Ok, Im tired now. Camp is fun, but quiet time starts at 11pm, and breakfast opens at 7am. Subtract the time it takes to get ready in the morning, and the time it takes to get 20 high school guys in bed and quiet at night, an d you have about 6.5 hours of sleep a night. For some this is plenty, for me it is not.
Today we broke into seminars, and the one I went to was called Creation vs. Evolution. It is a subject that interests me, and I like to see what people have to say about it. Not everyone knows this about me, but I was a huge six day creationist in high school. I have since become a little more liberal on my views, but still consider myself a strong creationist.
Anyway the teacher, seemed like a cool guy, but I totally disagreed with a few things that he said. He kept sharing about a story from the Bible and saying do you believe this? He started by making the issue a emotional one, and not a scientific one. I understand we want kids to have faith in the Bible, but the kind of faith that says, “the Bible says it and thats all I need” is the kind of faith that turns intelligent people away from God and the scriptures. So I don’t think we should be asking people if they believe it, instead we should be asking them to think about it. He also told them that “If one thing is wrong in scriptures you can throw the whole bible out.” Wow I was shocked that he was teaching such harmful theology. Here is the thing, I believe everything in the scriptures is true, but my faith is not based on the Bible being error free, it is based on the fact that Jesus died and rose again. The reason why I find that type of theology so dangerous is that kids hear that, and believe that. Then they go to college and something in the Bible is challenged, and that kids thinks well, if one thing is wrong, I need to throw everything out, and so they do. Its a lot like what Rob Bell says about brick wall theology, that our faith shouldn’t be like a brick wall, cause if one brick gets pulled the whole things crumbles. Instead our faith should be like a spring, or a sponge ball, where when something challenges a part of our faith, there is room to bend and stretch, as long as the essentials are not changed.
Anyway I didn’t say anything to the guy, or in the class cause I didn’t want to cause dissension, and this isn’t my camp, but that kind of thinking really bothers me, especially when it is taught to young people. OK, well I will get off my soap box now and go to dinner.
