of the
American Scientific Affiliation & Canadian Scientific Christian Affiliation
VOLUME 31 NUMBER 4
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1989
NEWSLETTER of the ASA/CSCA is published bi-monthly for its membership by the American Scientific Affiliation, 55 Market St., Ipswich,
MA 01938. Tel. 508-356-5656. Information for the Newsletter may be sent to the Editor:
Dr. Walter R. Hearn, 762 Arlington Ave.,
Berkeley, CA 94707. 01989 American Scientific Affiliation (except previously published material). All Rights Reserved.
[Editor: Walter R. Heam / production: Nancy C. Hanger]
ASA HEADLINES
AND FOOTNOTES
0n June 19 the "3rd Printing,
Revised" of Teaching Science
in a Clitnate of Controversy came
off the press in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Science Press (printers of
ASA's journal, Perspectives on
Science and Christian Faith) did an
amazing job of beating their own
deadline on the 40,000-copy press
run, after re-shooting the pages be
cause of changes on two-thirds of
them. Science Press is still orchestrating several mailings, but immediately shipped boxes of the
booklet to the ASA office in
Ipswich so back-orders could be
processed.
Members of ASA's Committee
for Integrity in Science Education
(responsible for all those changes)
received copies in time to stock
ASA's booth at the Christian Congress for Excellence in Public Education and 20th National Convention
of the Christian Educators Association International beginning June 28.
Committee chair David Price reports
that ASA's quiet presence at the
Anaheim (CA) congress served to
balance the "young-earth creationist"
influence (well represented by ICR,
Creation Science Research Center,
Creation Research Society, and
Caleb Campaign). CEAI officials
said ASA would be welcome at
their future conventions, not only in
the exhibit area but also on the
program.
Another news flash: the Constitutional Amendment revising ASA's
Statement of Faith has passed. At
presstime a total of 783 ballots had
been received, assuring a quorum
(of at least one-third of the voting
membership). Of those ballots, 650
were in favor of the amendment.
The change expands and clarifies
the three previous statements of
each member's commitment (to the
Bible, to Jesus Christ, and to scientific investigation), adding a new
fourth statement of commitment to
stewardship of God's creation.
Meanwhile, ASA operations
manager Ruth Hardy has left the
Ipswich office to move with her husband to Newton, New Hampshire,
where Alan will pastor the First
Christian Church congregation. Ruth
will be hard to replace, but Cynthia
Macaulay is already taking a shot
at it. She is a niece of ASA member Sid Macaulay, editor of the
prize-winning Journal of the Christian Medical Dental Society. Cynthia
is working on an M.A. in theological studies at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, with emphasis on missions.
She and fellow seminarian Toby Larson plan to marry in August.
GET IN ON IT IN IN
That cryptic headline is a last
minute reminder that the 1989
ASA ANNUAL MEETING is being
held in Marion, IN, August 4-7.
Our 44th Annual Meeting, at Indiana Wesleyan University, has been
organized by ASA's Commission on
Biomedical Ethics. Keynoter Howard
W. Jones of Eastern Virginia
School of Medicine will focus on
"Assisted Reproduction"; a plenary
panel will treat broader issues of
"Human Engineering."
The theme, with all its ethical implications, could hardly be more
timely. In May of this year
clinicians at the National Institutes
of Health infused a terminal cancer
patient with some of the patient's
own white blood cells containing a
foreign gene. The historic procedure
was previewed at the 1988 "Itnago
Dei" conference cosponsored by
ASA and CMDS by a representative of French Anderson's NIH
research group. Although not quite
1.
gene therapy," it is definitely a
first step in that direction; the
foreign gene was inserted as a
marker to trace the lymphocytes attacking the patient's cancer cells.
"IN" WILL GO ON &
ON
A SA Annual Meetings allow participants to get "in" on matters
that continue to make news. Take
our 1988 Annual Meeting, for example. The importance of its "Arms
Control" theme is underscored almost every day, in the scientific
press as well as the popular press.
The AAAS has an ongoing
Program on Science, Arms Control,
and National Security (PSACNS) established in 1981. It sponsors an annual
Colloquium in Washington,
D.C., attracting about 500 concerned
citizens, scientists, lawmakers, and
journalists. (Date for the 1989 Colloquium: Nov 16-17.) The AAAS
Program also holds Congressional
Seminars in the nation's capital,
where a half-dozen PSACNS Fellows work year 'round.
An annual Symposium on Arms
Control is now a feature of AAAS
meetings. From the colloquia, seminars, and symposia has come a
balanced series of publications
(which we saw for the first time at the San Francisco AAAS meeting
in January-Ed.). To receive a list
of publications or to get on the
mailing list, write AAAS Program
on Science, Arms Control, and National Security, 1333 H Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20005.
