I am amazed at how Christians divide over politics and science, etc. It’s as if our oneness in Christ is secondary to some truth war. And I realize I’m not really ready for any of that. I mean the agenda that is set by many American conservative Christians.
On the one hand I’d just like to go into hiding, or find some place, or something on which we can all get along, and go on, and hopefully even thrive in our life together in Jesus in and for this world. But I realize there is no escape.
On politics, I’m not that favorable toward any American agenda. Or for that matter political agenda in this world. It gets too complex. There could be fruitful discussions on it, though usually what happens is simply sound bite kind of arguments, which really don’t help us think well through the issues. And politics is inherently debatable. Though in some ways we Christians with our message and reality in Jesus are beyond all that. And yet we need to speak and live well into it. As the light and salt we in Jesus are. Especially in this democracy of ours.
On science and faith, I don’t think we’re left with any alternative other than to accept evolution. But we need to fight naturalism. And we need to learn well what the early chapters of Genesis in God’s word mean in the point they make. What that means for a historical Adam and Eve, a literal garden, etc. What that means for the truth of the Adam-Christ words of Paul in the New Testament, etc. Even in the case of evolution itself, I realize that this divide remains, and may be deepening.
This is all pitted in black and white, and as nothing less than all out war. So I guess I’ll have to work at it, because as much as I’d like to avoid it altogether, it is in my face, and there seems to be no escape.
Some may tell me I have chosen this for myself. Actually I see it as pursuing truth wherever it leads, within a commitment of faith to follow the Truth himself, Jesus. One thing I find unacceptable is to be dull when life calls us to become sharp in the part we need to play. Yet at the same time I want to major on that which unites us together in Jesus and in our calling in Jesus to and for the world.
These are my thoughts for now. I know this puts me in a place which I really don’t enjoy being in. But it seems inescapable. Or am I missing something somehow somewhere?
Jesus community 
You said, “And we need to learn well what the early chapters of Genesis in God’s word mean in the point they make. What that means for a historical Adam and Eve, a literal garden, etc. What that means for the truth of the Adam-Christ words of Paul in the New Testament, etc. ”
So, if evolution is the truth, what “point” is God in the book of Genesis making about Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, and the creation account? What about Paul’s linking of Adam and Christ? These are important matters that need to be addressed, and yes, there is truth that needs to be discerned.
Mike, True. A study of Genesis and Ancient Near East writings can help. This link on Jesus Creed, and the BioLogos website I find helpful as well. I don’t think we’ll answer all the questions, but for myself there are satisfactory answers already, at least in my understanding at this point. Genesis is about God creating all things as a temple. Humankind’s place in it. Etc.
Also Mike, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, by John Walton who teaches at Wheaton College, is helpful, and the thought of the cosmos being God’s temple comes from it–I think N.T. Wright sees it that way as well.