Use at your own risk!
Education
‘Like millions of others, I was deeply disturbed by the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on 25 May. Not only America but Britain and Australia have erupted in mass mayhem, led by the Black Lives Matter movement founded in 2013.
Floyd was 1.93 m tall and weighed 100 kg. His friends called him a “gentle giant”. He was a keen basketballer and rapper, using the stage name “Big Floyd”. After a stint in jail for armed robbery and home invasion his life changed – he became involved in the Christian ministry Resurrection Houston. He was known for decades as a mentor to a generation of young men and a “person of peace” – but things seemed to have gone wrong during the COVID pandemic. His autopsy showed the presence of drugs.
Floyd’s death follows another tragic death at the hands of Minneapolis police. The Australian-born woman Justine Damond was fatally shot on 15 July 2017 by a Somali-American police officer. She had phoned the police to report the possible assault on a woman in an alley behind her house.
Why did the killing of a black man by a white cop provoke protests and riots, when the killing of a white woman by a black cop didn’t? The answer, of course, is the widespread belief that blacks are unfairly targeted by police due to racial hatred. But what are the facts?
US homicide records show that, in the general population, there are more murders of whites by blacks than the reverse. In 2016, for example, over twice as many whites (533) were killed by blacks as blacks (243) killed by whites.
A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found no racial differences in the use of lethal force by US police. It said: “On the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account.”
However, there are big differences in crime rates between the white and black US subcultures. In 2016, African-Americans became murder victims at the rate of 71 per million, compared with 15 whites per million. That is, blacks were 4.7 times as likely to be killed as whites. But most of these killings occur within the racial groups. Whites were killed by other whites in 82% of cases and blacks were killed by blacks in 90% of cases.
The Black Lives Matter campaign is motivated by a common myth, that police unfairly target blacks. But the situation is far more complex.
US attorney and radio host Larry Elder believes the underlying cause of much crime is fatherlessness. A large proportion of African-Americans are raised in fatherless homes. Lacking male role models who are strong yet caring and protective, boys often turn to crime gang leaders to provide their missing father figures.
These days, those who promote stable marriage and families are mocked in the media, or worse. But out of love for our neighbours, we in FamilyVoice intend to keep on doing it.’ https://familyvoice.org.au/
‘U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper are “open to a bipartisan discussion” about renaming nearly a dozen bases and installations named after Confederate military leaders, an Army official said Monday evening.
The U.S. Army has 10 installations named after Confederate generals across the south, including Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Benning in Georgia, Fort Hood in Texas, and Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia.
Although the official says McCarthy may have the authority to unilaterally change the names of military bases, consultation with the White House, Congress, and state and local governments must take place.
As recently as February, the Army said it had no plans to rename the posts, following the Marine Corp’ decision to ban images bearing the Confederate flag from its installations.
McCarthy’s reversal, however, was sparked by the protests and riots over the death of George Floyd.’https://disrn.com/news/us-army-may-rename-bases-named-after-confederate-military-leaders
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well
‘The World Wide abortion counters uses one of the more conservative estimates on the number of abortions world-wide since 1980 (40 Million per year for 30years) and this equals 1,200,000 Billion (from Lifesitenews.com)’ http://www.numberofabortions.com/
Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
We often speak of a ‘mother’s love’. Well, ‘You might not know (but suspect)that in many parts of the country, the community so frowns on abortion that abortion clinics employ itinerant abortionists who parachute in and kill hundreds of babies in a two or three day span.
What requirements might there be to qualify (so to speak) as an itinerant abortionist, like, say Willie Parker? First and foremost, the capacity to abort women with a speed that puts an assembly line to shame.
Parker, who fancies himself a Christian, is prolific at his trade, aborting up to 45 babies a day. As for how late in pregnancy, there’s a kind of blinking yellow light at 24 weeks, 6 days, but there are always extenuating circumstances for the industrious Dr. Parker.
