Pig in a Poke: Why Evolution Weekend Fails As An Example of Reasoned, Civil Discourse

Atheist Michael Zimmerman is promoting his Evolution Weekend as an example of reasoned, civilized discourse. Writing for the HuffPo, Zimmerman claims that:

“Thousands upon thousands of Christian clergy members, from Baptists to Quakers and from Methodists to Episcopalians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics and many more, have stated as clearly as possible that their religion and modern biology, including evolution, are fully compatible. They have been joined in this movement by Buddhist, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist clergy. These men and women of faith have come together, despite their theological differences, to embrace the knowledge and wisdom that humans have discovered over the years. And they have done so in a manner that is fully respectful of their religious diversity. Indeed, they welcome meaningful discussion and treasure learning about their differences.

Discussion, dialogue and discourse are so central to members of The Clergy Letter Project that each year on the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, hundreds of religious congregations all around the globe celebrate Evolution Weekend. The purpose of this annual celebration is to move beyond sound bites and to delve deeply into a complicated, contentious topic.”

We’d like to first point out that even a cursory glance at the churches participating in Evolution Weekend confirms the findings of Answers in Genesis in 2012:

“As would be expected, a small number of very liberal churches and a number of secular humanist organizations are promoting “Evolution Weekend.”  But, by far the majority of churches in the USA have nothing to do with this atheist–founded project.”

Far from demonstrating that one can equally affirm both microbes-to-man evolution and the faith once delivered at once, the Clergy Letter project and Evolution Weekend stand as a testament to the fact that one must be willing to abandon the ultimate authority of Scripture in order to affirm the all-natural Just-So Story of goo-to-you evolution.

But what of the claim that “Discussion, dialogue and discourse are so central to members of The Clergy Letter Project that each year on the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, hundreds of religious congregations all around the globe celebrate Evolution Weekend“?

Nothing could be further from the truth. Evolution Weekend is not a reasoned, civilized discourse. It’s an open display of doubt and disdain for God’s revealed Word promoted by humanist organizations and its atheist founder. It’s an attempt to subvert whole congregations of Christian churches to the imposition of a purely natural cosmology upon supernatural revelation.

My attempt to discourse with  Zimmerman himself, resulted in large amounts of dissemblance – and that was only when I was asking him what he personally believed! It turns out, he’s an atheist and he didn’t want to tell me that because that raises certain questions: like, What business an atheist has trying to encourage folks to preach Darwin from our pulpits? Zimmerman eventually blocked my email, stated that you no longer thought of our discussion as productive because you didn’t like my tone, he didn’t like my criticisms of his probable motives for the founding the Clergy Letter and because he thought I was misrepresenting him; however, he had no problem defaming Answers in Genesis by quote-mining them, which was definitely a form of misrepresentation.  Should such hypocrisy go unchallenged?

But nevermind the atheist. The compromising clergy who participate in Evolution Weekend give us plenty of examples of the sort of reasoned, civil discourse Zimmerman is no doubt referring to. For example, the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey DeYoe of Covenant Presbyerian Church (Fort Myers, FL), Clergy Letter signer and Evolution Weekend participant, wrote that

“If it is through literal devotion to stories such as these that we believe we are going to find true knowledge of our Creator, we are going to be sadly disappointed. .. Thus the problem with blindly accepting the stories of ancient cultures that feebly try to explain things they do not understand and then somehow claim that through them we know the mind of God. This is the sin of Creationism (aka Intelligent Design) in Church and Society today: The belief that through the limited storytelling of an ancient people we think we have in our possession everything God wants us to know.”

He also added that:

“God’s presence in our lives is a spiritual event and will never be found in the facts of creation, whether conveyed to us by science or by religion through its pet mythology. It is to the credit of science that it tells us this up front whereas religion commits the sin of deceiving the world and itself by claiming that God can be known in the limitation of its expression. “

That’s twice he implies that Creationism, the traditional position of Christianity, a SIN.  Because we believe the historical truth Bible’s account of Creation in Genesis and this wolf in sheep’s clothing thinks Genesis is the work of fallible of men. This Bible-doubting sermon, “Searching for the Creator,” is posted on the Clergy Letter’s website as a resource.

Here’s another example from the Sermon section of Zimmerman’s site. Rev. Kurt Huber of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (Monroe, CT) chided Ken Ham for stating in his debate with Bill Nye that nothing would change his mind about his views on creation. Though he praised Bill Nye for being open-minded, Huber revealed his hypocrisy by admitting:

“I did not see the debate live. I have watched only a small piece of it. What I watched, I found tedious and boring and unconvincing.”

Sounds like his mind was made up. Pretty open-minded, eh?

Are they really interested in discourse? Not if we are to believe Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman of Temple of Israel (Wilmington, NC):

“Our real audience is not the creationists.  We may never convince them.  Our real target audience is those in the middle, those who find the creationists appealing, but are not yet convinced.  We have to speak to the undecided.”

You see, Evolution Weekend is really just an attempt to proselytize folks to the religion of humanism using our own pulpits. Humanism has been recognized as a religion by the Supreme Court and evolution is one of its key tenets. The liberal churches and secular humanist organizations who are promoting Evolution Weekend aren’t interested in thoughtfully debating the issue. They’re more interested in indoctrination and influencing the undecided folks in the pews.

I think the words of Charles Haddon Spureon, from “Another Word on the Down-Grade,” are applicable when it comes to those who promote and participate in Evolution Weekend:

“A little plain-speaking would do a world of good just now. These gentlemen desire to be let alone. They want no noise raised. Of course thieves hate watch-dogs, and love darkness. It is time that somebody should spring his rattle, and call attention to the way in which God is being robbed of his glory, and man of his hope.

It now becomes a serious question how far those who abide by the faith once delivered to the saints should fraternize with those who have turned aside to another gospel. Christian love has its claims, and divisions are to be shunned as grievous evils; but how far are we justified in being in confederacy with those who are departing from the truth? It is a difficult question to answer so as to keep the balance of the duties. For the present it behoves believers to be cautious, lest they lend their support and countenance to the betrayers of the Lord. It is one thing to overleap all boundaries of denominational restriction for the truth’s sake: this we hope all godly men will do more and more. It is quite another policy which would urge us to subordinate the maintenance of truth to denominational prosperity and unity. Numbers of easy-minded people wink at error so long as it is committed by a clever man and a good-natured brother, who has so many fine points about him. Let each believer judge for himself; but, for our part, we have put on a few fresh bolts to our door, and we have given orders to keep the chain up; for, under color of begging the friendship of the servant, there are those about who aim at robbing THE MASTER.”

These atheists, humanists and Bible compromisers wish to hide behind a mask of civility and a plea of reasoned discourse. What they intend is to slander the historical veracity of Genesis from our pulpits and paint the golden calf of Darwin as the only reasonable position. This is subversion, pure and simple.

You see, on the subject of plain speaking, Spurgeon also noted the following about evolution in his sermon, “Hideous Discovery”:

“In its bearing upon religion this vain notion is, however, no theme for mirth, for it is not only deceptive, but it threatens to be mischievous in a high degree. There is not a hair of truth upon this dog from its head to its tail, but it rends and tears the simple ones. In all its bearing upon scriptural truth, the evolution theory is in direct opposition to it. If God’s Word be true, evolution is a lie. I will not mince the matter: this is not the time for soft speaking.”

So I propose the following: If Zimmerman and his liberal clergy wish to put lipstick on the pig of Evolution Weekend by misrepresenting it as a reasoned, civil discourse, let us all the more vigorously do a bit of plain speaking on Creation Sunday!