Consider our 1987 ASA Annual
Meeting on "Environmental
Stewardship." Almost every day an
echo of that meeting comes to our
attention. (See "Getting Serious",
ASAICSCA Newsletter, Feb/Mar
1989, p. 2). An article on "Christian Ecology" in Mother Earth
News (No. 115, Jan/Feb 1988, pp.
58-61), described differences between advocates of "scriptural ecology" and those backing "creation
spirituality" (such as Matthew Fox,
the Roman Catholic priest in Oakland, California, "silenced" last fall
by the Vatican). Author Pat Stone
noted those tensions at the initial
meeting of the North American Conference on Christianity & Ecology
(NACCE). Stressing positive accomplishments of NACCE, Stone
added thumbnail descriptions and addresses of six other Christian
ecological organizations.
Somehow omitted from the
MEN
piece was the AuSable Institute for
Environmental Studies (7526 Sunset
Trail N.E., Mancelona, MI 49659),
affiliated with the Christian College
Coalition. ASA member Ghillean
Prance, now director of England's Royal Botanical Gardens, has been an AuSable Trustee for the
past
five years. In February, John Wood
of Simpson College in San Francisco brought us a fresh report from
AuSable. He had just returned from
teaching a 3-week course in stream
ecology to a dozen of the 45 students in the January interterm session there. John was quoted in a
story by Charles Honey in the
Grand Rapids Press ("Probing
Nature's Grand Design," 19 Jan
1989) about AuSable's Christian emphasis on environmental stewardship.
"Creation spirituality" has its positive aspects, but ASA biologists
like John are clearly in the "scriptural ecology" camp. They keep
reminding us that "the clear and
repeated testimony of Scripture is
that humans are trustees of the
earth, not owners."
Less clear to us was how John
could teach an outdoor course in
"stream ecology" in Michigan
temperatures down to -20* Fahrenheit. He explained that only 'in extreme conditions like those in
Alaska last winter does everything
freeze up. Otherwise, small headwater streams fed by springs are
kept liquid by their tumbling action.
(On really cold days, his students
warmed their hands by digging crawdads and other critters out of the
icy streams.-Ed.)
CONCERN FOR CHINA
During the massive demonstrations in China this spring, the
Newsletter editor happened to be
reading Beijing Review, "A Chinese
Weekly of News and Views"
published under Chinese government
auspices in San Francisco, sampling
the magazine under a "no obligation" offer. The tone of its stories
changed noticeably as the government moved to crush the demonstrations.
We also kept in touch-with former ASA president Chi-Hang
Lee, the research chemist who led
ASA's tour of the People's
Republic in the summer of 1987.
Chi-Hang was greatly saddened and
dismayed by the Chinese
government's response. He thinks it
would strengthen the movement for
freedom and democracy if the student demonstrators, or one of their
leaders, were to be awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize for their
courageous efforts. He discovered
that, in contrast to Nobel Prizes in
other fields, the Peace Prize is
awarded by a Committee appointed
by the Norwegian Parliament, and
that only certain categories of persons can make nominations.
Nominations for the Peace Prize
may be made only by members of
the Nobel Committee, members of
any country's national assembly or
government, members of certain international groups such as the Institut
de Droit International, previous
Peace Prize winners-and "present
university professors of law, political science, history, and
philosophy." (That last category takes in a number of ASA members.--Ed.)
Chi-Hang Lee has been writing
various people to suggest that they,
too, encourage appropriate individuals to make a formal nomination. In one of his own letters, Chi
urged a U.S. Senator to do everything possible to foster the
democratic movement in China "in
the long run":
"May I suggest that you recommend through proper channels that
the next Nobel Peace Prize be
awarded to the student movement
in China, or symbolically to certain representatives or leaders of
that movement, such as Chai Ling,
assuming she is still alive. Despite
the Communists' effort to control
the news media, some day the
truth will reach most of the Chinese
people. The Nobel Prize as an international. award will greatly encourage the Chinese in their
ongoing struggle for a free and
democratic society.
Chi has since told us that Chai
Ling, the student leader featured in
a recent Ted Koppel televison
report on the situation in China, is
known to be afive and in- hidingFurther, the two Chinese high officials contacted by ASA before the
China tour about possibly setting up
a symposium on science and faith
during the tour are both known to
have made statements sympathetic
to the student movement. Neither
has been reported to have
repudiated his statement. One was a
church leader, the other a social scientist who had expressed interest
in religion as a positive force. The
social scientist, a government official, is known to be out of China,
and is now rumored to have
defected."
To inquire about the Peace Prize
nomination or discuss other ways of
supporting the democratic movement
in China, contact Chi-Hang Lee,
120 Brandywine Way, Walnut
Creek, CA 94598. Tel. 415- 9447273 (H) or 415-939-8155 (W).
WHEREVER GOD
WANTS US: 8.