Planned Parenthood abortionist Colleen McNicholas (who is the go-to abortionist for reporters covering abortion in Missouri) is only 2/3rds as fast. A fawning profile in Marie Claire in 2016 casually observed, “By the end of her eight-hour workday, [McNicholas] will have terminated 31 pregnancies.”
But, of course, her motivation goes beyond her obvious nobility. As a post at Planned Parenthood observes (boldface in the original)
“Part of the problem with being so committed and feeling so passionate about an issue is that it’s hard to say no… because that means somebody is going without care, and what that means is, they’re probably going to have a baby they don’t want.
So ultimately, I end up saying, ‘I can do one more day.’”
Get it? Without the “care” that McNicholas administers so dutifully, a baby might sneak through. So, even when her hands are bone weary (and blood stained), she carries on.
I’d paraphrase her observation to say, “I can obliterate one more helpless unborn child—be sure to pat me on the back.”’ https://www.lifenews.com/2020/06/01/this-abortionist-kills-30-to-40-babies-in-abortions-every-single-day/
These were MOTHERS who went into these clinics to rid themselves of their baby. Where was the ‘mother’s love’ or the mother’s natural affection for her unborn child? Romans 1:31 speaks of those without natural affection. Albert Barnes says ‘This expression denotes the want of affectionate regard towards their children. The attachment of parents to children is one of the strongest in nature, and nothing can overcome it but the most confirmed and established wickedness. And yet the apostle charges on the heathen generally the want of this affection. He doubtless refers here to the practice so common among heathens of exposing their children, or putting them to death. This crime, so abhorrent to all the feelings of humanity, was common among the heathen, and is still.’
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
I had some thoughts about what is occurring in the USA wrapped around the word ‘racism’ but I think the following article by John Mackay explains it better than I could.
‘Mankind! This word has been a great description down through the years of who we are, and what we were made to be. It is derived ultimately from the old English Mann Cynn, back though several thousand years of traditions in Sanskrit about the hero Manu who survived the big flood along with his seven spiritual helpers. Manu is the ancestor of all living people so we are named after him. Hence the Anglicised description ‘the Kin (old English Cynn) of Manu’, which with typical English word play became Mankind, and then to the more common mankind, which surprise, surprise originally included women.
What most English speakers don’t appreciate, is that the second part of the word Cynn, (now ‘Kin’), is a Biblical concept. It is provably based on the Biblical teaching revealed by the Creator God in Genesis 1, that He made each group of creatures (humans included) as separate ‘Kinds’. Additionally, it is important to note: this history and meaning of the word kin, whether it be in the Hebrew, Greek or English languages is conceptually quite different from ‘race’.
In our Evidence News 03/2020, (sent out on 4 March 2020) we deliberately put a challenging series of statements, with the question: Which of the following are True or False? One of the statements was “There is only one race of men?” We then shared that all statements in the challenge list were false, including the ‘one race of man’ concept.
(see full list at the end)
Why the need for this challenge?
The belief “There is only one race of men?” is incredibly popular amongst Evangelicals, particularly those in the USA who follow Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis. There is no doubt that the applaudable aims of such a statement are to deal with the evil extremes of American racism, and reject Adolf Hitler’s racist concept of superior Aryans, which was firmly based on evolutionism. Yet the backgrounds of both racisms are poles apart.
In the American situation it was white Europeans who enslaved black Africans, who were regarded by many as an inferior race. Hence it is incredibly unpopular to actually remind people that the racism of South Africa, the old UK, and the more modern USA, had nothing to do with evolutionism, but was usually justified by a misguided semi-Biblical concept about Noah’s three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth, tied to belief that black people (the Hamites) were eternally cursed by God to be servants. (see full story in Genesis 9:18-27)
So, today’s Ham-ite claims attempt to refute racist behaviour by claiming there is only one ‘race of man’ which includes all humanity descended from the created first man Adam. It has become incredibly popular, as it runs parallel to the currently popular political stand in the west against racism. The One Race concept blames most racism on Darwinian evolution, whereas most evolutionists insist there is no link between evolution and racism, although Charles Darwin’s views would certainly be considered racist if expressed these days. (See quote from Darwin at end.)
