NEWSLETTER

of the

American Scientific Affiliation & Canadian Scientific Christian Affiliation

VOLUME 32 NUMBER 5     OCTOBER NOVEMBER 1990

NEWSLETTER of the ASA/CSCA is published bi-monthly for its membership by the American MA 01938. Tel. 508-356-5656. Information for the Newsletter may be sent to the Editor:

Scientific Affiliation, 55 Market St., Ipswich, Dr. Walter R. Hearn, 762 Arlington Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707. Q 1990 American Scientific Affiliation (except previously published material). All rights reserved.

[Editor: Dr. Walter R. Hearn / Production: Rebecca Petersen]

A GREAT ANNUAL MEETING

The 45th Annual Meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation was, qualitatively and quantitatively, one of the best in ASA's 49-year history. Over 250 people registered for the meeting, held August 3-6 Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. That's a 25 percent increase over the average for most of our meetings and a good sign for next year's 50th Anniversary Celebration at Wheaton College. The Executive Council would like to see 400-500 in attendance at that 1991 Annual Meeting.

Program chair David Wilcox of Eastern College and local arrangements chair Gerald Hess and his assistant Norman Shank, both of the Messiah faculty, did a superb job. Almost everyone commented on the high quality of various features of the 1990 meeting, from the plenary speakers and panels to contributed papers, from the Sunday discussion groups to morning devotions (including some magnificent music), from the field trips to the food service, accommodations, and the campus setting itself.

Annual Meeting news always crowds out other items, but we still can't cover everything in one issue-or two. We'll tell you right now, though, that you should count on spending JULY 28-31 next year with your peers in science and Christian faith at the 1991 ASA ANNUAL MEETING at WHEATON COLLEGE in Illinois.

The Wheaton meeting will be built around the history of science. Next year's program chair, ASA journal editor Jack Haas, wants to emphasize ASA's 50-year history as part of that theme. He has a number of ideas in mind for the meeting itself and for publication in Perspectives. For instance, Jack would like for people influenced by Moody Institute's "Sermons from Science" demonstrations of Irwin Moon, George Speake, or Keith Horgett, or by the "Moody Science Films" of the 1940s and '50s (for which ASA played an advisory role) to get in touch with him c/o ASA, P.O. Box 668, Ipswich, MA 01938.

SETTING THE STAGE

Guest speaker David Livingstone (the one with the chaaarmin' Irish brogue-Ed.) opened the 1990 ASA meeting on "Viewing the Natural World as Creation. " His Friday evening address urged ASA members approsch controversies from a historical perspective. Livingstone, professor of the history of science at Queens University in Belfast, Ireland, has spent the past year at Calvin College in Michigan. ASA president Howard Van Till introduced David as the author of Darwin's Forgotten Defenders (Eerdmans) and other scholarly works but also as a valued Christian colleague.

Historians try to look beyond formal definitions of "fighting words" to the essence of the ideas conveyed by those who use them. In the 19th century, for example, "Darwinism" meant more than natural selection and gradualism, and certainly something other than sheer "naturalism" (or Asa Gray would never have defended it). The meanings of words "evolve by adapting to new environments," which is true not only of Darwinism but also of creationism and evangelicalism. Historians see a progression of negotiated arguments among people who define themselves in a particular way at a particular time.

How should the story of the creation/evolution controversy of the latter half of the 19th century be told? As one of conflict (as Andrew D. White did in his classic Warfare work, now seen as way off the mark)? As competition between scientists and churchmen for cultural ascendency (evidenced in T. H. Huxley's "lay sermons")? As cooperation, documented in Jim Moore's depiction of Calvinists and other Christians coming to terms with evolution (in The PostDarwinian Controversies)? Or as a continuity, with the scientific world view seen as an extension of a theistic view of a world that made sense because of God?

Livingstone saw some truth in each account but stressed that the controversy was not a simple one between "modem science" and "outmoded religion," as it is sometimes still pictured. Among Christians, the theologically conservative Asa Gray had less trouble with evolution than did Agassiz, who was more of a transcendentalist. The theological response of the conservative scholars centered on three key issues: a) the idea of design; b) the doctrine of providence; and c) their views of eschatology. In general, post-millennialists saw evolution as more acceptable than did pre-millennialists. Much of the public, though, uncomfortable with what many saw as an "apish past," reacted against, scientific rhetoric and failed to follow their evangelical leaders.

