Figuring out faith
When I talk with seminary or divinity school students, I’m impressed. They seem to know why they’re in seminary and what they believe. I enrolled in seminary in order to figure out what I believed. Yes, I’d grown up attending worship, Sunday school, youth fellowship and summer camp, and I was impressed with many of the ministers I met along the way. But I’d never given much thought to the content of the faith.
The first indication that there was something in religion that was worth thinking about came in a required college religion course taught by Charlie Spotts, a crusty old Evangelical and Reformed Church minister. Spotts had a reputation for pulling the rug out from under freshmen by introducing them to critical thinking about the Bible.
He began by explaining that creation didn’t happen exactly the way Genesis tells it. Instead, life evolved over millions of years. When students shared their insights with their parents, the college president received letters demanding that the entire religion department be fired.