Despite the anti-racist appeal of the term “human race,” to cover all living people, those who really want to take a Biblical as well as a long term effective stand against the evils of racism, must start by admitting that the Biblical record insists God made only ‘one Kind’ of man, not ‘one race’!
Let’s start by reviewing the traditional meaning of the word ‘race’, as reflected in the Oxford dictionary as well as in the history of the word as used in science. Race has a real and distinctly scientific meaning, but it is not the one being used either by white Australian Ken Ham’s or black African American Voddie Baucham’s in their popularisation and politicisation of the ‘one race’ concept.
The Oxford English dictionary defines the word “race” as:
Noun: Each of the major groupings into which humankind is considered (in various theories or contexts) to be divided on the basis of physical characteristics or shared ancestry.
The dictionary also gives a biological definition:
Biology: A population within a species that is distinct in some way, especially a subspecies.
The dictionary gives the origin of the word as: “Early 16th century (denoting a group with common features): via French from Italian razza, of unknown ultimate origin.” (Item in brackets in original)
Reference: OED https://www.lexico.com/definition/race
If these definitions were applied to humanity, we could say there is only one Genus and one species of living humans, but there are populations within our one species which have distinguishing characteristics and shared ancestry so they can be easily grouped as distinct from other human groups e.g. Pygmies, Eskimos.
To really understand where ‘race’ fits into humanity we need to look at the real history of man from Genesis, as well as the history of biological classification, for both are strongly connected.
God made the first human beings, male and female, as fully separate living beings, unrelated to any other creature. All people who have lived since then are descendants of that first couple, Adam and Eve. As such, all humans are Biblically one Kind, a ‘naming’ factor which 5,000 years later played a provably significant part in the history of biological science.
Back in the days when scientists actually used the Biblical framework, a Swedish Botanist by the name of Carl Von Linne (1707-1778), later known by the Latin ‘Linnaeus’, invented the biological classification system still used today. Linnaeus is famed for his very workable two-part classification using the terms genus and species. His fully Biblical outlook shows in the fact that he actually borrowed the word ‘genus’ from the Latin version of Genesis chapter 1:11, where you read God made plants after their “genus,” or to use the old English, in separate ‘Kin’, derived from the old Anglo-Saxon ‘Cynn’, meaning related to each other but not to other ‘kin’. The Latin word ‘genus’ is used 10 times in the first chapter of Genesis, and is provably what the Hebrew author had in mind, as this is the same in Greek version of Genesis in the Bible translation called the Septuagint, translated by Hebrew speakers in Egypt in the 3rd century BC.
Linnaeus also noted there were recognisable subsets within the ‘genus’ and invented the biological concept of species (as in distinct or special). Then with closer observation, we have discovered that even within a species, there are distinguishable variations that are labelled “races”. This term applies across all living species, plants or animals. The term “race” was originally used to distinguish various subsets of grapes and wines that had distinctive characteristics. Later it was used to describe identifiable subgroups within any species of living things. For example: Equus caballus, i.e. domestic horses. Horses that were selected for their running ability, became a subgroup called racehorses, but strong pulling horses are called draught horses.
Now let’s return to the history of mankind. Adam and Eve were created as a separate Kind or Genus unrelated to apes, monkeys or any other living thing. By the days of Noah (approx. 1,600yrs After Creation), Adam’s descendants still belonged to the ‘one Kind ‘of man. But even the names of Noah’s three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth, indicate obvious factors we could use to distinguish them and their descendants. Ham’s name would come to mean dark, and Japheth’s meant fair, both indicating increasing variation in skin colour.
After Noah’s Flood God instructed the people to spread over all the earth, but within a few generations they rebelled, gathered together and started building the Tower of Babel “to make a name for themselves” (Genesis 11:1-9). God punished them by splitting them into different language groups, which forced them to move away from one another. This achieved God’s purpose of getting humanity to spread out and fill the earth, but it also meant the subgroups would, from then on, only breed amongst themselves for many generations, thus reinforcing whatever distinctive genetic variations already in the initial subgroups, e.g. skin colour, hair type, etc. As the environment degenerated more genetic mutations occurred in all populations, but there could be differing mutations in each group, so differences would increase, even though all people are still one Kind and one species.
