I work with churches for a living, and so attend many a gathering of same. I was recently at a pastor's conference, at which a panel of four pastors gave their thoughts and advice to their colleagues. One firmly espoused that the only right way to teach your flock was to lead them through the Bible from Genesis forward, book by book, chapter by chapter, not by thematically, but only word for word. Another dared to suggest , almost apologetically, that while that was a solid idea, Jesus was a great storyteller, and taught often by example and by story. The other resisted anything other than a literal word for word slogging through. He mentioned having recently come from a trip to Australia and New Zealand , and referenced them as being Godless because (spoken in a outraged voice) "they teach evolution as fact!"
I am taken back that God and evolution cannot co-exist, and that only a literal belief in Adam and Eve and a 7 day creation story is considered Christian by this pastor. My belief that Christ lived and died for me and fellow believers is what I think makes me a Christian. It is what he asked of us in the New Testament. I rather thought that Christ's life and death and resurrection in the New Testament was the point. I don't recall Jesus spending a lot of time on such details of the Old Testament books. In fact he thought that many spent way too much time on details of law, as opposed to simply doing what what right, and what he asked of us. To put him above all others, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, feeding the poor.
I am taken back not so much by this pastor's rejection of evolution, but his discounting of the Christianity of any who would accept it. It pains me that many of those who consider themselves the fiercest and most loyal of Christ's followers feel they only can be so by the judging the beliefs of other followers to be less authentic.