Evangelical scholars who did accept evolution were very much on guard against evolution-ism, however. They tended to regard Darwinism as a useful metaphor ("nature as a breeder of pigeons") but warned against letting the metaphor get out of hand, as when nature becomes reified (or deified) as Nature with a capital N. In the 20th century, we can learn from their clear-eyed rejection of 1) an evolutionary ethic based on survival (the "naturalistic fallacy" that what is tells us what ought to be); 2) the mystifying of nature (as though it had some autonomous goal); 3) natural selection as a paradigm for the growth of knowledge (as though the survival of ideas always indicated their truth); and 4) philosophical reductionism (with scientific naturalism leaving no room for the supernatural).

In response to questions, Livingstone acknowledged that many Christian scholars as well as a naive public were concerned about what evolutionary concepts might do to one's view of humanity. He agreed that philosophical evolutionism is sometimes so tightly bound up in evolutionary theory that the two are hard to separate. Asked to comment on today's creationist movement in the U.K., he described it as less antievolutionary than "scientific creationism" has been in the States.

Livingstone said that secularized attitudes toward the Bible should not be blamed on the "Darwinian revolution" alone; such secularizing had gained momentum well before Darwin's writings from higher critical studies that had little to do with science. On the place of evolutionary theory in high school classrooms, Livingstone put in a strong plug for teaching the history of science, now an "X-rated subject." When it is taught, students often get a fictional view of science "as it should have happened." We need to hear the real story-with all its fits and starts and its rich variety of contributors from a gamut of religious persuasions.

GETTING BIBLICAL

Variety was also a theme of Saturday morning's address by Duane Priebe, professor of systematic theology at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. George Murphy introduced Priebe as a friend and mentor who, like  George, had begun in physics and moved into theology. Priebe
identified himself as a "Lutheran biblicist" who tries to use modem methodology to get at the truth of God's Word. His review of both the biblical texts and Christian interpretations of them continued the historical tone set on Friday night.

Priebe cited Niels Bohr's statement that the opposite of a profound truth is likely to be another profound truth. For a Christian, modem scientific cosmology must remain in a sort of equilibrium with a biblically informed cosmology. The Bible gives us God's view of creation, but it tells us different things about it in different places. Just as the Bible presents visions of the future varied enough to produce "pre-mills" and 11 post-mills," it offers variety in its "prophetic visions of the past." The biblical writers, who evidently did not think of those pictures as contradictory, drew on different aspects to make different points.

One set of pictures ("Creation out of conflict") shows the divine Creator as victor over the chaosmonsters of Babylonia and other ancient religions, often seen as causing the raging of the seas. Psalms 77, 89, and 93 present God's awesome power in gaining control over destructive forces; Psalm 65 personalizes destructive forces; Isaiah 17 and 51 see them behind Israel's enemies. In the Gospels, Jesus rebuked the winds. God's creative power continually keeps chaotic forces from cropping up again, even though he has defeated them.

Another set of biblical pictures ("Creation through the Word of wisdom") emphasizes the Creator's order, plan, and design. In Psalm 7 the moral order and in Psalm 104 the boundary of the seas come from the divine plan. The voice of wisdom of Proverbs 8 and the Logos of John I account for the intelligibility of the world. Although such pictures make science possible, they lack the power of the "victory model" and can make the world seem-m6c.-

The pictures from Genesis 2 and 3 ("Creation as seen by humans") differ in a number of ways from those of Genesis 1 ("Creation from the Creator's point of view"). Priebe outlined some distinctive features of Genesis 1, including its focus on the whole of creation, incorporation of time and natural processes ("Let the earth bring forth"), stress on the goodness of everything created (perhaps because that's not so obvious), and the dual role of human beings as representatives of creation and as images of God-a sort of "democratizing" of the concept of creation.

Priebe urged ASA to make full use of all these creation images, to read each in relation to the others, and to recognize that whatever montage of creation we construct will still be incomplete. The Bible sees both good and evil at work in the world. All its pictures of creation speak of a future destiny, seen by Christians as focused in redemption through Jesus Christ, which is both complete and not yet fully realized.