That period of separation has resulted in distinctive clusters of features that are still useful describing people, even in police reports e.g. the robbery was by an African-American, or the murderer was a male Caucasian, or the suspect was of Asian appearance. While these terms are currently more politically correct than black man, whitey or slant eyes, they nevertheless reflect real differences by which subgroups within the human Kind can be distinguished, and within which historically separate ‘breeding choice groups’ have socially and biologically strengthened such traits. Some of these are just harmless variations such as thick subcutaneous fat that gives Asian eyelids their shape. Some are serious problems, e.g. Tay Sachs disease caused by a mutation carried only by Ashkenazi Jews. This post-Babel separation followed by geographic isolation from other groups of mankind began to end in the mid 1700’s when the coming of world exploration (e.g. Captain Cook’s voyages) began a new genetic mixing of the ‘races’.
So, the present-day classification of mankind includes only one genus Homo, and one species sapiens, giving the scientific classification of humans as Homo sapiens. But within that ‘sapiens’ species there truly are groups of people who share distinctive characteristics that are definitely and provably real and ‘racial’ The fact that we are all one species is seen as modern-day mobility has allowed different people groups to mix, marry and have children. The offspring of such marriages are still often referred to as being of “mixed-race”.
So, do we gain anything by taking an American political situation, falsely blaming it on Hitler or evolutionism, then justifying that claim via a true Biblical stand against the mistreatment of our fellow humans, then finally claiming the one race concept is Biblical or Christian? The answer is no! To repeat: those who really want to take a Biblically factually accurate stand against the evils of racism, must start by admitting that God made only one Kind of man, not one race.
The well-intentioned attempt to make the word “race” equal to the word “kind” is not only false, it’s an attempt to turn real knowledge into a warm fuzzy and false philosophy, which is doomed to fail Biblically, theologically, scientifically, and politically.
The true solution to evil including that of mistreating fellow humans for any reason, is to deal with the original problem that led to humanity being split up. Our ancestors at the Tower of Babel rebelled against God because they had inherited the sinful nature brought into world by the ancestor of both them and us, the man Adam. Only the Creator of Adam, and therefore of every human being, can solve this problem, which He historically did when the Creator came to earth as the man Jesus, Saviour and Christ who paid the penalty for sin. Therefore, all people, whatever their ancestry, can be freed from the penalty of sin if they repent and put their faith in Christ, who will also return as the Judge and coming King of all.
Darwin on Races
“Lastly I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilisation than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risks the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is. The more civilised so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilised races throughout the world.”
Charles Darwin, Letter to William Graham, 3 July 1881
Darwin Correspondence Project, Letter DCP-LETT-13230
https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/
From Evidence News 03/03 4 March 2020
Which of following are true or false?
* Aboriginals have been in Australia 40,000 years or more.
* Wearing a face mask is useful in preventing Corona virus.
* The Big Bang is scientifically accurate.
* God made only one race of man.
* In today’s world you can be anything you want to be!
* The Aboriginal ‘Welcome to Country’ smoking ceremony is a harmless cultural event.
* Genesis presupposes the existence of God.
They are all false, no matter how popular they are with scientists and the general public, Christian or non-Christian. Some are even too politically incorrect to mention, as the violence that erupted shows when the West Australian RSL tried to raise a motion wanting the Aboriginal ‘Welcome’ smoking ceremony removed from Anzac Day ceremonies. This is a move we would agree with, and this author would go even further, as all immigrants are forced to accept a ‘Welcome’ ceremony as part of their ‘nationalisation’ when they become citizens. Why object? Because the ceremony is not just cultural, but totally pagan, as well as demonic, and it locks Australian futures into the same Satanic delusion that took Aboriginals down into the stone-age, when they moved first to India and then to Australia. But of course, none of that can be mentioned in our politically correct culture that prefers myth to real history. https://askjohnmackay.com/human-race-is-there-only-one-race-of-man/
Before posting the real story, just a few words on what is occurring now in the states regarding the white police officer and the dead man of colour in Minneapolis. When will police departments learn to only have black officers patrolling black areas and only Muslim officers patrolling Muslim areas?!! Now, black and Muslim officers may also patrol white areas BUT NO white officers are allowed to patrol black or Muslim areas!!! Too simple!