Another Asian country we' heard from recently, with a
perennially active dissident student movement, is South Korea. Actually
it was Wesley Wentworth we heard
from, calling from the Los Angeles
area. But he had just flown from
Seoul to participate in the 4th
North American Conference of
Korean Students in America
(KOSTA), being held for the first
time on the west coast, at Biola
University in La Mirada.
KOSTA was begun several years
ago by some Korean pastors in the
United States. Aimed at evangelizing graduate students and helping
them develop a Christian worldview,
its conferences in the eastern part
of the U.S. have drawn as many
as 500 registrants. Wes was hoping
for 200 at Biola. The theme of
"KOSTA 189" was "Christian Ethics
in the Post-Christianity Era." Wes
was scheduled to lead a seminar on
academic work as a Christian calling.
Since that phone call we've
received copies of the KOSTA '89
announcement and program, and of
a news story in L.A.'s Korean
Times. We'd tell you more, but it's
all in Korean and Wes added only
a few lines of translation. We did
recognize him in a photograph acompanying the Times story. Seminars
covered such topics as "Faith &
Scholarship," "Christian Ethics," and
"Non-professional 1~fissions."
All this is right down Wes
Wentworth's alley. An engineer who
has made his home in South Korea
for years, he sees his calling as encouraging Christian students and
scholars to think deeply about the
implications of Christian faith for
their own disciplines. That is particularly important in a country like
South Korea, where the evangelical
church has tended to take a relatively narrow view on many topics.
Physics professor
Seung-Hun Yang
of Kyungpook National University
in Taegu, for example, was evidently quite surprised at the range of
positions on many issues he found
among evangelicals when he attended the ASA Annual Meeting at
Pepperdine last summer.
Wes has always made effective
use of Christian literature (including
ASA publications) in his work. Currently he works for Korean InterVarsity Press in Seoul. He would
like to find an engineering job in
Korea. He comes back to the U.S.
from time to time, and keeps in
touch with KOSTA-West (c/o SaRang Korean Church of Southern
California, 1105 Foster Rd., Norwalk, CA 90650).
The two major speakers at the
Biola Conference were Korean
university professors who are also
leaders in a "Movement for Christian Ethical Practice." Wes sent an
English translation of a manifesto issued by the Movement in 1987,
analyzing conflicts and problems
"based to a large extent on the
moral corruption of our society."
The document charges that the
Korean church has emphasized rapid
growth without stressing righteous
living, and has welcomed material
blessing to such an extent that
many Christians have succumbed to
materialism. Repenting of such practices, the Movement seeks to "encourage Christians to obey Christ in
our life-style and to take greater social responsibility." Specific
guidelines are suggested for functioning as individuals, in families and
churches, and in national and international life.
It is interesting to compare this
response to corruption in national
life with that of the Chinese students in Beijing's Tiananmen
Square. The politics of the two
countries differ widely, of course,
and so does the status of the
church in each. Yet there seem to
be openings for the Holy Spirit to
influence both situations. Many Christians have gone to China to teach
English. Before the demonstrations
began, many churches and individual Christians had befriended
Chinese students and scholars in the
U.S. Now they have been able to
offer emotional and other forms of
support for their new friends as the
crisis engulfed the Chinese universities. Who knows where that will
lead?
ANOTHER COUNTRY
HEARD FROM
Members of ASA's sister organization, the Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation, must
get tired of searching through this "foreign" publication for news of
their activities. Weary Old
Editor (WOE is me!-Ed.) is to
blame, not CSCA's efficient
secretary-treasurer Steve
Scadding
of
Guelph, Ontario. It's not that what
he sends us is written in a foreign
language or anything like that. Sometimes we just slip up in reporting
it, that's all.
CSCA has far fewer members
than ASA, scattered unevenly over
an even bigger country, as is evident from the geographic index in
the ASA/CSCA directory. Much of
the CSCA action takes place in Ontario, particularly in Toronto,
Guelph, Ottawa, and Waterloo.
Smaller groups of members are
clustered around Winnipeg in
Manitoba, Calgary and Edmonton in
Alberta, and Vancouver in British
Columbia.
The CSCA Annual Meeting is a
one-day affair held in the fall, frequently missed by this Newsletter because we're still reporting what
happened at the August ASA Annual Meeting. Last year there were
tentative plans to focus on human
sexuality as a theme, but, instead
(if we got the story straight), the
meeting was coordinated with an international meeting of the Neuroscience Society in November. That
enabled CSCA to import
physiologist Ken Dormer of the U.
of Oklahoma Medical School as
visiting speaker. Maurice Lee, Ph.D.
candidate in Computational NeuroSystems ("CNS") at Cal Tech, who
gave a poster session at the Toronto Neuroscience meeting, reported
that some 30-40 people attended the
CSCA breakfast at which Ken
spoke. CSCA president Bob Vander
Vennen and Council member Dan
Osmond also spoke. For the 1989
Annual Meeting, plans are underway
to adopt the biomedical ethics
theme featured at the ASA Meeting.