Turning to interpretation of these creation pictures, Priebe outlined some of the questions theologians have wrestled with since the days of the early church. He reviewed Augustine's efforts to combine Genesis I and 2, perennial discussions of miracles (How much "unrealized potential" is built into creation?), and debates over what belongs to creation and what to "providence." Classically, creation became associated with ex nihilo and providence with secondary causes.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

At the end of Duane Priebe's address, David Livingstone joined him for a panel moderated by David Wilcox. The two began by questioning each other, then fielded questions on theology,  biblical studies, history, and philosophy. Can biblical insights help adjudicate among scientific theories? (Priebe thought the Bible has little direct role to play, recalling that Luther stuck with geocentrism; Pannenberg's effort to reject the "many worlds" hypothesis in quantum mechanics on biblical grounds is probably a mistake.) Is it fair to call Benjamin Warfield an evolutionist? (Livingstone said that at one stage in his life Warfield had bred horses, so the great Princeton theologian was impressed by Darwin's analogy of "nature as breeder"; at the end of his life, Warfield was less a Darwinist but still an evolutionist.)

David Byers, liaison of the Catholic Bishops' Office in Washington to the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science & Technology (ITEST) in St. Louis, brought up Teilhard de Chardin's "Omega point" as a modem interpretation of the potential imbedded in creation.

(Livingstone said his views of Teithard were based on negative assessments by historians like Hooykaas and anthropologists like Medawar more than on his own reading of Teilhard. Priebe said he preferred the biblical concept of "a new creation" to Teilhard's Omega point.)

Summing up, Priebe said that despite the variety of biblical pictures of creation, they coexist in a matrix of overall coherence. Compared to scientific theories, there are relatively few biblical ideas about "cosmo-theo-andric reality"-4)ut each has evocative power that has lasted for thousands of years. Livingstone said that expecting history to solve contemporary problems is a sort of 11 present-ism": writing history backwards instead of the way it actually happened. Although philosophy is a continuing conversation that never ends, some questions do get resolved-leaving us with "meta-questions" about life's meaning and purpose, to which the Bible speaks.

MORE TO COME

Saturday night's banquet featured the third guest speaker, U.C. Berkeley law professor Phillip E. Johnson, who on Sunday afternoon joined physicist Howard Van Till and biologist David Wilcox for a stimulating symposium on "Teaching Evolution in the Science Classroom."

The next Newsletter will bring you a report on those sessions, plus, space permitting, the gist of Ronald Sider's Sunday sermon and the two devotional talks, some of the contributed papers and discussion groups, an impromptu gathering of ASA writers, the ACG field trip, and the personal interactions that made this meeting so outstanding.

A BUSY COUNCIL

The ASA Executive Council met for two days preceding the Annual Meeting, acting on a full agenda and reporting some solid developments at  Business Meeting. For example, momentum is definitely building on the TV series-with scripting completed for several segments. Contributed funds have matched the Templeton Foundation challenge grant to support a major drive for new Perspectives subscribers. Despite rising costs, executive director Bob Herrmann was able to present a balanced budget.

The Council has accepted the invitation of the University of the Nations to hold our 1992 Annual Meeting on its campus on the Island of Hawaii, shifting the Seattle Pacific University (west coast) meeting to 1993. The site for the 1994 (central) meeting is still open; Ipswich would welcome an invitation from a suitable host institution. Montreat-Anderson College in Montreat, North Carolina, will host the 1995 (east coast) meeting.

Two physical scientists from the western part of the U.S. have accepted nomination for election to the Executive Council for 1990-95, physicist Fred Hickernell of Phoenix, Arizona, and chemist Ken Lincoln of Redwood City, Califomia. Ballots should be in the mail soon.

The entire Ipswich office staff participated in the meeting. By the time they were formally introduced at the business meeting, everyone already knew financial manager Frances Polischuk, our new operations manager Karen Brunstrom, and our new managing editor Becky Petersen. They handled registration, answered questions, and made everybody feel welcome as part of the ASA family. Back in Ipswich, part-timer Vikki Melvin was minding the store.

