Source: Adventist Review
Board Moving to Resolve La Sierra Evolution Issue
By Mark Kellner
Board Chairman: Ricardo Graham (Photo: Gerry Chudleigh)
The question of what students at La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist-owned tertiary institution in Riverside, California, learn about the origins of life on Earth is being resolved, said Ricardo Graham, LSU board of trustees chair and president of the church’s Pacific Union Conference.
“The board is intent on resolving this issue as quickly as possible, recognizing we have to be methodical and precise, and that process is of vital importance in higher education,†Graham told Adventist Review in a telephone interview on May 19. “I am very, very hopeful of a resolution very, very soon,†he added.
The controversy, as Adventist Review reported in its April 15, 2010 issue, [read the original report] centers on the presentation of evolutionary theory as an explanation of origins. Some La Sierra students and alumni have complained that the school presents evolution in opposition to the Genesis accounts of creation, which the Seventh-day Adventist Church has affirmed as part of its “Fundamental Beliefs†statement.
When one student, Louie Bishop, protested the lectures, he was placed on “citizenship probation†by school administrators and initially not allowed to register for fall 2009 classes. Among other items, critics said a new 2009 class announced by the school as “guiding these [freshman biology] students through the ongoing dialogue between faith development and scientific investigation†presented and endorsed views contrary to the church’s beliefs.
The class, “General Biology Seminar 111A,†will be reviewed, Graham said. (Read more)