Here is the real story.
‘The death of George Floyd, on video while (fired) Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes and three other officers did nothing to stop it, was unjustified and has sparked days of protests and riots nationwide. The whole world has heard about this unjustified killing by now. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder. Floyd was from Houston, Texas, and is remembered there for his Christian ministry work in the city’s Third Ward. Nothing we know about what happened to him makes any sense or justifies it in any way.
Next to no one has heard about what happened in Grand Forks, ND on May 27, 2020.
Sheriff’s deputies went that day to a call to apartment complex to serve an eviction notice. Police and sheriffs deputies nationwide are called to such activities every day as a matter of routine. Most of these come and go with no violence.
Any of them can erupt into violence at any time and this one was different, reports the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. There was a man inside, 41-year-old Salamah Pendleton, and his mother as well, 61-year-old Lola Moore.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, written by Special Agent Steve Gilpin of the Grand Forks Narcotics Task Force, two sheriff’s deputies arrived at Pendleton’s residence Wednesday afternoon to enforce a court order for Pendleton and Moore, also listed as a tenant of the apartment, to vacate the premises. When deputies entered the residence, Pendleton retreated to a bedroom, according to the affidavit. When deputies opened the door, Pendleton allegedly fired at them with a 5.45-caliber AK-47 rifle, according to documents related to the case.
The affidavit states that one of the rounds fired at officers by Pendleton hit Moore, fatally wounding her.
Army National Guard 1st Lt Cody Holte was also a Grand Forks police officer, three years on the job. He responded to the deputies’ on the scene call for backup after the first volleys of gunfire.
Eventually Pendleton opened the door and resumed firing, according to the affidavit, when he allegedly inflicted non-fatal gunshot wounds on Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Cpl. Ron Nord.
Pendleton allegedly shot Holte three times. Holte was transported to Altru Hospital by ambulance, and was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Pendleton was also wounded, and is in a local hospital on a ventilator. He reportedly has a rap sheet that includes assault on a police officer and has been charged with two counts of murder in this case. He had several firearms including the AK-47 in the apartment. He reportedly had the money to pay the rent. His family says he was “amped up” about the coronavirus pandemic. His mother, Lola Moore, is remembered by family and friends as a joyful woman who was always cooking and making people laugh. He is accused of killing her during the shootout in which he allegedly killed Holte.
Holte was 29 and leaves behind a wife and a 10-month-old son who will never get to do ordinary things with his father, like go to church or go fishing. He’ll know his father was a hero, but he’ll never know his father. There is a fundraiser for the family here. A memorial service for Holte will take place Tuesday.
Law enforcement officers are under new scrutiny around the country due to the killing of George Floyd, which is right. At the same time, law enforcement officers face the potential of targeting and violence against them every single day, now on practically every call they go out on, every traffic stop, every interaction on the job. They have the added issue of celebrities like Chrissy Teigen virtue signaling and paying the bail for rioters and encouraging unrest, and a media that fans the flames, all while ignoring the risks officers take daily to maintain civilization, and those left behind when officers such as Cody Holte are killed by criminals in the line of duty.