At its June 1989 meeting, the
CSCA Council heard reports of
local section activities held during
the academic year. Recent meetings
not yet reported in this Newsletter
included Toronto meetings in
February, with Eric Moore of
Upper Canada College speaking on
"The Christian in the Environment:
Master or Steward?" and in March, with Peter Webster of Sunnybrook
Medical Centre on "The Limits of
Human Freedom: Pleasure and
Pain"; plus a March meeting in Vancouver with David Myers of Hope
College (USA) on "A New Look
at Pride and Self-Esteem," which
drew about 50 people.
As in ASA's experience, local
sections wax and wane, and several
poorly attended meetings in a row
can discourage a local executive
council. Some sections experiment
with smaller, less formal gatherings
of core members, others become inactive-as the Ottawa section has
been for several years. A major disappointment a year ago was not
being able to support Don McNally
adequately as an official CSCA campus minister.
Canadians have a lot of spunk,
however, and CSCA refuses to
write off the campus ministry
project. As reported in a previous
issue, Don McNally has been establishing the Pascal Centre for
Studies in Faith and Science at
Redeemer College in Hamilton, Ontario, very much akin to CSCA interests. CSCA has both an
Executive Director, Doug Morrison
of Fergus, Ontario, and an Executive Secretary, Norman McLeod of
Willowdale, Ontario. Norm handles
most of the correspondence, sending out CSCA literature and responding
to about 50 inquiries last year.
BULLETIN BOARD
ssor of
philosophy at Central College in
Iowa, has a suggestion for restructuring ASA's present Commission on
Social Ethics, now headed by Lars
Granberg. With Lars wanting to
retire from that post, Bob Herrmann
approached Bill, a visiting fellow at
Princeton Seminary last year, as a
potential replacement. Bill proposes
changing the name to the Commission on Ethics and the Social Sciences to make it a forum for ASA
social scientists to deal with topics
of broad concern. He hopes to discuss his proposal with others at the
ASA ANNUAL MEETING at INDIANA WESLEYAN, AUGUST 47. One topic of concern to Bill
Paul is whether a "Near Eastern"
(i.e., Judeo-Christian) approach to
value questions provides a third alternative to the oft-cited distinction between a Western (dualistic,
individualistic, analytic) approach
and an Eastern (holistic, aesthetic,
meditative) approach. In his sabbatical exploration of a philosophical
and theological perspective for environmental ethics, he has found
the Judeo-Christian approach able to
capture what is most valuable in
both Eastern and Western forms of
understanding. The Commission on
Ethics and the Social Sciences
could work on setting forth a contemporary formulation of the proper
relationship between the natural
order and the moral order. Bill
asks, "Shouldn't our professional
work as well as our personal witness make a clear difference in a
morally disordered cultural world?"
He welcomes feedback on these matters by correspondence (c/o Dept.
of Philosophy, Central College,
Pella, IA 50219) or at the ASA
ANNUAL MEETING.
(2) Ken Van Dellen of Macomb
College in Michigan sent an update
on Kabba Jalloh, the stude-n-t-Frarn
Sierra Leone he has been trying to
help (BULLETIN BOARD, Item 3,
Dec '88/Jan '89). The courses
Kabba has taken at Dordt College
in Iowa qualified him for an A.A.
degree in agriculture in May, after
which he planned to spend the summer with a student friend in
Washington state where he could
earn some money. Kabba will
return to Dordt in the fall, then
spend the summer of 1990 with
Martin Price at ECHO, Inc. in
Florida. Credit from Dordt for his
work at ECHO should enable
Kabba to complete requirements for
a bachelor's degree from Dordt
before returning home to help his
people. Ken Van Dellen thanks the
ASA members who responded to
his earlier notice with contributions
for Kabba, and asks for additional
help for his final year (ECHO has
no scholarship funds for students).
Ken sees such contributions, large
or small, as significant people-to people investments in economic
development and Christian witness
in Africa. Checks made out to
Third World Assistance Fund or
Dordt College (mentioning Kabba Jal-loh), should go to: Office of College Advancement, Dordt College,
Sioux Center, IA 51250. (Ken's
Kabba Newsletter adds that in 1988
Dordt was rated by U.S. News &
World Report as 21st among
11
regional liberal arts colleges" and
19th among them for its tuition
costs.-Ed.)
