09AR14-14

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Apologia Report 14:14

April 9, 2009

Subject: A new television exposé of Scientology

In this issue:

APOLOGETICS - Doug Wilson: opponent of the "new atheism," hero for classical educators, and villain on theonomy and race

BUDDHISM - China's indifference to religious freedom seen in its response to the reincarnation of Tibetan spiritual leaders

ORIGINS - secular look at the designs in nature notes complexity

+ new book by old earth creationists opposes young earth camp

SCIENTOLOGY - TV station discovers controversy in California desert

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APOLOGETICS

Win the debate, lose the audience. This saying has fit aggressive Christian apologists far too often. With Molly Worthen's article, "The Controversialist," in the current edition of Christianity Today (pp42-47, 49) it seems like the description may fit Doug Wilson as well. Wilson, whose Moscow, Idaho church publishes Credenda/Agenda, a bimonthly magazine on culture and Reformed theology, is gaining a national reputation by responding to the "new atheism," especially that of Christopher Hitchens (author of God Is Not Great [1]). In Christian circles, Wilson is also known as "one of the founding fathers of the classical Christian education movement" - a phenomenon that "has become an international movement in the last 15 years - encompassing hundreds of private schools and some of the most popular home-school curricula...."

Plan on hearing more about the Wilson/Hitchens connection. A "series of public debates at various East Coast locations" has been "recorded by a professional film crew for a documentary, Collision" <www.collisionmovie.com>.

There is something about Wilson that Worthen finds prickly. He's a "nonconforming Calvinist who has made so many enemies in Reformed circles that no denomination will have him." And what is behind this? "Wilson says he rejects the Reconstructionists' political tactics and distances himself from the label," but apparently enough of it sticks to be a concern. Wilson says, "'You might exile some homosexuals, depending on the circumstances and the age of the victim. There are circumstances where I'd be in favor of execution for adultery. ... I'm not proposing legislation. All I'm doing is refusing to apologize for certain parts of the Bible."

Then there's the "pamphlet that Wilson co-wrote. ... The aim of Southern Slavery: As It Was, authored with Louisiana pastor Steve Wilkins, was to compel Christians to acknowledge God's sanction of slavery as it is biblically portrayed." Worthen adds that "Although he believes that 'the South was right on all the essential constitutionals and cultural issues surrounding [America's Civil] war,' Wilson has 'repeatedly declared that he is no neo-Confederate. He prefers the label paleo-Confederate.'"

Wilson puts it this way: "I would say we're fighting in a long war, and that [the Civil War] was one battle that we lost." Worthen finds that "Wilson's statements about theonomy and race relations are not merely contrarian tactics - they are his firm beliefs."

In her conclusion, Worthen observes that "It is worth recalling that C.S. Lewis, English-speaking Christians' most beloved apologist, was almost as far from the American evangelical mainstream as Wilson is...." That opinion, too, is well worth debating.

(While it is true that Lewis departed in some key ways from traditional evangelicalism, such as in his views of the Bible, making a comparison to Wilson's perspectives on slavery is quite a stretch, in some respects tantamount to giving Wilson a "pass" simply because other figures admired by evangelicals also held to non-traditional ideas. In this sense, Worthen's comparison is hardly "worth recalling." - RV)

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BUDDHISM

"China, Tibetans Spar Over Buddhist Reincarnation" by Gordon Fairclough -- the real prize in this fight is the spiritual leadership of Tibet. China's strategy here is typically ham-fisted. "The government's new approach to reincarnation was on display in an unusual recent ceremony at a hilltop monastery here in southwestern China. A senior provincial official, standing before the three-tiered prayer hall, proclaimed that a local monk was the reincarnation of a respected Tibetan lama.

"Only then could religious installation rites begin inside. The monk, Celeng Pengchi, draped in richly embroidered robes, was enthroned as a 'living Buddha' by the region's top clerics before 500 chanting, red-robed monks.

