From: Terry M. Gray (grayt@lamar.colostate.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 16:28:36 EDT
ASA group,
As I've watched the "debate" turn increasingly acrimonious and
useless, I have hoped that we would excercise some self-control and
move on to other topics. It's not clear that that's going to happen
so I am going to make some pronouncements and suggestions. (Of
course, you are free to ignore them, but I hope you will not in the
interest of the health and usefulness of this list.)
These comments are likely to offend people from all the various camps ;-)
1. The ASA is not a young-earth creationist organization, although it
welcomes young-earth creationists among its members. Don't be shocked
that there are people in the ASA who don't hold to young-earth
creationist viewpoints. I don't want to limit debate here, but most
of us aren't interested in rehashing all these issues over and over
again. ASA is best known as a place that welcomes other views--there
are plenty of other places to advocate the YEC position. Above all
let's not be questioning (on this list) the orthodoxy of those who
hold to alternative views.
Non-YEC should not be shocked that there are YEC among us. The ASA
welcomes them in their membership. Only those that can tolerate other
views will really be a part of us though. Historically, this is the
reason that most YEC folks have left the ASA and started their own
more restrictive organizations. So, please, let's not be questioning
(on this list) the intelligence of those who hold to YEC views.
2. The ASA is not an inerrantist organization, although it welcomes
inerrantists (like myself) among its members. Don't be shocked that
there are people in the ASA who think that there are errors in the
Bible in matters outside the realm of faith and life (say in the area
of history and science). The ASA statement of faith contains a fairly
conservative statement concerning scripture and is compatible with a
broad range of Christian traditions. However it deliberately avoids
the term inerrancy. The debate in the ASA is outlined from the
inerrantists viewpoint in Lindsell's *Battle for the Bible* and can
be chronicled in our own journal in the 70's and 80's under the
leadership of Dick Bube. Some of that material is on the web already.
A key JASA issue on inerrancy is not yet posted on the web site, but
we hope to have it up soon. Personally, I think that the ASA
statement goes much beyond the more "theological liberal" views
sometimes articulated on this list that the scripture is "merely" the
human writings of a faith tradition informed by an encounter with
God. In that sense the ASA statement is definitely in the broader
evangelical camp.
So there's no need to question (on this list) the orthodoxy of those
who do not hold to inerrancy. Let's also not question the
intelligence of those who hold to a "higher" view of scripture than
you do.
3. The ASA is not a church. It is a parachurch organization with a
very narrow purpose. It is not evangelistic--thus we don't need a
gospel presentation on every page. None of us need make any apologies
for the absence of a full-blown Christology in our statement of
faith. The reason that the point on scripture is there is because it
is a particularly relevant part of the Christian faith that impacts
the purpose of the ASA.
4. Let's take a break from the "numbers" discussion. Anyone who wants
to talk about this stuff can visit Vernon's website and dialog with
him off-list. Those who want to continue should consider starting a
new discussion group on yahoogroups.com. Vernon, feel free to post
notices that you have added new information to your web site that we
can visit if we like, but I don't think that productive discussion of
your interests occurs here.
5. At this point I would like to invite those on the list who aren't
members of the ASA to seriously consider joining the ASA. If you
aren't a member of the ASA, you are welcome to continue participate
in the list, but please keep in mind the purposes and positions of
the organization that sponsors the list.
6. So what do we talk about? Hmmm.... maybe we should take some time
to think about that question.
List manager,
TG
-- _________________ Terry M. Gray, Ph.D., Computer Support Scientist Chemistry Department, Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 grayt@lamar.colostate.edu http://www.chm.colostate.edu/~grayt/ phone: 970-491-7003 fax: 970-491-1801
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