(3) The Educational Concerns for
Hunger Organization (ECHO, Inc.,
see item above) is a "subsistence
farmers' ag experiment station" on
a few acres in Florida. Its work of
supplying practical information (and
seeds) to missionaries, Peace Corps
volunteers, and other development
workers is known to Newsletter
readers because it was founded by
our own Martin Price, who has
Ph.D.s in both biochemistry and
agronomy. Receiving no government
assistance and only an occasional
foundation grant, Martin's remarkably lean operation is consciously
"leaning on the everlasting arms"
and also on ECHO's friends. The
ECHO board met in May to allocate scarce resources, praying and
planning for the future. Gifts in
any amount to the general operating
fund are always needed, but many
special projects also need underwriting. Internships for recent college
graduates with a Christian commitment to the Third World cost
ECHO $18 a day each but pay big
dividends in current work at ECHO
and in the future. ECHO also seeks
funds to reprint some valuable outof-print handbooks of tropical agriculture, and to build a modest
climate-controlled building in which
to thresh, clean, treat, dry, test,
package, and store the seeds it
sends out free for field testing overseas (cost: $30,000). For information, or to send contributions,
contact: ECHO, Inc., 17430 Durrance Rd., North Ft. Myers, Fl,
33917. Tel. 813-543-3246.
(4) Names of ASA members are
showing up in interesting places
these days. In PERSONALS last
time we mentioned Joe Palen's letter on science and faith published
in the April 17 issue of The Scientist. In the very next issue (May
1) we spotted another good letter
on the same topic from pysiologist Tom Hoshiko of Case Western
Reserve.
(5) The names of several ASA members also appeared in a single issue
of ICR's Acts & Facts (June
1989). At a symposium on "Models
of Special Creation" held at the Tuscarora Resource Center, Mt. Bethel,
Pennsylvania, in April, Bob Newman and Perry Phillips of IBRI
took the "progressive-creation, old earth" view, in opposition to ICR's
Duane Gish and James Stambaugh's
"six-solar-day, recent-creation" view.
According to Acts & Facts, the entire symposium was characterized by
ti
a feeling of mutual respect and
Christian love by all participants."
Yet in another article ("Don't Be
Afraid of Giants") in the same
issue, Wheaton College biologist
and progressive creationist Pattie
Pun was chided for taking the
word of secular scientists on such
subjects as the Flood and
"reinterpreting the Bible to fit their
theories." Author Ken Ham depicted
ICR as a David disdained by both
11
non-Christian giants" and "Christian
giants," but didn't make clear which
kind of giant he consders Pattle. He did say, "Let God's enemies
rant and rave, but let us give glory
to God. Let us not be afraid of
giants."'
NEW JOURNAL
ANNOUNCED
We noted in the Jun/Jul 1989
BULLETIN BOARD that "Christians in Science" (CIS) is the
new name of what used to be the
Research Scientists' Christian Fellowship, one of the professional groups
associated with UCCF (which used
to be the IVF). In 1985, when
ASA met with RSCF in Oxford,
we saw how much our British
counterparts admired what used to
be JASA (now Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith).
This
spring they have started their own
journal, called Science and Christian Belief.
The new journal, which sounds
similar in forniat and content to
Perspectives, is really a merger of
Faith and Thought, long-standing
journal of The Victoria Institute
(VI) and Science and Faith, the
more recent CIS newsletter. CIS
Secretary and ASA Fellow Oliver
R. Barclay, editor of the CIS
newsletter, will edit Science and
Christian Belief. A distinguished
panel of senior scientists (plus biblical scholars F. F. Bruce and D. J.
Wiseman) has been assembled as advisors and referees.
Science and Christian Belief will
initially appear twice a year. Members of CIS or VI will receive it
as part of their memberships. For
others, a 1-year subscription costs
UK f-9 or USA $27 (2 yrs, $51;
3 yrs, $75), made payable to Paternoster Press, Paternoster House, 3
Mount Radford Crescent, Exeter,
EX2 QW, England.
ACROSS OUR DESK
A stream of important "books
and rumors of books" has been
flowing across the Newsletter desk.
Although we leave reviewing to
Perspectives book review editor Richard Ruble, some of these new
resources deserve notice.
The Christian Frame of Mind
(Colorado Springs: Helmers &
Howard, 1989) by well-known
theologian and ASA Associate Thomas F. Torrance is subtitled
"Reason, Order, and Openness 'in
Theology and Natural Science, " An
introduction contributed by New Jersey Inst. of Technology physicist
Jim Neidhardt (excerpted in Perspectives June 1989) sums up the key
themes in Tom Torrance's lifelong
work of integrating science and
theology. A reception for the author
was held on April 30 at the Center
of Theological Inquiry in Princeton
to mark publication of this important book.
Another fine book out this spring
(though not quite in time to be
cited in the revised Appendix of
Teaching Science) is Biology
Through the Eyes of Faith (Harper
& Row, 1989) by Gordon College
professor Richard T. Wright. It's
the latest addition to the series of
supplementary texts in academic subjects sponsored by the Christian College Coalition.