This past week’s events, which appear to include coordinated criminal violence nationwide, will only make everything worse. That’s likely the intent of the criminal rioters who assaulted police and civilians, looted businesses and damaged and destroyed property and government buildings in dozens of cities nationwide across the past few days.’ https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2020/05/31/a-police-related-killing-youve-heard-nothing-about-n471640?utm_source=pjmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=08b5a1e2f2263b83e918fb56d7a12a3e&recip=26169367
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Matthew 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female
In spite of what Moses wrote and what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said some continue to question not only the Bible but science. For example; ‘T.L. from the United States writes:
I was in a debate with a friend of mine about the creation of gender. She stated that Adam could not have been created first because women have two X chromosomes. She goes on to address the X deactivation in women, saying that this only occurs because both X chromosomes are the same making it a “female” chromosome in both men and women (she also said that the master “switch” in males is them “switching” from the “default”). She goes on to say that men are “half female” and women are “fully female”, making them superior in that they bare life. She also said males are pretty much useless and that we can see this in other life (bees, the infrequency of male lions, “all female” lizards, etc). So my questions are, is the first X chromosome a “female” chromosome, even in men? And does this mean that God made Adam “half female”(as my friend puts it)?
CMI’s Shaun Doyle responds:
Dear T.,
Thanks for writing in.
No, the X chromosome isn’t a ‘female’ chromosome. Everyone needs it. And no, males (including Adam) are not ‘half female’.
First, your friend is wrong on the science. The idea that female is the ‘default’ embryological condition is now known to be false.1 This idea was based on a few studies in the mid-20th century, and it was thought to be reinforced in the early 1990s by the discovery of the SRY gene, a gene on the Y chromosome which plays a crucial role in testis development. Because of this, female sexual development was thought to proceed as a ‘default’ in the absence of SRY.The idea that female is the ‘default’ embryological condition is now known to be false
However, subsequent research overturned this idea. For instance, the absence of SRY isn’t enough to build a functioning ovary; two X chromosomes are needed. Women with only one X chromosome almost always have ovary dysfunction, and the vast majority are infertile. And those (very) few that can conceive and carry a pregnancy to term are at much higher risk of complications both during and after pregnancy.2
Moreover, some genes, if their products are present in high enough concentrations, can stop male development even when SRY is present. For instance, the NROB1 gene on the short arm of the X chromosome codes for a protein named DAX1. This protein plays an important role in the development of the adrenals, hypothalamus, pituitary, and gonads. The protein is also involved in maintaining hormone production in these glands after they are formed.3 People who have XY chromosomes, but have a duplication of the NROB1 gene, produce enough DAX1 to inhibit the products of SRY. This stops male development completely and the person develops female characteristics.4 This is not merely the taking over of a default; this is an abnormality that overrides the normal development of an XY person.
Furthermore, ovaries and testes require ongoing maintenance throughout life. Researchers found that the gene FOXL2 (on the long arm of chromosome 3) suppresses SOX9 (a gene crucial for male development that is found on the long arm of chromosome 17), which prevents certain cells in the ovary from differentiating differently into ‘testis-like’ cells.5 Similarly, the DMRT1 gene (found on the end of chromosome 9) suppresses certain genes involved in ovarian development. 6 If both require ongoing maintenance, then there is no ‘default’ gonad, whether the testis or the ovary. Many of the tools used for building and maintaining both ovaries and testes are found in the genome outside the “sex” chromosomes.
Together, this shows that proper female development is an active process, and it isn’t simply the ‘default’ path an embryo takes. Instead, during development, a set of cells migrates to the outside of the embryo and hangs out on the allantois. At the appropriate time, they chain up and do a conga line, enter the embryo, find the developing gonads, enter them, and get to work. Before these cells arrive, there is no sexual differentiation. As Kim and Capel explain:
“Unlike most developing organs in the embryo that follow a single developmental track, the gonad forms with the potential to develop as one of two alternative organs, an ovary or a testis. For this reason, the gonad primordium is called ‘the bipotential gonad’.”7
Since when is God limited by sex chromosomes in the gender he makes first?
Second, your friend is wrong on theology. Think about it: the all-powerful God couldn’t have created Adam first because of sex chromosomes? Since when is God limited by sex chromosomes in the gender he makes first?
