"some odd group"

When some evangelical waltzes too close to embracing evolution, I suppose it's not news if there's a pink slip. Really. In the intensely polarized atmosphere we've created in evangelical America, crossing lines means being pushed off the edge of the four-cornered earth.

And thus it was, recently, with Dr. Bruce Waltke, an Old Testament scholar from Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, no young buck either, but a distinguished scholar who has taught at a number of places, including Westminster Seminary, California.

I don't know all the angles and I'm neither a theologian nor a scientist, but what seems clear is that a video of Dr. Waltke explaining his views before a conference created by an organization called Biologos has led to his dismissal or resignation from RTS Orlando. You can read a thoughtful discussion of the whole story on Biologos's website here:

http://biologos.org/blog/why-must-the-church-come-to-accept-evolution-an-update/

I also don't know whether anyone has ascertained for certain what statements or comments made by Professor Waltke led to his leaving RTS, but speculation has it that this comment of his may have been salient: "if the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult...some odd group that is not really interacting with the world. And rightly so, because we are not using our gifts and trusting God's Providence that brought us to this point of our awareness."

Now he's out at RTS.

You can find his own testimony with regard to evolution on the Biologos website, where the video is no more. Among other things, he says there that "Adam and Eve are historical figures from whom all humans are descended; they are uniquely created in the image of God and as such are not in continuum with animals."

Apparently, not good and pure enough. Wow.

Me?--I think it's very sad and an indication, among Christians, of a species of hysteria.