The New Biology: Discovering
the Wisdom of Nature (New Science Library, 1988) goes beyond
criticism of the neo-Darwinian synthesis to make some interesting suggestions for modifying evolutionary
theory. The Roman Catholic authors,
philosopher Robert Augros and
physicist George Stanciu, were
speakers at the June 1988 Tacoma
"DNA Conference" sponsored by
ASA's Committee for Integrity in
Science Education. (At that conference they graciously refrained
from punching out the Newsletter
editor for his rather negative review
of their 1984 book, The New Story
of Science.-Ed.)
A book we've seen but not yet
had a chance to read is Physics,
Philosophy and Theology: A Common Quest for Understanding (U.
of Notre Dame Press, 1988), edited
by R.J. Russell, W.R. Stoeger, and
G.V. Coyne. After hearing Jesuit
astrophysicist Bill Stoeger at a 1988
symposium at Berkeley's Center for
Theology & the Natural Sciences
(directed by Bob Russell), we feel
confident in recommending this relatively inexpensive paperback collection of scholarly essays.
A book we've seen advertised
but haven't even seen yet is The
God Who Would Be Known: Divine
Revelations in Contemporary Science
(Harper & Row, 1988), by none
other than John M. Templeton and Robert L. Herrmann. We've been
sampling this one in excerpts appearing in recent issues of Perspectives
on Science and Christian Faith.
[Note: an author's copy arrived in
the Ipswich office at press time!Managing Ed.]
A series of published symposia
called Science as a Way of Knowing is sponsored by the Committee
on Education of the American
Society of Zoologists. A grant from
the Camegie Corporation supports
the free distribution of these highquality materials designed to improve the teaching of introductory
biology courses in high schools and
colleges. Issued so far are I. Evolutionary Biology; H. Human Ecology;
Iff. Genetics; IV. Developmental Biology; V. Form and Function. All
are available free on request from
Dr. John A. Moore, Dept. of Biology, U. of California, Riverside,
CA 92521. (We saw a notice in American Biology Teacher, wrote
for them as a member of AIBS.Ed.)
Another freebie symposium, the
March/June 1989 issue of Pro Rege
(announced in the Apr/May BULLETIN BOARD), features a whole
spectrum of Reformational positions
on the origins debate, including
those of chemist Russell Mdatman
and engineer Charles Adams of
Dordt College and physicist Howard
Van Till of Calvin College. If
you're not already on the mailing
list, ask for your free subscription
to begin with this significant issue.
Write to: Editor, Pro Rege, Dordt
College, 498 4th Ave, NE, Sioux
Center, IA 51250.
Not quite free is a "Response to
D. James Kennedy's Presentation on
Creationism and Evolution on 'The
John Ankerberg Show"' (April
1989). Kennedy, pastor of Coral
Ridge Presbyterian Church of Coral
Gables, Florida, has frequently
"preached against evolution" on his
daily radio and weekly TV
programs. We know of several
ASA members who have written to
Kennedy in the past to point out
shortcomings of his "young-earth" approach to biblical interpretation,
which seems to be based largely
on materials from the Institute for
Creation Research. Now, a
biochemist at the U. of Louisville
has produced a detailed refutation
of what he considers egregious errors in Kennedy's scholarship made
in a telecast series on origins in
fall 1987. The author says,
"Kennedy's presentation is not an exception, but rather is typical of the
creationist presentations which I
have seen. If there is an honest,
scientifically valid case for
creationism, I have yet to see it."
Copies of his 86-page "Response"
are available from the author, Dr.
Thomas J. Wheeler, 426 Deerfield
Lane, Louisville, KY 40207, for
$3.50 each to cover copying and
postage.
THE EDITOR'S LAST
WORDS: 4.
Qu: How come there was no
SEARCH in the June issue of
Perspectives?
An: Because the SEARCH editor
was busy revising Teaching Science
in a Climate of Controversy for its
3rd printing.
Qu: What happened to the items
I sent in for publication in the
Newsletter?
An: They're probably in one of
these piles in the Newsletter office.
Qu: Why isn't the ASA book
on science in the public schools
finished yet?
An: See answers to above
questions.
LOCAL SECTION
ACTIVITIES
NORTH CENTRAL
On June 7 more than a hundred
people paid for a buffet breakfast
at the Holiday Inn adjacent to the
3M campus in Minneapolis, then
heard physicist Bill Monsma of the
MacLaurin Institute speak on "The
Origin of the Universe." Bill
pointed to the evidence for the Big
Bang and also to efforts of some
scientists to avoid the implications
of a beginning, "down to current
speculations about inflation of the
early universe and to Steven
Hawking's imaginary time." Both
Bill and 3M chemist Bob Bohon
made pitches for ASA, and
everyone present got ASA literature.
Bob made the arrangements and
sent announcements to 3M technical employees on a prayer-breakfast mailing list.