On the Executive Council's agenda were a number of items of "new business." Before taking action on some of them, the Council seeks input from the membership at large. (See following story.)

ITEMS FOR YOUR INPUT

1. Looking ahead to the next 50 years. ASA's director and Executive Council are generally too busy with the budget and other business to do much "blue sky" thinking. A Long-Range Planning Committee set up last year with David Swift as chair is expected to report at next year's Annual Meeting. Meanwhile, for our 50th Anniversary year, the Council hopes many members will make special financial contributions to mark it as a banner year and undergird ASA's future.

At its August meeting, the Council voted to set up an Endowment Committee to supervise "establishment, promotion, and management" of an ASA Endowment Fund. Certain legal steps are underway. The idea is to build up a major fund independent of operating income and expenses. The fund's investment earnings would be available to initiate new projects and perhaps take care of emergencies. The Council stands ready to receive "financial input" designated for the Endowment Fund, but it also welcomes suggestions. If you have ideas for this venture or experience in the management of such a fund, please contact executive director Bob Herrmann at ASA, P.O. Box 668, Ipswich, MA 01938.

2. An ASA position on the teaching of evolution? As chair of the Committee for Integrity in Science Education, John Wiester urged the Council to pass a resolution supporting the teaching of evolution as science in the public schools but clarifying the difference between evolutionary science and evolution-ism, the naturalistic philosophy which Christians rightly resist as antagonistic to theism. The Committee's proposal was stimulated by 1989 publication of Voices for Evolution, a collection of statements assembled by the National Center for Science Education. The statements from 15 religious bodies plus scientific societies and educational institutions are "for evolution" and "against creationism," but generally do a better job of defining what they are against than what they are for. Wiester, whose paper at the meeting called attention to a "shell game" of definition-switching concerning evolution throughout the new California Science Framework, argued for timely passage of an ASA resolution in light of forthcoming publication of that Framework and of Project 2061 by AAAS. The Council thought clarification of the difference between evolution and evolutionism might be a useful contribution but didn't want to act hastily. Misreading of such a resolution might 11 turn off' some of the very individuals or groups ASA has been trying to educate. Even some ASA members might question a resolution in support of evolution, despite a narrow focus on evolution as science.

Recalling scientific societies divided in the '60s and '70s by political activists, and Christian groups divided by the passage of seemingly harmless resolutions, some Council members hesitated to set a precedent by adopting any official position statement or even allowing resolutions to be introduced. The Council decided to set aside time to discuss this matter and its long-term consequences thoroughly at its Ipswich meeting, December 8-9.

Your opinions are sought on: 1) the question of whether or not ASA should consider resolutions at all; and 2) how an ASA resolution on the teaching of evolution in public schools should be worded. Send your comments to ASA president, Dr. Howard Van Till, Physics Dept, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 49506.

3. A more active ASA placement service? The POSITIONS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE and PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS sections at the end of the Newsletter already help ASA members find jobs. A proposal has been made to start an actual ASA "placement service," with costs borne by institutions seeking employees. What do you think? The Council wonders if this need is already being met by the Christian College Coalition or other organizations.

An "employment clearing house" like those at other national meetings might attract more young people to ASA meetings. A constantly computer-updated list of openings, available on request from Ipswich, would be more useful to jobseekers than outdated notices in the bimonthly ASA Newsletter. Secular employers might begin to seek out ASA members for their personal qualities in addition to technical competence. On the other hand, our pool of talent in any particular field may not be large enough to attract employers. Send ASA secretary, Dr. Ken Dormer, P.O. Box 26901, Oklahoma City, OK 73190, your views on these matters before December 8.

4. ASA evangelistic tracts9 New Council member Betty Zipf has made effective use of several gospel tracts aimed at scientifically oriented people. One tract with the personal testimonies of ASA members, Ten Scientists Look at Life, published some 25 years ago by Good News Publishers of Westchester, Illinois, has long been out of print.

Should we consider publishing a series of inexpensive ASA leaflets proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to technically literate unbelievers? Or work with an established publisher of such materials to produce tracts suitable for such readers? Send your ideas and comments on these matters to Dr. Elizabeth Zipf, P.O. Box 127, Barrington, NJ 08007, for discussion and possible action at the December Council meeting.

