THEOLOGIAN ALBERT MOHLER: CONFLICTING WORLDVIEWS IN A SECULAR PLURALISTIC SOCIETY AND AN APPEAL FOR THEOECOLOGY COLLABORATIONS FOR CREATION CARE

Prof. Robert Y. George M. Sc., Ph.D. President, The George Institute and Science Advisor, L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina

I heard the renowned theologian Dr. Albert Mohler, Jr. on September 12, 2013 at the Lewis Drummond –Russ Bush Lecture*, sponsored by the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Mohler joined the faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in 1983 and a decade later he was appointed a the president of this prestigious theological seminary . The title of his talk was “What I have told you in the Darkness, Say in the Light: Christian Truth Telling In A Secular Age: Mathew 10: 26-33.” Dr. Mohler was born in Lakeland, Florida in 1959 and now at age 54 he is energetic, intelligent and fully devoted to Christ.

Dr. Albert Mohler Jr.

At the outset, Mohler told the audience that we Christians are confronting resistance from secularism, a challenge to western civilization both in western Europe and North America. This antagonism toward Christianity was also the concern of two prominent theologians like Francis Schaeffer and Carl Henry and also sociologist Peter Berger. Presbyterian theologian Schaeffer (1970) defended Christianity against historian Lynn White’s criticism, blaming Christendom for environmental pollution (Schaeffer and Middlemann, 1970). Outstanding theologian Carl F. Henry, one of the founders of the Fuller Theological Seminary and the first editor-in-chief of ‘Christianity Today’, authored a great book entitled “Confessions of A Theologian” (Henry, 1986). Prof. Peter Ludwig Berger of Boston University predicted the all-embracing power of secularism but he also established that religion is a powerful social force and he further reaffirmed that pluralism and globalization changed how individuals experience faith. Berger also

1 recognized, like several others, that western Europe and American academia shared the power of secularization. We saw the impact of secularism taking our culture to become less theistic. This bad influence took society away from churches and therefore from God. Liberal views and sexualism became byproducts of the cultural change. Mohler’s view on sexualism and particularly homosexuality is perceived clearly in his statement below: “If homosexuality is biologically based and if a prenatal cure is developed, if a successful treatment to reverse sexual orientation to heterosexuality is ever developed, Dr. Mohler will support its use as we should unapologetically support the appropriate means to avoid sexual temptations and inevitable effect of sin.” He jokingly said that even the penguins in the Berlin zoo exhibit homosexuality. For me it was interesting to hear his views in the same podium in Wake Forest Baptist Church (see photo below) where I heard Dr. Rosaria Butterfield spoke just a few days ago on her dramatic train- wreck conversion from homosexuality to Christianity and heterosexuality as wife of a Presbyterian pastor in Durham, North Carolina.

Wake Forest Baptist Church where I met and heard Dr. Al Mohler’s impressive lecture

Dr. Mohler’s discussion on the recent trend of more visible theological liberalism was also very interesting but disturbing in the context of the changing culture in the modern world. He spoke about cognitive demystification in the dawn of a pluralistic society in America. He expressed concerns about an 18 yr old girl going to college to find all freedom in the college atmosphere, besides an exposure to their professors who are mostly atheistic in ideology. However, Mohler indicated that there is now emerging a respect for religion in some circles, but not God. This philosophy is comparable to advocacy of spirituality per se rather than Christianity in particular. He emphatically referred to the recent book by Charles Taylor on the ‘Secular Age’.

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Dr. Charles Taylor was a philosopher and authored the classical book “A Secular Age” (Taylor, 2007). He affirmed that Christianity always provided the ordinary the flourishing and provided the inscrutable divine grace. With deism, grace became eclipsed. God’s providence, once a mystery, became God’s plan. Taylor correctly pointed out that with enlightenment, people started using reasons and science, rather than religion and superstition to explore the world. Taylor (2007) elegantly defined the so called “Nova Effect hypothesis”, implying three steps: (1) Challenge of Christian Faith with emergence of science (Galileo and Copernicus); (2) Diversification in the 19th century with Nietzsche definition of human freedom (further amplified b Victor Hugo in the French revolution) and (3) 20th century emergence of secularism.