At any rate, from a genetic standpoint, it seems much simpler to make Eve from Adam (as per Genesis 2). Why? All God would have to do to make Eve from Adam’s side is to erase the Y chromosomes in the cells taken from Adam’s body and duplicate the one X chromosome already present (Eve, the rib, and modern genetics). On the other hand, if God created Eve first, he would’ve had to form a Y chromosome de novo to make Adam from Eve. (This is like what God probably did in miraculously creating Jesus’ zygote—i.e. He took one of Mary’s eggs (and the haploid genome in it) and created a second haploid genome within the egg with a brand new Y chromosome.) Of course, neither of these ‘methods’ of creating one gender from the other is a problem for God, since he’s all-powerful.
Third, a woman’s two X chromosomes are not identical (with the possible exception of Eve), since one is inherited from each parent. And one of the pair is deactivated early in embryological development, because only one is needed for gene expression. Having both active would create an excess of many gene products and would lead to all sorts of problems. Nevertheless, as mentioned above and in the linked article, since single-X females are mostly infertile, the presence of a second X chromosome is important for normal female sexual development.
Fourth, comparing us to the rest of the animal kingdom is irrelevant, since sexual differentiation varies across animals. Some can even change their sex in response to environmental conditions (and of course be completely reproductively viable). For example, while some reptiles and fish can perform parthenogenesis (where the females produce young without fertilization from a male), it is generally uncommon and just a ‘fallback’ option in the absence or dearth of males (see ‘Asexual’ lizards and pioneer plants and The weird, wonderfully-designed sawfish). Nor can humans naturally perform parthenogenesis (Was the Virgin Birth non-miraculous?; and should Christians bother with atheists?). Birds sexual chromosomes are the opposite of humans (male birds are ZZ, females are ZW), and platypuses have a system that is unlike anything else.
So, men can’t be written off as ‘defective females’ either scientifically or theologically (Are women genetically superior to men?). Nor can women, obviously. We are both made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and are thus able to be co-heirs of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7). Both sexes are equally valuable to God.’ https://creation.com/did-god-make-adam-half-female?utm_campaign=infobytes_au&utm_content=Q%3A+How+did+a+giant+T.+rex+get+buried+together+with+shark+teeth%3F&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailing.creation.com&utm_term=Fortnightly+Digest+-+2020.05.29
A lot is happening there at Cedarville University. Now, ‘Cedarville University has hired Husch Blackwell LLP, one of the largest firms in America, to conduct its investigation into the hiring of a professor with a known history of sexual misconduct.
The university also has retained Mark DeMoss, “evangelicalism’s PR guru,” who over the years has represented some of the biggest names and organizations in evangelicalism, including Franklin Graham, Ravi Zacharias, Mark Driscoll, and Willow Creek Community Church.
DeMoss confirmed with me Friday that he has been hired by Cedarville’s trustees. He also said he’s had conversations and exchanged emails with Cedarville’s acting president, Lt. Gen. Loren Reno.
On May 1, Cedarville’s trustees placed university president, Dr. Thomas White, on administrative leave and appointed Lt. Gen. Reno as acting president, following major controversy surrounding the hiring of Dr. Anthony Moore. The trustees also announced that they would hire an independent firm to investigate the process surrounding Moore’s hiring and also to ensure that “nothing inappropriate” involving Moore happened on campus.
Moore, who had been fired from a previous church for making secret videos of a youth pastor showering, was hired by White in 2017. White said he knew of “at most two videos” at the time of Moore’s hiring, but fired Moore last month when he discovered Moore had made “at least five videos” over a period of months.
The firm investigating White’s hiring of Moore, Husch Blackwell, employs more than 700 attorneys and had a revenue in 2017 exceeding $349 million. On its website, the firm describes itself as having an “industry-centric approach” that enables the firm “to lead our clients from where they are to where they want to be.”
The firm also will be seeking information concerning Moore’s behavior with Cedarville students. In an email sent to students and “recent alumni” on Thursday, Dean of Women Mindy May provided contact information for two Husch Blackwell attorneys and urged students to contact the attorneys directly with information that might be relevant to the investigation.
