[Vision2020] Apologies to Darwin

[Ralph Nielsen]

Bishop Spong Q & A

JJJord1726, via the Internet, writes:

The Church of England apologized to Charles Darwin last fall, nearly  
150 years after he published his most famous work, for its initial  
rejection of his theories. The church conceded that it was over- 
defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas, and it  
called "anti-evolutionary fervour" an "indictment" of the Church.

The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the church that  
believe in creationism and regard Darwin's views as directly opposed  
to traditional Christian teaching. The apology, which was written by  
the Rev. Dr. Malcolm Brown, the Church's director of mission and  
public affairs, says that Christians in their response to Darwin's  
theory of natural selection repeated the mistakes they made in  
doubting Galileo's astronomy in the 17th century. The statement read,  
"Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England  
owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our  
first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still.  
We try to practice the old virtues of "faith seeking understanding"  
and hope that makes some amends."

Opposition to evolutionary theories is still "a litmus test of  
faithfulness" for some Christian movements, the Church admits. It  
says that such attitudes owe much to a fear of perceived threats to  
Christianity.

Dear JJJord,

Thanks for your e-mail and the news that the Church of England has  
apologized to Charles Darwin for rejecting evolution. It is better  
late than never. My sense is that this action is more embarrassing  
than helpful. Darwin doesn't need the Church's apology. His thesis is  
now accepted academically across the world. Evolution is taught in  
fourth-grade science books. Medical science assumes its truth and the  
discovery of DNA took away the last vestige of the suggestion that it  
was still "an unproved theory." The fact that there are some  
benighted souls in the world who believe that quoting the book of  
Genesis can somehow counter the insights of Charles Darwin, or that  
it is their Christian duty to resist Darwin, is hardly determinative  
in the debate.

It is a tragedy that the Church officially resisted Darwin for the  
last 150 years, but that is quite typical of church leaders'  
behavior. Recall that it was in December of 1991 that the Vatican  
finally admitted that Galileo was correct. This was about 40 years  
after space travel had begun. If Galileo had not been correct, our  
spacecraft would have collided with the sky that separated heaven  
from earth.


I would suggest the leaders of the Church of England must now  
practice what that apology to Darwin suggests that we believe. For  
Darwin attacks the basic Christian myth of a perfect creation, the  
fall into sin, the divine rescue carried out by Jesus and the  
restoration through faith to our status as those created in the image  
of God. If we evolved from single cells into complex self-conscious  
creatures then there was no perfection from which to fall, no fall  
into sin, no need for a divine rescue and no capacity to be restored  
to something which we have never been. This means that the whole way  
of telling the Jesus story must be rethought, and this reformulation  
will threaten church leaders deeply. Clergy on Sunday mornings can no  
longer address "fallen sinners." The mantra that "Jesus died for my  
sins" will have to be retired. The traditional meaning of the  
Eucharist will have to be revised. We will have to recognize that we  
are now addressing not those who need to be rescued from a fall but  
those who have not yet achieved the status of being fully human.  
Jesus must then empower us to be fully human; he cannot rescue us  
from sin.

I'm glad to see the Church of England begin to enter the 20th  
century. I will be happier when they finally begin to enter the 21st  
century.

– John Shelby Spong