In his talk, Dr. Mohler recognized the profound influence of the writings of British atheist Dr. Richard Dawkins, Oxford University’s Professor of Public Understanding and the author of the book on “Selfish Gene” that popularized the gene-centered evolution. Mohler attributed the epidemic explosion of Darwinism in Britain and the west at large to influence writers like Dawkins. In America, it is difficult to get tenured in Public universities today if you lean too much on God and Christianity in your college career with constant peer-pressure. Dr. Mohler mentioned about the waning of Marxism with the growth of secularism. It is ironical that on September 12, the day Dr. Mohler gave his talk the New York Times carried a column by Russian president Vladimir Putin who wrote that Americans must not drop a bomb on Syria and he concluded “We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal. I am amazed a former KGB agent talking about Lord and His blessings!!

Dr. Mohler made two important closing statements: (1) We must remember that the “fall of man’ also means ‘fall of nature”, (2) Our Creator also cursed the nature and thereby, man became the “outlaws”, not judges or truth-tellers. Mohler reminded the audience what is written in Mathew 10: 12 – 16. Therefore, Jesus said “what I have told you in the Darkness, Say in the Light”. I posed a question to Dr. Mohler soon after he stopped his lecture: I made a comment that Jesus declared on the cross that “It is finished.” Then came the Great Commission after His resurrection. Why then we talk about European Christianity, North American Christianity, and South American Christianity. Should w not address “Global Christianity?’ This is precisely what Bishop Lesslie Newbigin addressed in his book “Unfinished Agenda’ and that is what we ought to do to spread the gospel in the 21st century He sharply responded, stating that secularism is really the concern more in the in the west. Nevertheless, he admitted that we Christians have immense challenges ahead in the 21st century to address secularism issues..To yet another question from the audience, Mohler replied that the biggest challenge for Christians is not secularism but “Islam.” In my opinion., he is right but we must also maintain a persistent apologetic response to neo-Hinduism, Marxism and Atheism. What we need are dialogues and not debates and we need to replace sociobiology with theoecology. I have advocated my views in a series of papers in the new Theoecology Journal www.theoecologyjounral.com

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Why Dr. Mohler considers Islam as a Threat to Christianity

In my opinion, this is a complex question to answer. The fundamental conflict arose as early as in the seventh century AD when Mohamed came as a prophet and said that he succeeded Jesus and denied that Jesus was the Son of God, just as Jews reject Jesus as Son of God. Both Muslims and Jews do not accept the Trinity belief of Christianity. However, the real trouble began when Mohammed died in 632 and question was posed who is his successor? The first Islam state was founded in west Saudi Arabia with a goal of creating eventually a global Caliphate with Medina as the Pilgrim center, north of Mecca. This is how the Sunni and Shia bifurcation began, with the Shia (<20 % of Muslims) favored Inam (Son-in-law of Mohamed) to be the Caliph to rule all Muslims and the Sunnis (>80 % of Muslims) favored Abu Bakr to succeed Mohammed as the Caliph. This is how these two big denominations in Islam originated, just like the Christian division of Protestants vs. Catholics came about with reformation, by actions of Christian reformer like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Shiites are primarily in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon where war came about between Christians and Shiite Muslims and then in Iraq civil war between Sunni and Shiite occurred. Much of the Muslims in India and Pakistan are Sunni muslins. I remember in my childhood days in India, Mohandas Gandhi was opposed to Jinnah who wanted to have a separate Islamic nation Pakistan. Jinnah succeeded in convincing Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten to create a new nation Pakistan, separate from India that is dominated by Hindus (>90% of people as Hindus). Churchill could tell the difference between aspirations of Hindus and Muslims but he could not answer how the Sunnis differ from Shiites.