BIOLOGISTS UNITE

Spurred on by growth of the Affiliation of Christian Geologists (ACG, which also met at Messiah), some 30 biologists gathered at Messiah College on Thursday, August 3, for a full day of activities preceding the ASA meeting. They shared demonstrations of teaching methods and equipment, discussed the teaching of biology from a Christian perspective, and went on an informal field trip to King's Gap Environmental Educational Center.

At a brief business meeting, those present voted to form an Affiliation of Christian Biologists (ACB) as a subgroup of ASA. After adopting a constitution patterned after that of ACG, the group elected provisional officers to get things rolling: president, Russell Camp (Gordon College); vicepresident, Marilyne Flora (Judson College); secretary, Anne Whiting (Houghton College); treasurer, Michael Sonnenberg (MontreatAnderson College); and ACB Newsletter editor, Roman Miller (Eastern Mennonite College).

Membership in ACI3 is open to anyone who: 1) holds a bachelor , s or more advanced degree in a life science, OR is currently enrolled in an undergraduate degree program in a life science; and 2) gives assent to the ASA Statement of Faith. All Christian biologists, whether members of ASA or not, are encouraged to join ACB.

The Affiliation of Christian Biologists plans to meet annually in conjunction with ASA. Tentative plans for 1991 include a half-day workshop and/or field trip on 25 July, preceding ASA's ANNUAL MEETING at WHEATON COLLEGE.

For information and ACB membership application forms, contact Dr. Anne Whiting, Biology Dept, Houghton College, Houghton, NY 14744. To contribute items for the ACB Newsletter (e.g., notes on teaching strategies or resources, research opportunities, job openings, brief papers, personal items), contact Dr. Roman Miller, Biology Dept, Eastern Mennonite College, Harrisonburg, VA 22801.

WHEREVER GOD WANTS US: 14.

0ne of the special features of this year's Annual Meeting was the presence of two African guests, parasitologist George Kinoti of Kenya and geographer Wilfred Mlay of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They made a presentation to the Executive Council, spoke briefly at the business meeting, and talked to many ASAers about Third World research and developer needs. Both are evangelical Chris George Kinoti & Wiffred Mlay who got their start in mission-sponsored schools in Africa and went on to obtain advanced degrees in western universities.

At the 1985 Annual Meeting in Oxford, England, Kinoti laid before ASA's joint meeting with RSCF (now Christians in Science) his vision of what western Christians familiar with research could do for the developing world. Christians have already invested considerable resources for evangelism, childhood and pastoral education, and medical care. Many needs have been met, but the evident need for scientific education, research, and development has hardly been addressed. Kinoti and Mlay would like for ASA (and CIS in the U.K.) to work with African Christians both to solve long-term economic and health problems and to present an effective witness in Africa to the wholeness of the Christian approach to life.

George Kinoti admitted that in 1985, when he first began to think of a partnership with western Christians as a way for Africans to engage in R&D, he dreamed of a major Christian research facility in Nairobi. Such an institute, independent of, but related to, his university, would be staffed partly by African scientists and students, partly by visiting international scientists. He still has that dream, requiring foreign funds and personnel. But George has tried to scale down his vision in order to get started now.

Obstacles at both ends demand careful thinking and perhaps an accumulation of small successes along the way. International aid from the West seems easier to find for famine relief and other short-term problems. (After a major foundation turned down ASA's grant request to support a 1991 Nairobi meeting of scientists to see what could be done, an individual ASA member provided travel funds for Kinoti and May to attend the 1990 ASA meeting.-Ed.)

Research facilities and equipment in a country like Kenya are scarce and scientists' salaries are so low that many professors must 'moonlight" to support their families. The infrastructure western scientists are used to, in the form of publications, communication, and physical maintenance, hardly exists. Bribery and corruption occur at many levels of society, and high import duties levied to increase the flow of foreign currency can keep badly needed equipment and supplies from entering a Third World country. Christians like Kinoti and Mlay are aware of these problems, but they need some outside help in finding local solutions to local problems.

