, and finally view recorded videos of the BioLogos conference the week after to finish “attending.”

I expected the two conferences to touch on very different aspects of my faith and beliefs. Science and the relationship between general and special revelation (the two books of God) was what I expected at the BioLogos conference (and the discussion of this topic was a blessing). While at the “Beyond Culture Wars” conference, I expected to hear about the lines drawn in the sand dividing the body of Christ and perhaps a way forward to how we might heal.

Shared concern

What surprised me was the overlap. The first talk at BioLogos was given by Francis Collins, titled “Come Let Us Reason Together: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.” Dr. Collins spoke about the American response to the pandemic, particularly the lack of faith in the reliability of the vaccine. This divided churches, and the misinformation led to many unnecessary deaths.

For the scientists who developed this very effective vaccine (many of whom are Christians), the lack of uptake was painful and grieves them to this day. I know that even in Canada, the evolving understanding of this virus was a source of brokenness and division in our community. While the vaccine, we now know, needs to be taken multiple times and sometimes only reduces the severity of covid, it saves lives, and we need to accept the vaccine as a gift from God.

In the first talk at the second conference, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a history professor from Calvin University, gave an updated overview of her book Jesus and John Wayne. She lamented the hijacking of Christianity by the American political right and its consequences. She discussed how the truth of Scripture and God’s love have been subverted for profit by what she called the “evangelical industrial complex.” The confusion of white patriarchy with true Christianity and the fear that love for the marginalized is somehow “woke” and not what the Bible teaches is one of the reasons our youth leave the church.

In both talks, the concern for God’s truth, as evident in the Sermon on the Mount, was seen as missing from our current theological climate. While both conferences gave me many other insights, this alarming parallel spoke loudest. Let us pray for God’s mercy for the church.