Enough interest was shown in future meetings, and in the ASA, to
suggest "taking the show on the road" to other industrial employment
centers. The problem is that even
the largest companies, such as
Honeywell, tend to be more spread
out than 3M. Everyone agrees that
ASA membership should expand
into industrial labs, but we haven't
had a red-hot idea of how to orchestrate such an effort. Maybe at
last we're getting warm.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
A note from co-chair John
Vayhinger says that Ken Touryan,
energy entrepreneur and "tentmaker
to the world," will be the morning
speaker at the section's mid-year
conference, to be held Saturday,
February 3, at the U. of Colorado
in Boulder. The section invites
ASAers exploring Colorado on skis
or other means of transportation to
drop in, and invites ASA members
in the region to submit papers to
be read in the afternoon session.
Contact secy-treas. Ken Olson, 2515
17th Ave, Greeley, CO 80631; tel.
303-352-1590.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY
The June 24 informal breakfast
in Berkeley with Owen Gingerich
of Harvard drew about 25 people,
perhaps half of them new to ASA.
Several UCB grad students expressed interest in both national and
local ASA activities. Owen was in
good form despite a foul-up in
flight arrangements that had forced
him to fly standby the night
before. He outlined the history and
current status of what is now
planned as a six-segment TV series
under ASA auspices. The series
will present science in an instructive but entertaining way, show the
"tent to which human judgment
enters into the building of a
coherent scientific picture, and
present a theistic framework as a
legitimate alternative to materialism.
Beginning with a segment on the
nature of scientific proof, the series
will end with a segment asking if
the cosmos is really all there is,
was, or ever will be. Some very
competent specialists in various
aspects of television production are
advising Owen, who says he has
learned a lot about presenting
science--and a Christian view of
it---to the general public.
This was president John Wood's
last meeting with the section. After
teaching at AuSable in Michigan
this summer, John will join the
faculty of The King's College in Edmonton, Alberta, in the fall.
PERSONALS
Gregory S. Bennett recently accepted a position at Creighton
University in Omaha, Nebraska, as
assistant director of International
Programs. His job is to advise international students, develop exchange
programs with foreign universities,
and build the international scope of
university activities. Greg's background includes a dozen years growing up in East Africa and the India
subcontinent, three years as a
petroleum geologist for a major oil
company, and three years teaching
earth science at the junior high
level.
Lee E. Branscombe, who has a
Ph.D. and was formerly on the
faculty of the U. of Miami,
Florida, has started a research company called Environmental Dynamics
Research, Inc. EDR's primary activity is basic research in dynamic
meteorology and climate theory. Lee
is an active member of the Miami
chapter of the Christian Business
Men's Committee. He invites others
with similar interests in science and
faith to contact him at EDR, 104
Crandon Blvd, Suite 327, Miami,
FL 33149; tel. 305-361-1027 or 3617457. (If enough local ASAers get
in touch with Lee, maybe they'll
start a Florida section.-Ed.)
Douglas A. Bulthuis is an estuarine scientist at the Padilla Bay
National Estuarine Research Reserve
located in Mt. Vernon, Washington.
Doug recently moved to Washington
from Australia, where he was research manager at the Marine
Science Laboratories of the state of
Victoria.
Howard Claassen and wife Esther have moved to Tacoma,
Washington. Howard retired from
teaching physics at Wheaton College
ten years or so ago and moved to
a little mountain community in
Oregon on state highway 66 east
of Ashland. Howard designed and
built a solar-heated home adjacent
to the "Oregon Extension," a woodsy campus in an old logging camp
where students from Christian colleges come for a semester of integrated studies. This year, when
the Claassens decided it was time
to move closer to children and
grandchildren, they got a surprise
send-off. On May 14, their last Sunday, Howard was scheduled to
speak in the community's Lincoln
Christian Church. Known for his
practical skills, he had already told
folks that he would start working
with Habitat for Humanity in
Tacoma by doing the plumbing on
a house for a refugee family, and
that he would build his Sunday sermon around Habitat's ministry. (The
Claassens' daughter, Eileen Seeley,
is on the Habitat board in
Tacoma.) The Oregon Extension
faculty secretly sent out letters to
many of Howard's friends. At the
close of his remarks, he joked that
if anyone wanted to write a check
for Habitat, he would be glad to
deliver it. In one of the fastest
responses on record, he was handed
an envelope stuffed with checks
made out to Habitat totaling some
$2,000, plus many letters "pressing
affection for Howard & Esther.
Bowled over, Howard admitted that
he had been puzzled to see the church packed out and folks bringing food when nobody had told
him about a potluck. We hear it
was a great farewell party.