Wilfred May is president of the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern Africa, founded 10 years ago "in a continent where sustainability is the exception rather than the rule." A secular organization, OSSREA draws together university scholars from Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, and Lesotho. It fosters collaborative and interdisciplinary research by sponsoring workshops and especially by disbursing funds from five donor agencies (the Ford Foundation is the largest) to African investigators on a competitive basis. It has launched an academic journal and newsletter and published six books. Wilfred was urged to stand for the presidency because as a known Christian he could be trusted to handle the organization's funds honestly. OSSREA serves as a model to show how a research infrastructure can be built up where none had existed before.

Focusing on a small number of research problems in agriculture and public health seems to be the way to begin. The fact is that a number of ASA members are now doing R&D work that may pertain to some of the problems George Kinoti wants to tackle in Kenya. For example, much of the work at Martin Price's "experiment station for subsistence agriculture" may be immediately applicable to Kenyan problems. Martin's Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO, Inc., 17430 Durrance Rd., North Ft. Myers, FL 33917) already distributes seeds and Echo Development Notes to workers in Zambia, Zaire, and other African countries.

Another example that comes to mind is Charles Beal's International Health Services (IHS, 2166 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, CA 94043). Charles came back from service as a medical missionary determined to apply "appropriate technology" to public health problems overseas. He set up IHS as a non-profit venture to perform the R&D, specializing in diagnostic kits for Third World applications. American pharmaceutical houses are interested in high-tech, high-profit diagnostics for diseases prevalent in the western world, but little venture capital exists for the kinds of projects IHS works on. (An IHS kit for the diagnosis of microfilaria, a disease common in Ghana, is actually in use in the U.S., but only by veterinarians-because a similar disease occurs in dogs.-Ed.)

A phone call put us in touch with Dr. Jacob Eapen, a Christian physician and IHS's sole employee at the moment. Eapen, who has worked as a pediatrician in Tanzania and Nigeria as well as in his native India, has a degree in public health from U.C. Berkeley and recently served with the U.N. in the Philippines. Among recent IHS developments, he said, is a low-cost method of AIDS diagnosis now being tested at the University of Yaounde in Cameroon with USAID funding.

According to Stanley Burden (Chemistry Dept, Taylor University, Upland, IN 46989), a project is underway at Taylor University to develop a whole portable medical laboratory for use in developing countries. Its design and contents are based on the experience of Mrs. Margaret Coles of Coles Biochemical Lab, R.R. #1, Box 43AA, Delhi, IA 52223. (Yes, that's IowA, not IndiA.-Ed.) A medical technologist for 40 years, she's now spent ten years providing medical testing services in ill-equipped hospitals and in areas with no hospital at all. The project includes preparation of training materials in the form of learning modules for self-instruction or workshop use.

Stan says a prototype kit was field-tested on a Medical Group Missions trip to the Dominican Republic in 1988. The present 15-pound version contains a battery-operated spectrophotometer but for several medically useful tests that require cool storage of reagents, an external refrigeration unit is needed. Project funds have come from the MGM arm of the Christian Medical & Dental Society, the Pew Foundation, Sauder Woodworking, Taylor Uriversity, and interested individuals.

It seems clear that many ASA members have an interest in R&D for Third World problems, and an impressive number have already been to Africa on one kind of technical mission or another. At the Council meeting with Kinoti and Mlay, five of the eight people in the room had spent time in Kenya. And while writing this story, we heard from Ernest M. Steury (605 Stucky St, B-2, Berne, IN 46711), home until April 1991 with wife Sue on deputation from Kenya. After 31 years at Tenwek Hospital, Ernie is executive officer of the 300-bed facility, now the largest mission hospital in Kenya. A lot of ASA folks seem to "know the territory."

Even if ASA cannot build or staff the kind of research facility envisioned by George Kinoti, we can provide a communication network to help that dream come true. The Council is taking steps to set up a working relationship between our African colleagues and ASA members with something to contribute.

Meanwhile, don't wait to be asked. You can contact this brother in Christ directly with your ideas and encouragement: Dr. George K. Kinoti, Professor of Zoology, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya.

OBITUARIES

At Messiah, Bob Herrmann introduced a fine new tradition for ASA meetings. In the final devotional period he read a brief memorial for each of five ASA/CSCA members whose deaths had been reported to Ipswich since the last Annual Meeting. Bob asked all in the audience who had been touched personally by any of them to stand in silent remembrance. It was moving to see how many lives they had influenced. Everyone then stood and sang the hymn, "For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest."

