OSU to host friendship collaborative
On Friday May 2, The Ohio State University will host a Friendship Collaborative thanks to the work of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship leaders like Howard VanCleave on the campus of OSU working with local scientists and evangelical leaders. On Friday about thirty leaders will gather–roughly half being environmental scientists, including Jim Hansen, the NASA expert on climate change–and the other half being local evangelical pastors and leaders. Cal De Witt, Jim Hansen, and Steve Weeks, will present from the scientific perspetive and Ken Wilson from the evangelical pastor perspective.
These roundtable events represent exciting new opportunities for people of science and people of faith to sit down together and listen to each other enough to explore common ground in concern for the environment. For both groups, it represents a stretch. Scientists are often extremely cautious around evangelical pastors, viewing them as potentially hostile or unreceptive to their scientific concerns about the environment. The pastors sometimes have similar cautions about the scientists.
But the last time we did this, at the University of Akron, hosted by Steven Weeks, professor of biology there, we were all surprised by each other. Stereotypes quickly dissolved as people got to know each other. New friendships formed over common concerns. Secular scientists realized that the media portrayals of evangelicals emphasize extremes and the evangelical leaders present didn’t live up to those negative expectations. And vice versa.
It’s amazing what can happen when people get together in a room and look for common ground, under the rubric of the golden rule: do (especially listen) unto others as you would have them do unto you. On this, as Jesus said, depends all the law and the prophets.
We’ll let you know how it goes….