Harold Hartzler, beloved ASA
patriarch and former physics professor at both Goshen College and
Mankato State in Minnesota, has informed the Ipswich office of the
death of his equally beloved wife
Dorothy in April. Not long ago it
was Dorothy who was worried
about Harold's health. Harold was
visiting relatives and friends in Pennsylvania when he wrote to
Ipswich. Typically, he added, "I
hope to be able to see you at
ASA in August." Harold has attended more Annual Meetings than
any other member.
David Hitchcock has begun
postdoctoral research in the
Materials Science Dept. of
Northwestern University in Evanston,
Illinois. He is trying to make high-temperature superconductors that will
carry more current. Last fall David
returned from the University of
Electronic Science & Technology of
China in Chengdu, Sichuan
province, where he had taught and
done research in the Dept. of
Electronic Materials & Devices. He
says, "I enjoyed working with my
Chinese colleagues and students,
learning about the culture, and learning to depend more on God. In the
U.S., I tend to think things are
under my control. In China, it was
easier to see that they are not."
Thomas Key has moved to
Laurel, Mississippi, where he
manages to keep busy despite being
semi-retired. He teaches one biology
class at Wesley College in
Florence, about 75 miles away, and
is doing research on the control of
fire ants. He also does some part-time preaching.
James W. Sire, senior editor and
campus lecturer for InterVarsity
Press in Downers Grove, Illinois,
recently tallied up his year of
academic itineration. Jim made some
156 presentations (14 to faculty
groups) at 34 secular institutions
and 4 Christian colleges. Instead of
resting up this summer, though, he
is off to the Lausanne 11 Congress
in Manila, where he will lead a
workshop on the rise of New Age
spirituality in a section on the forces of modernization organized by
Os Guinness. (We've mentioned
several other ASAers invited to participate at the Manila Congress, but
we've probably missed at least that
many more.-Ed.)
Kenell Touryan investigates alternative energy sources and serves on
the board of Issachar Frontier Missions Strategies (P.O. Box 30727,
Seattle, WA 98103). Our account of
his stay in Soviet Armenia
(WHEREVER GOD WANTS US,
Apr/May 1989) said Ken encourages
"tentmaking" but failed to name Issachar as one of his ways of supporting that concept. Issachar's
president, George Otis, wrote the
cover story on "Turmoil, Tragedy,
and Hope in the Soviet Caucasus"
in the March 1989 issue of Mission
Frontiers, Bulletin of the U.S. Center for World Mission (1605
Elizabeth St, Pasadena, CA 91104).
Drawing on Ken's recent experience
in Armenia, the story described a
church-based relief committee serving spiritual leaders of various Christian
groups in Armenia, for which contributions can be sent to: Dr. Ken
Touryan, Operation Caucasus
Earthquake Aid, Evergreen Fellowship, 31347 Tamarisk Lane,
Evergreen, CO 80439.
Edward R. Urban, Jr., of
Gaithersburg, Maryland, has been
working under one-year Sea Grant
Fellowship for the Ocean Studies
Board of the National Academy of
Sciences. He hopes to continue
working in the nation's capital for
a few more years before moving
into a science administrative position.
Ed has been preparing himself for that
at the U. of Delaware, where he has
earned an M.S. in marine studies, a
Ph.D. in applied ocean science/marine
studies, and an MBA to top it off.
Melvin Westwood is professor
emeritus of horticulture at Oregon
State University in Corvallis, where
he taught from 1960 to 1983. This
spring he received the Hartman
Cup Award of the Oregon Horticultural Society for his outstanding contributions. In 1986 he received the
National Career Research Award of
the American Society for Horticultural Science. As early as 1974 he
helped plan national clonal germplasm repositories for many varieties
of fruits and nuts, for which Congress
appropriated funds in 1979. In 1983
he became the National Technical Advisor for Clonal Germ Plasm, advising
on the establishment of eight regional
repositories, the first being at Oregon
State. Pears were his special interest,
but he traveled throughout Asia and
returned with some 300 samples of
wild root stocks from 27 different plant
genera. (Our thanks to retired OSU engineering prof Hendrik Oorthuys for
the background of this story.-Ed.)
PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS: Animal blochemisty: Abraham Verna (c/o 62, Hemant Hostel, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India. Tel. 587836) seeks a position in the U.S. His Ph.D. is from Kurukshetra University (1986). Experience includes: 1) postdoctoral research fellow, Dublin, food science; 2) senior research fellow, U.N. Development Programme, biochemistry of cheddar cheese made from buffalo milk; 3) junior research fellow, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India, biochemistry. Available for the 1989-90 academic year. Prof Lewis Hodge calls Verna 'a well credentialed Christian brother seeking postdoctoral work in the U.S. who finds himself at a disadvantage in the marketplace of India, where preference is given to those with U.S. education and experience." Lew Hodge says interested parties can call him at the U. of Tennessee (615-974-5037) for more current information about Abraham Verna's situation.