I also wish to point out that first war between Sunni and shitte occurred in Syria, the‘Battle of Siffin’ from May to July 652 AD, culminating on July 26 - 28. This is when Ottoman Empire disintegrated and Byzantium collapsed, with the rise of the Emperor Constans II. Likewise, several centuries later after World War I, the Sunni lost the caliphate dream with Ottoman Empire becoming extinct in 1924. Nevertheless, Osama bin Laden, a Sunni leader, challenged the west at the dawn of the 21st century with the 9/11 cowardly attacks using hi-jacked American planes. I visited Sunni Muslim nations such as Maldives and Bahrain for marine biological research in 2003 and I saw first hand how these Muslims objected to have “Bible’ in our possession and these nations do not allow construction of churches where we in America do not oppose Muslim to build the mosques and Hindus to build their temples.

Now in recent years and right now we see civil wars in Egypt and Syria taking sad dimensions with loss of innocent lives of children and women. In Egypt. The “Muslim- Brotherhood” was founded in Egypt by a school teacher Hasan al-Banna, primarily against theistic influences in Egypt. In recent years there have been incidences of animosity to Christians in Egypt and there were persecutions of many innocent Christians. This is precisely what Dr. Mohler referred to in his talk at the Wake Forest Baptist Church when he alluded to Islam as an obstacle for the gospel, thus hindering the growth of Christianity. We must recognize that Jesus as a baby was taken into Egypt when king Herod ordered that all first born in Israel must be killed. Today, the Coptic

4 Christians in Egypt are living a life under threat by Islamic extremists. With new US global leadership initiatives, I recommend that we bring this matter of Islamic suppression of Christianity as an important issue for UN action.

Recently the great Baptist evangelist Billy Graham appealed to the new President of Islamic Republic of Iran (A Theocratic, not democratic government) Hassan Roumani in the New York Times in a full page to release the imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedeni who is in jail in Iran for one year as of September 26, 2013. Billy Graham’s appeal appeared just before Rouhani spoke at eh UN general assembly and also before his phone call to U.S. President Barack Hussain Obama in the White House.

Dr. Al Mohler identified ‘Islam” as an obstacle to the spread of the gospel and the growth of Christianity. His conclusion is further substantiated recently soon after his visit to SEBTS on Sept. 12, 2013. On Sunday the September 21, 2013 in Peshawar, Pakistan two muslin Al-Qaida suicide-bombers killed 74 Christians while worshiping in the ‘All Saints Church’ in the Kogati Gate Area (victims include 34 women and 12 children) and also critically wounding 120 others in the congregation. This atrocity is unacceptable.

Photo showing mourners outside the church in Peshawar crying and in dismal sadness

Mohamed Ali Babakhel was identified by police for detonating the 13-pounds of high explosives hidden in the suicide jacket he was wearing. Thityy second later, another suicide-bomber inside the church detonated an identical jacket-bomb. About half od 350 worshipper escaped. The bombers were A-Qaida affliated militants. Of Pakistan’s

5 Taliban Insurgents. Presumably, this attack was in response to a CIA-drone attack in the North Waziristan tribal area near Afghanistan border. Christians were targeted for revenge. Christian in Pakistan constitute only 2% of the population of 250 millions citizens in Pakistan.

Within a month after Mohler’s visit, we also saw in TV the violent upraisals in a shopping mall in Nairobi in, Kenya. radical Muslims went after the Christians. A Christian whose name was Joshuah Hakim had to hide his first name to escape from slaughter in the hands of Islamic rebels. An Indian was asked to tell the name of prophet Mohammed’s mother’s name. When he failed to tell the name, he was shot to death. This brutal atrocity against Christians is unacceptable. These murderers are Somali citizens under the banner “al-Shabab” (a branch of al-Qaida).

On November 25, 2013 I heard Admiral James Starvdris, US Supreme Allied Commander at a conference co-sponsored by two former governors of North Carolina (Gov. Jim Hunt and Gov. Jim Martin) discussing the treats posed by extreme Islamic mililtant nations and radical muslim religious forces and he expressed the same concerns that Dr. Al Mohler addressed.