Included in the memorials was one for Professor T. H. Leith of York University in Ontario, whose illness from incurable cancer was reported in PERSONALS in the last issue. Harry Leith held joint doctorates in science and philosophy from M.I.T. and Boston University and taught courses on the environment and natural science at York's Atkinson College. He was one of only eight faculty members at York ever designated a University Professor. He was an advisor to Ontario's famous Science Centre and a long-time Fellow of ASA. He is survived by his wife Janet, three children, and a brother. Harry died on July 13 at age 62. Tribute at his memorial service in Toronto was paid by CSCA member Bob Jervis.

A memorial was also read for Paul C. Davis of Stanwood, Washington, another Fellow of ASA. Notice of Paul's death was received in Ipswich before the Annual Meeting but had not been reported in the Newsletter.

THE EDITOR'S LAST WORDS: 11.

With a surplus of news stories, I'll restrict this column to a brief medical report from Messiah and save the tall tales to tell another time.

Your Weary Old Editor was not among the few ASAers who went horizontal to get more oxygen to headquarters, believe it or not. I snapped a photo of Jay Hollman of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, breathing flat-out in short pants. Actually Jay is a cardiologist who assumed that semi-supine position to attend an ASAer whose near-fainting spell at the  Sunday worship service was quickly observed by several alert nurses, Helen Behnke of Wilmore Kentucky, and Katie Wilcox of Si. Davids, Pennsylvania.

Already that morning, U. of Oklahoma physiologist Ken Dormer had spotted another ASAer losing consciousness at the breakfast table. Everybody ended up well ventilated, vertical, and very thankful to have such competent medical personnel on hand.

Having made so much in this column of my own heart attack I decided against taking any naps in the Eisenhower Campus Center between sessions. If anyone had seen me stretched out on that comfortably carpeted floor, I might have waked up in a hospital. It was comforting to have so many healthy-looking people tell me about their heart attacks (or bypass operations to prevent them).

What always does my heart good is seeing ASA patriarch H. Harold Hartzler once again. When a heart attack kept him from attending the 1981 ASA meeting, he sent a videotape from his hospital bed so as not to ruin his perfect attendance record! I'm happy to report that at our 1990 meeting, Harold was still going strong.

LOCAL SECTIONS

NEW ENGLAND
A second series of Science/Faith Conferences is scheduled for southeastern New England this fall, as follows:

9 September, Robert Herrmann on "Bioethics," 7 p.m. at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Pearl St., Mystic, Connecticut; host, John Kennedy.

14 October, Charles Hummel, on "Creation & Evolution," 7 p.m. at Road Congregational Church, Pequot Trail, Stonington, Connecticut; host, J. Meryl Bilhorn.

11 November, Armand Nicholi, on "The Family in Today's Culture," 7 p.m. at Central Baptist Church, Elm St., Westerly, Rhode Island; host, Harold Northrup.

9 December, Robert Newman, "Origins," 7:30 p.m. at Groton Bible Church, Tollgate Rd., Groton, Connecticut; host, John Plankeel.

METROPOLITAN NEW YORK

The fall meeting will be held on Saturday, November 3, at the Science Building at The King's College in Briarcliff Manor, New York, featuring Paul de Vries, first holder of the endowed Chair in Ethics in the Marketplace at The King's College. He will speak in the afternoon on "Empiricist Science vs. Ethics: Has the Divorce Worked?" and in the evening on "The Earth is the Lord's, and the Pollution Thereof."

Paul de Vries majored in mathematics with a physics minor at Calvin College, went on to receive an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy at the U. of Virginia. He has taught at five colleges and universities, including ten years at Wheaton (1979-89), where he founded the Center for Applied Christian Ethics. He is currently active in several efforts to promote international discussions of ethical values. With five other scholars (two Americans and three Soviets), he helped found the International Research Institute on Value Changes. For further information, contact the section's executive secretary, Bob Voss, 103 N. Prospect St., Washington, NJ 07882; tel. (201) 689-0910.

