The Historical Hypocrisy Of Evangelical Eugenics
Here’s a note of historical hypocrisy. It’s an arc whose sweep can find its beginnings at least eighty years ago, when (this was the era of the Scopes trial, after all) evangelicals were waging a holy war against the theory of evolution.
Back in the day, America’s evangelicals, in addition to the usual claim that the theeory was incompatable with Christianity, frequently argued that the theory of evolution was a danger because it inherently promoted the science of eugenics, which they considered something of an affront.
Today, evangelicals continue to argue, as they did then, that evolution is incompatable with Christianity. But the more things stay the same, the more they change.
It’s important to note, before I continue, that the just-linked article is in part about the beliefs of one R. Albert Mohler Jr. of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Why is that important?
Because he just professed a belief in genetically modifying fetuses to ensure that they are heterosexual. “If such knowledge should ever be discovered,” he writes of any potential “gay gene” and the technology capacity to alter it, “we should embrace it and use it for the greater good of humanity and for the greater glory of God.”
Here’s the “follow the bouncing ball” part of the historical hypocrisy offered up by the arc of the last eighty years of American evangelical belief.
Once upon a time, the theory of evolution was wrong not just because it conflicted with Christianity, but because it promoted the science of eugenics. Today, while the theory of evolution remains wrong because it conflicts with Christianity, Christianity itself should promote the science of eugenics for the greater glory of God.