May added that the trustee board had directed the firm “to use its independent professional judgment” while conducting the investigation, and to present its findings to the board “independent of any outside influence.”
Is Cedarville’s Investigation Truly Independent?
One of the main questions surrounding investigations of this sort is whether or not they truly are independent. I reached out to Boz Tchividjian, founder of G.R.A.C.E. (Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment)—an organization that specializes in investigating Christian organizations where there’s suspected abuse. Tchividjian said he wasn’t familiar with Husch Blackwell, but has “general concerns about law firms conducting supposed ‘independent’ investigations” and referred me to a 2015 article he wrote on the topic.
“Ultimately, it’s all about control,” Tchividjian writes in the article. “An internal investigation is when the institution being investigated is in control. Independent investigations require that the independent investigator be in control. The difference is fundamental.”
Tchividjian offered several criteria for discerning whether the investigation is “internal or independent.” (Cedarville has claimed its investigation is both “internal” and “independent.”)
1. Control of the investigator: Tchividjian writes that an investigator who has a “fiduciary duty to the institution being investigated” is not independent. “For example, attorneys owe their clients a fiduciary duty,” he said. “Thus, when a practicing attorney or law firm is hired to conduct the investigation, the institution is in the driver’s seat and the process in not independent.”
Tchividjian further explained in an email that the American Bar Association Rules of Professional Conduct state that a lawyer (or law firm) has fiduciary duty to his/her/its client. This means that the “client remains in control of the process and in control of the final product.”
However, organizations like G.R.A.C.E., though hired by the group they are investigating, do not have a fiduciary duty to that group, Tchividjian said. G.R.A.C.E. states in its agreement with organizations that it is not an agent of the group it is investigating and will act “independent with complete autonomy.”
2. Control of the process: Independent investigations, Tchividjian says, “prohibit those who are being investigated from determining who is interviewed, how such interviews are conducted, or limiting the scope of any other evidence the investigator determines is relevant.”
3. Control of the findings: In internal (as opposed to independent) investigations, the organization being investigated has complete access to the investigation’s findings, so those who participate have no confidence that their information will be kept confidential.
4. Control of the final report: One of the tell-tale signs of an internal investigation is that the organization being investigated has control of who sees the final report. For an investigation to truly be independent, the investigator alone must determine “the content of the final report and who will receive it.”
According to a statement Cedarville’s trustees released three weeks ago, the firm conducting its investigation will report its findings to the public concerning whether Moore did anything inappropriate while on campus. However, the trustees said the firm will report the findings of its investigation into the process surrounding Moore’s hiring to the trustee board.
Email From Mindy May to students & recent alumni:
One wonders why those who profess to be Christian parents would send their child for an education in some of these private, Christian denominational, liberal arts colleges!? For instance, ‘An Ivy League-educated scholar called for an end to capitalism as the only means to create a moral world during her recent guest lectures at the Presbyterian-affiliated Maryville College last week.
Skidmore College Professor of Religious Studies Lucia Hulsether said the country is
Lucia Hulsether
“drenched” in capitalism’s blood. There is “no nonviolent action” in capitalism, she said.
Hulsether gave two lectures as part of the Margaret M. Cummings Conversations speaker series, which is named for a late Bible studies professor and focuses on “faith, service and learning.”
The lecture series was hosted by the college’s Center for Campus Ministry and held in the school’s chapel as well as recital hall.
The Rev. Anne McKee, the campus minister of Maryville, said the purpose of the lecture series was to answer the question: “What does it mean to be a person of faith in the world?”
In two lectures totaling almost two hours, Professor Hulsether did not bring up Jesus once.
With a stained glass window picturing Jesus behind her, Hulsether promoted Karl Marx’s critiques of capitalism as a remedy for injustice in the world. https://www.thecollegefix.com/faith-lecture-by-religious-studies-professor-lauds-karl-marx-doesnt-mention-jesus/
The video of Hulsther’s talk may be see at https://www.facebook.com/maryvillecollegeccm/videos/490693318275578/