Admiral James Starvdris addressing the Global Leadership Coalition in Raleigh, NC

According to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, 14,000 Christians have been killed thus far since 1999 in Nigeria. Boko Haram, a mitant Islamic group is behind this mischief. This violent group has bombed 50 churches and they belive that western education is a sin. The rot-cause for this conflict really began with the birth of Ibrahim as a son of Abraham with his servant before Isaac was born as his son with his wife Sarah. I fund in both Baharain and Maldives, two muslin nations, there was no respect for Christians and also no respect of Creation Care. In Baharain I witnessed

6 massive renoval of coral reefs in the Persian Gulf to erect oil platforms. In Maldives I saw removal of ornamental fishes from coral reefs with cyanide poisoning to numb the fish and transport moribund fishes in huge ships to China for trade. Such atrocities occur also in other nations. There is a genuine need now to establish UN Commissions to stop Islamic brutality against Christianity and to stop mass mortality of marine life in building oil rigs and to eliminate illegal transport of ornamental fishes from their native habitats.

In America, atheist and the distinguished Harvard Professor Edward O. Wilson appealed to the Southern Baptist pastors in a book entitled “Creation”, with a subtitle “Appeal to Save Life on Earth” (Wilson, 2006). However, Wilson was unable to accept invitation from the Southereatsern Baptist Theological Seminary due to scheduling conflicts I applaud Ed Wilson for initiating a conversation between southern Baptists and evolutionary biologists but this dialogue calls for action. I joined the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture of the (SEBTS) in 2009 as a science advisor and honorary fellow and since then, I am working successfully with theologians in the Falls Lake Restoration project and also in promoting the Theoecology Journal, serving as its editor-in-chief to bridge the gap between science and religion. Dr. Mathew Sleeth (author of the book Serving God and Saving the Planet, Sleeth, 2006) has already initiated alliance with several theological seminaries to promote creation care. Let us also use the Theoecology Journal as a vehicle to report our progress in the area of Christian Creation Stewardship (Please see www.theoecologyjournal.com to view through faith-based ecological restoration efforts for Falls Lake in Raleigh, North Carolina (click Journal and then Vol I Issue 1). ‘Theoecology’ is a new term recently defined to bring theologians, environmental policy-makers and scientists to work together to protect our natural resources (George, 2012).

References

George, R. Y. 2012. Theoecology Definition. Theoecology Journal Vol I issue 1 (www.theoecologyjournal.com)

Henry, C.F. 1986. Confessions of a Theologian: An Autobiography. Waco: Word.

Scheaffer, F. and U. Middleman, 1970. Pollution and the Death of Man: Chritian Viewof Ecology. Good News Publications, Wheaton IL.

Sleeth, M. 2006. Serve God, Save Planet, Zondervan, Chelsea Green Publishing.

Taylor, C. 2007. A Secular Age. Harvard University Press.

Wilson, E. O. 2006. CREATION: Appeal to save life on earth. W.W. Mortan & Co. New York.

7 • Mohler lecture was in honor of Dr. Lewis Drummond, former President of SEBTS and also Dr. Russ Bush, founder of the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture (SEBTS)

APPENIDIX

POST-MOHLER LECTURE CONVERSATION WITH WALTER TUCKER IN FRONT OF WAKE FOREST BAPTIST CHURCH

After listening to Dr. Mohler’s lecture, I met again on the steps of the Wake Forest Baptist Church my friend in Christ Rev. Walter Tucker whom I first met when we conducted the first “Christian Stewardship Symposium” in North Wake Baptist Church, Wake Forest North Carolina. Walter and I had a brief conversation about plans for the 2014 Second Christian Stewardship symposium at the Hope Lutheran Church on the same steps of the Wake Forest Baptist Church while Dr. Al Mohler (President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky) and Dr. Danny Akin (President of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) were walking toward the sanctuary of the Wake Forest Baptist Church.

In 2012 Rev. Walter Tucker M.Div. (then the leader of Issiah Ministry, Raleigh, NC) questioned me when I used the word “RESTORATION” and he also convinced me that there is a fundamental distinction between theological restoration (Eschatology) and ecological restoration (Ecosystem Dynamics). It is really on the basis of Walter’s concern that Dr. Bruce Little and I initiated the “Dialogues on Theological and Ecological Restorations: Apples and Oranges”, twice performed, once at the 2012 First GIBS/CFC Falls Lake Christian Stewardship Symposium (See George and Little, 2012 (www.theoecologyjournal.com) Vol II Issue 1. Falls Lake Symposium.

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