PERSONALS

Gary Gates is taking a year's sabbatical to study at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., after 13 years in Berkeley, 11 of them devoted to ministry to international students at the U. of California. Three of die Gates children are in college but the two youngest will go with Gary and Mary to Vancouver. It's not clear where Gary will serve after that, but he has left the Berkeley GIF (Graduate & International Fellowship) in the hands of IVCF staff worker Bruce Hansen. (The Bay Area Local Section provides gift ASA memberships to those who minister to grad students and internationals in their area, a good idea for other sections to follow.-Ed.)

Russell Maatman is retiring as professor of chemistry from Dordt College in Iowa, according to a note in the June issue of Pro Rege. He was on the magazine's editorial board for 13 years and had been editor since 1986. Philosophy professor John Kok is the new editor of Dordt's quarterly forum for discussion of Christian education in the Calvinist tradition, sent free of charge on request. (Address: Editor, Pro Rege, Dordt College, 498 4th Ave. NE, Sioux Center, IA 51250.)

David 0. Moberg, sociology professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reported in May that wife Helen's strength was returning after radiation and chemotherapy. Dave also sent an unusual .'chain letter"-not a financial get-rich-easy scheme but a generator of political support. The letter was initiated by Dr. M. Mboya (Dept of Education, U. of South Africa, Private Bag, Rondebesch 7700, South Africa). It asked the recipient to express a commitment to "the abolition of apartheid in South Africa and the promotion of human rights and civil liberties" and to write to ten colleagues requesting a similar letter of support, with a copy to Mr. Mboya.

William W. Paul, professor emeritus of philosophy at Central College in Pella, Iowa, had cataract surgery soon after the May 5 symposium in Des Moines organized by the Iowa Committee of Correspondence (Jun/Jul 1990 ASA Newsletter, p. 7). The CoCs, associated with the National Center for Science Education, are taking a more general educational approach after succeeding in getting rulings against "scientific creationism" in the courts. As a respondent to Oberlin biology professor Michael Zimmerman's talk on "The Ethics of Good Science," Bill offered some post-positivist, pro-religious insights. Actually, Bill's talk fit that title better than Zimmerman's, which was devoted mostly to "bad" science. Philosopher Michael Ruse later began his own talk by strongly agreeing with Bill, despite Ruse's polemical role as defender of evolutionary thinking in some well publicized court cases. Bill Paul and Calvin College geologist Davis Young put in good plugs for ASA at the symposium and several people requested copies of Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy.

Daniel J. Price is pastoring The International Protestant Church of Zfirich, Switzerland, while putting the finishing touches on his Ph.D. thesis in systematic theology at the U. of Aberdeen, Scotland. Dan and Karen spent three years in Scotland before beginning this three-year contract in Switzerland. Dan's interest in science and theology has been heightened by his thesis research on the concept of the person in Karl Barth's Dogmatics and in the human sciences. Karen is taking time out from clinical psychology to mother Heather (18 mos.) and Michael (5 yrs.). Son Michael must sinken or schwimmen in his kindergarten, where no one speaks any English. Dan is a second-generation ASAer, son of veteran biology teacher David Price of Springville, California. (Maybe Michael-or Headier-will make it three generation&-Ed.)

Fred H. Smith is now regional director for the Caribbean basin of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, with headquarters in Color
ado Springs, Colorado. The Smiths spent ten years in Peru and five more in Ecuador as missionaries. Fred is trying to work more closely with people in the "two-thirds world" on the missionary task. His book on church growth will be published (in Spanish) this year by CARIBE, a major Spanish-language publishing house in Miami.

POSITIONS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE. Marine biology: Manager for Christian marine science center, experience with marine mammals helpful. Contact (ASA member) David & Audrey Mills, Co-directors, Mount Desert Oceanarium, P.O. Box 696, Southwest Harbor, ME 04679; tel. (207) 244-7330. Biology: tenure track asst prof position for Ph.D. with strong molecular orientation, ability to teach some combination of neo-Mendelian genetics, immunology, botany, and physiology, in 4-member dept with 75 majors (from ASA member Richard Wright). Send vita, including one-page statement of philosophy of education, to: Dr. Jonathan Raymond, Dean of Faculty, Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Rd, Wenham, MA 01984.