National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, the acclaimed scientist, geneticist, and professing Christian, released a statement several months ago for PRIDE month, where he publically revealed himself to be thoroughly compromised on the Christian’s view of LGBTQ issues and the scriptures, offering them his personal support as an “ally” and regurgitating all the progressive talking points while using progressive language that those interested in tearing down the biblical view of family have.
The (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government and is responsible for biomedical and public health research, compromised of nearly 20,000 employees and having an annual budget of 42 billion dollars. For this reason, it is no surprise that the organization might issue a woke statement, using “we” language to represent everyone as a matter of policy. They certainly have a media relations team that would put out such a statement.
Yet Collins’s letter is personal. We don’t know why he felt he had to release a statement in the first place, but even if he as the Director was being pressured to and he was forced to under penalty of losing his job, he personalizes it using “I” rather than “we,” saying among other things:
I applaud the courage and resilience it takes for individuals to live openly and authentically
As a White cisgender and heterosexual man, I have not had the same experiences, but I am committed to listening, respecting, and supporting those individuals as an ally and advocate.
I know that developing allyship is critical as we continue to make NIH, and the world, a more inclusive place for all.
For that reason, I am excited to share this year’s Pride theme, Allyship in Action
To address this need, I am proud to announce that NIH recently funded a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus study to review current measures and methodological issues related to measuring sex as a non-binary construct.
I hope that you join me this Pride Month in exemplifying allyship and celebrating the broad diversity of SGM communities.
There is one thing about working for an organization that puts out statements in support of so-called “sexual minorities” that celebrates sexual perversions of God’s design for men and women. It’s another thing to personally go out of your way to ensure that your public statements are as far as a view from Romans 1 as possible, all the while crowing about how proud you are of them.
We are quickly discovering that the beliefs of Francis Collins, one of the world’s leading geneticists, scientists and professing Christians, are more thoroughly compromised than we imagined (including his views of Pride Month and LGBTQ) Collins is the Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the founder of BioLogos, the self-described “Christian organization” that seeks to bridge the bible and evolution while insisting that humans evolved from apes 200,000 years ago and that Adam and Eve never actually existed.
In an interview with Ed Stetzer, who tried to smuggle him in as an authoritative voice Christians should be listening to, Collins informs Stetzer that it’s more important that kids have in-person school than adults and kids have in-person church.
Stetzer: If kids need in-person school, and we don’t have any clear end to this pandemic, do people need in-person church? Are there ways to do this more safely?
Collins:The consequences of missing out on that personal interaction for educational progress, for social interactions, just for human development as a child are really significant. Those of us who are adults that are missing our church gathering, we’re suffering too. But if I have to make a priority, it’s getting those kids in school is even higher in my list...
…It troubles me greatly, that somehow we’ve gotten in this big political debate about whether masks need to be worn in school for kids under 12, who can’t be vaccinated, who could therefore get infected and could then spread it to others. If we don’t have mask wearing in school, it’s guaranteed we’re going to have outbreaks and then the kids will be back home again, doing the virtual thing that we were trying to avoid. Really too bad that it’s turned into such a strange argument that’s going on… In special circumstances, especially if your church can meet outside, well, take advantage of that because we know it’s safer. Otherwise, if there was an absolutely critical need, keep that physical distance and insist that everybody wear masks.
Stetzer: What I’m not sure I’m on the same place as the esteemed Dr. Francis Collins is, if kids need in-person school and we can take appropriate mitigations, why don’t we also say that we need in-person church? You’ve been a Christian a long time, you know, they’re gonna have to quote the verses to you, but people want me to quote the verses to you. But you know the verses. Church is not just about electrons and avatars, it’s about feet and faces. If we can have kids sitting in desks and follow mitigations, can we do that in church?
Collins: We can do it. And again, the question is, what’s the risk? And how strongly do we feel that that risk is worth taking? If Christ’s strongest recommendation to us; how love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, we’re supposed to use our mind about this. And of course, the next is the commandment love your neighbor as yourself. This is a ‘love your neighbor’ circumstance.
Because if you are gathering in person, in a church, even being careful about it, there may be somebody sitting there who’s got an immune deficiency, maybe they know it, maybe they don’t. And then that individual, despite thinking they were protected, turns out to get COVID, ends up in the ICU and maybe loses their life.
So how do we balance that risk, which is not zero, against the deep desire that we all have to gather together?What is God calling us to do in that circumstance? I guess I come back to love your neighbor. And if I’m doing something that I think might be putting my neighbor at risk, then I’m worried about moving in that direction.
