Chris Jepson: The case for evolution

I was unaware of the A&E TV show “Duck Dynasty” before its 67-year-old star, Phil Robertson’s pronouncement that homosexuals are “full of murder, envy, strife, hatred. They are insolent, arrogant God-haters. They are heartless. They are faithless. They are senseless. They are truthless. They invent ways of doing evil.” Robertson justified his condemnation of gays and lesbians by invoking the Bible.

Whew! This from a white boy who grew-up with blacks in Louisiana and according to him “never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once … They're singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, 'I tell you what: These doggone white people' — not a word!" Singing and happy while picking cotton … why, it must have been like that idyllic Tara, the fictional planation of “Gone With The Wind” fame.

Going forward, will you not wonder about the demographic of Duck Dynasty, of who exactly watches knowing the homophobic bile and racial ignorance of its star?

It would be interesting to see national reaction to a TV show, oh about a family of urban artisans whose patriarch invokes the Bible envisioned by Adolf Hitler, who in 1941 wrote, "The Bible must become Jew-free and the German people must see that the Jews are the mortal enemy who threaten their very existence." How would that go over in America? Would there be a hue and cry that a line had been crossed?

In 1845 the Baptist Church split, which is why we have a Southern Baptist Church today. Baptists parted over the issue of slavery, with Southern Baptists invoking the Bible’s support of slavery. Southern Baptist ministers, not wishing to alienate Southern plantation owners, “adapted” their message to accommodate and support slavery. As we see, to argue morality based on Biblical passages is a slippery slope.

On Dec. 6, 2013 the Mormon Church repudiated its racist history with this public pronouncement that, “Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks are or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else.”

Because you (your faith) were racist and homophobic in the past doesn’t mean that you cannot “evolve” into a more humane, dare I say, better human being (or institution).

Finally, I read a recent survey released by the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project that 43 percent of all Republicans and 27 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe in evolution. Said the other way, 57 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of white Evangelicals believe the Bible’s explanation of creation, and do not believe in evolution.

Life, indeed, is about picking and choosing. We all look for explanations (justifications) for believing and acting the way we do. But to invoke the Bible as “the reason” for rejecting legitimate science or to marginalize other human beings is untenable. Think. Don’t allow your faith to make you imprudent.

Speaking of evolution. The Bible — and its many iterations — is a creation of evolution itself. As man has evolved, so too our notion of humanity.

To my more evangelical readers, there is nothing wrong with examining and letting go of beliefs that do not advance us all. Your God — really — wants you to … evolve. God supports evolution. Yours.