Saturday, April 03, 2010

Waltke on Evolution

There has been an expresssion of support for Bruce Waltke and concern that he has felt the need to take down a video which expresses his views on theistic evolution. I am happy to see many strong voices in the bibliosphere support the scientific foundation for beliefs about the origin of our physical world.

But I wonder how many bloggers would express concern about what else Bruce Waltke teaches from Genesis. He teaches that Gen. 3:16 suggests that divorce in our contemporary society is caused by women resisting their role in life, which is to be a helper to the male. He firmly places the blame for divorce on women. When questioned personally about this - that is, I asked him if this applied to divorced couples he knew - he admitted that it didn't. But nonetheless, he taught a lecture hall full of young adults that women are to blame for divorce.

When confronted with a woman who was seeking divorce for violence, his first concern was to establish whether that woman would want to remarry, and whether she know that the Bible would not condone this. She actually had never considered remarriage at that point in time.

Bruce Waltke is a personable and gentle man. However, I honestly believe that certain beliefs about women stunt the normal senses, and create callous disregard for women. I pray that Dr. Waltke will be released from his blindness regarding who is to blame for all the divorce in the world, and perhaps some day admit in public that there is no reason to take all the sin in the world and place it on the shoulders of women. We have enough of our own, thank you very much, without carrying the sins of men also.

Over and over again, I see in much of Christianity, a tendency to put women on the cross.

1 comment:

Donald Johnson said...

It is not true that the Bible teaches one cannot remarry after divorce, but it can seem that way when verses are taken out of context.

I agree that it is very strange to see believers that have clearly thought long and hard about some things get other things so wrong.