"State authorities 'decide what kind of person is allowed to be reincarnated,' says Jiao Zai'an, an official in the Communist Party-led United Front Work Department, who was on hand to certify Celeng Pengchi's selection. Such approval is essential to 'ensure the political soundness' of reincarnates, he says. ...

"In 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized a young Tibetan boy as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who had died in 1989. Soon after, Chinese security forces detained the child and his family. They haven't been seen publicly since. In his place, Beijing backed a different Panchen Lama, a Tibetan boy named Gyaincain Norbu. The government recently seems to have begun a campaign to promote the previously low-profile lama, now 19. Temples and shops in Yunnan have been ordered to create shrines honoring him, residents say." Fairclough notes that China's authoritarian approach doesn't seem to be convincing local Buddhists. Wall Street Journal, Mar 9 '09, pA13. <www.tinyurl.com/b6j6mz>

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ORIGINS

Fans of intelligent design will be interested in the book Shapes: Nature's Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts, by Philip Ball [2]. A review with no byline in The Economist (Mar 7 '09, p92) begins: "Why do honeycombs have hexagonal cells? Why are the florets in a sunflower arranged in a double spiral? In medieval times, these questions would have been met with a simple answer. God established the heavens, setting 'a compass on the face of the deep,' leaving evidence of His presence in all creation. Most scientists today would rather invoke Charles Darwin to explain these patterns as products of evolution. ...

"Philip Ball, a British science writer, sets out to document the current understanding of what caused nature's multifarious shapes. Is it just evolution or are there physical and chemical forces at work? ...

"Mr. Ball finds the real answer to be more complex than either explanation." In fact, it seems little has changed. Christians will often point to intelligent design (a conclusion that Ball apparently ignores) while more than once Ball admits that nobody knows for sure why the examples in the book appear the way they do.

"From the curl of a ram's horn to patterns of spider webs and the development of an embryo, Mr. Ball examines the possible causes of the shapes and forms we observe. His book contains a lot of fascinating detail about the different physical, chemical and evolutionary processes at work. In the end, he concludes, nature is an opportunist."

According to reviewer Michael Ruse, The Bible, Rocks and Time: The Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth, by Davis A. Young and Ralph F. Stearley [3] was written in answer to young earth creationism. "Their aim was simple. First, they wanted to show the great age of the earth, as established by the best science and as collaborated by so many fields of inquiry. Second, they wanted to tackle head-on the objections that are brought today by the biblical literalists, supporters of the position known as young earth creationism (YEC). Third, and most importantly, they wanted to show that Christians cannot merely accept modern science but can rejoice in it." The book has four parts: historical (geology), biblical, geological (the science of), and philosophical (the order of nature, its laws and unity). Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Mar '09, p60.

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SCIENTOLOGY

KESQ, a local television station serving the Palm Springs area, has put together one of the most substantial documentary film series to date on Scientology -- and the controversial church isn't happy about it. Over a dozen segments are available online: <www.tinyurl.com/bumw3g>.

Preview pages for the segments explain that KESQ initially learned of protests taking place outside Scientology's Golden Era Productions, a complex of buildings located about 30 miles east of Palm Springs. Upon further investigation, the station discovered that:

* Scientology was asking local officials to limit the freedoms of protesters

* local politicians were receiving campaign contributions from people with direct connections to Scientology

* the church surreptitiously provided a publication to the politicos which denounced the protestors (a group known as Anonymous)

* church spokesman Tommy Davis apparently admits to some of the group’s bizarre, but seldom-acknowledged, beliefs

* the church has a history of deceptive practices at multiple levels

* former workers at the Golden Era compound allege coercion in the form of child labor, forced abortion, and illegal detainment.

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, 2009, paperback, 336 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/ctcvvu>

2 - Shapes: Nature's Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts, by Philip Ball (Oxford Univ Prs, 2009, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/dfjuy3>

3 - The Bible, Rocks and Time: The Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth, by Davis A. Young and Ralph F. Stearley (IVP, 2008, paperback, 510 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/c7t78>

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