Adventist Review published seven responses to their article “Evolution Controversy
Stirs La Sierra Campus.” The following excerpts can be read in full here.

It is very unfortunate that so many of our youth leave the Church after they leave home. It is tragic that some of our colleges and universities facilitate this when professors advocate evolution.

Evolution has made some serious inroads into Adventist higher education and this challenges the very core of Seventh-day Adventism’s leading belief in the seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of God’s creation week. To be more in accord with proposed long slow evolutionary advancements, some propose that God used evolution or created over billions of years instead of in six days as depicted in the Bible. But it would be a strange kind of God who would create over billions of years and then directly tell us in the Ten Commandments to keep the Sabbath holy because He did it all in “six days”! (Exodus 20:21)…

Ariel A. Roth. Loma Linda, CA
Retired director, Geoscience Research Institute.

Concerning your article about the evolution controversy at LaSierra University and Louie Bishop: There’s more to the story than meets the eye. It may interest you to know that the same Spirit-led conviction that brought Louie to stand for the Sabbath at a secular university (see Adventist Review, August 27, 2009) has been severely tested at La Sierra University. When Louie arrived he found his Biology professors teaching evolution as the best “single unifying explanation of the living world.” The six-day creation explanation he expected to find in his science classes–the view held by his church–were disavowed…

Rick Jaeger D.D.S.

I was saddened to read the article “Evolution Controversy Stirs La Sierra Campus” as it does not describe the campus that I know. La Sierra University continues to offer a strong curriculum designed to help students experience vibrant Adventist Christianity while coming to terms with serious issues of 21st century life and learning…

Randal Wisbey, President
La Sierra University

I have been reading the special news bulletins from Adventist Review reporting on the very surprising case of evolution being promoted as the best answer for origins by one of our own universities.

I am reminded of a statement in Volume 3 of the Testimonies where we are warned about remaining neutral in times such as these.

“If God abhors one sin above another, of which His people are guilty, it is doing nothing in case of an emergency. Indifference and neutrality in a religious crisis is regarded by God as a grievous crime and equal to the very worst type of hostility against God.” 3T 281…

Bob Strom
via email

I am writing to express my disappointment in the article published in the Adventist Review regarding the Creation/Evolution issue at La Sierra. The article had the potential for informing readers of what the issues being discussed actually were, and presenting a thoughtful presentation of both sides of the issue, [but] instead, in the selection of materials used, only complicated the conversation by really presenting only the perspective of one side. I would hope that the Review would also print La Sierra’s response, but even more, that it would be more careful and thoughtful in its coverage in the future…

Ken Curtis
via email

I read with interest and sadness the account of the apparent treatment of a student on the campus of La Sierra University who sought to have the Church’s position on origins be represented in science classes. Louis Bishop is a student whose career I have followed for several years.

When he attended University of California, Davis, as a member of the university’s golf team, he was being coached by my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law, not an Adventist, was deeply impressed by the faith and commitment of this young student who was not only an exceptional golfer, but was a solid witness for his Adventist beliefs in this secular setting. He stood unashamed for his faith, refusing to participate in contests occurring on Sabbath, even though it might cause his own success to be sacrificed. He was also the top golfer on the team…

Art Chadwick
Keene, Texas

Thanks for your excellent summary of the ongoing creation/evolution problem at La Sierra University. If this is not a serious issue, there are no serious issues. When someone holds a knife to the church’s jugular vein, people need to know. Well done…

Frank Hardy
Silver Spring, Maryland

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