Collins concludes by explaining that if he were the ‘king of evangelicals” overseeing the churches who insist on meeting in person, he would “certainly continuing to insist on mask-wearing for everybody vaccinated or unvaccinated physical distancing, trying to maintain that six-foot distance” and explains that the most dangerous part of a service is afterward, where everyone wants to stop and greet and hug each other.
On December 16, 2016 the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC) published an article entitled “The Diversity in Our Christmas Story.”
This week, it was reshared via the ERLC Twitter feed. The article was penned by Casey B. Hough, whose Twitter profile lists him as the following:
Dr. Hough’s article highlighted the genealogy of Jesus as listed in Matthew and pointed out that Jesus was a “Mixed-Race Savior”. Hough pointed out that several of Jesus’ distant female ancestors (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba) were not Jewish women but various types of Canaanites. To Hough, this is somehow relevant to the Christmas story and should make us all think long hard about what the incarnation and the gospel can teach us about “diversity”. To Hough, the color of Jesus’ skin (I’m no geneticist but I think Canaanites and Hebrews were the same color) should make us consider the importance of “seeing color” in the Kingdom.
Of course, Matthew includes the genealogy of Joseph and Jesus is not a genetic descendant of Joseph. Joseph was the adoptive father of the Lord. Jesus was born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit. I’m not a geneticist but I am a theologian. If races do in fact exist, the Holy Spirit doesn’t have one. I do not know if Mary had mixed race ancestry. Franky, I don’t care. She was culturally Jewish, as were Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
As interesting as the subjects of genetics and cultural anthropology may be, these are not the subjects upon which I dwell at Christmastime. I dwell upon the incarnation itself. Jesus came to Earth and lived as a man so that he could bear my sin. This enabled me to be adopted into the family of God as his brother. Nothing about genetics brought me into the nation of Israel, it was all the grace of God. Racial differences, especially genetic ones, couldn’t be further from my mind.
This was not the case for Casey B. Hough. He took the opportunity granted to him by the ERLC to publish an article about “diversity” which claims that scriptures teaches a lesson about the importance of Jesus’ “mixed-race”. That’s the kind of thing you need a PhD to make up because normal pew-sitters just don’t manufacturer those kinds of absurdities. Of course, I don’t want to impugn higher theological education. Hough’s PhD is from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I graduated from that institution and I don’t remember the school teaching me such stupid things. Neither did the school teach me that females could be pastors…and this is where to we get why Casey B. Hough needs to be fired from several jobs.
I am a Christian in a third world country (India) where good resources and theologically trained men are not much, but it seems we are sounder than you lot. Although we are still lacking in many ways, we don't want this kind of insanity to be ever transported to us.
Hough has a female discipleship “pastor” and a female kids “pastor” on the leadership team at his church. Yet, the Baptist Faith and Message states:
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/
Hough needs to be fired from his church. The Baptist Faith and Message, and, more importantly, the Scriptures are clear that women are not to be pastors. No man who believes and practices otherwise is qualified to lead a church as its pastor. Hough does. So, Copperfield Church should fire him.
Hough needs to be fired from the ERLC. It is a Southern Baptist Institution. Hough flouts the official Southern Baptist position on the church. So, the ERLC should fire him.
Hough needs to be fired from the faculty of Luther Rich College and Seminary. This is an institution which trains pastors. It’s doctrinal statement reads, ” Where consistent with the doctrinal and position statements, Luther Rice is committed to the Baptist Faith and Message.” Yet, Hough flouts it.
How did Hough graduate from a Southern Baptist school, get a job at a Southern Baptist Church, and find employment at a Southern Baptist entity (as well as an independent Baptist Seminary) while outright rejecting the teachings of Scripture and the Baptist Faith and Message?
It’s simple. Few leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention care about doctrinal integrity. More care about numbers, (diverse) money, and power. That’s how progressives like Hough become employed at the ERLC and publish stupid articles. I think the chances of Hough getting fired from any of the jobs listed above are slim to non. Listen, it’s not the exception for the ERLC to have stupid stuff like this is, it’s the rule. I could write a book about how progressive and unrepresentative of Southern Baptists the Convention’s leadership is. In fact, I did write a book. If you are a Southern Baptist, you pay for unqualified men and women to write dumb articles like the one Hough published…and you are in no position to fire him.
You are, however, in a position to fire the ERLC and the Southern Baptist Convention. Don’t give them another dime through your church…unless of course you like paying for lady “pastors” and ridiculous articles about Jesus’ genetics.
Editor’s note. This article was written by G. Seth Dunn and originally published at Pulpit and Pen, with this addendum below:
*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.
