‘Unbiblical teaching’ protested at christian university

Prof denies assertions, says Genesis is historical, but not literal

ANGELA WIEBE MARS’ HILL (TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY)

LANGLEY, B.C. (CUP) — In an effort to secure a meeting with Trinity Western University’s board of governors, Cam Copeland has stood guard with a homemade protest sign at the university’s entrance for several days during the past three weeks.

Copeland, the father of a 1985 TWU alumnus, has held a regular demonstration in protest of what he calls unbiblical teaching by some of the university’s professors.

“I’m concerned about the fact that the university has people on staff that openly deny Genesis,” he said.

Copeland said he first took note of a TWU professor’s stance on creation as recorded in Genesis 1-11 after attending a conference on the subject held on campus last spring.

According to Copeland, two professors spoke in condescending tones towards the conference’s speaker and claimed the Bible’s creation story was nothing more than a myth.

“Once you start to say that, where does the rest of the Bible fall?” Copeland asked at the TWU campus entrance last Friday morning.

But Dirk Buchner, a religious studies professor, denies Copeland’s assertions, stating that he never claimed the biblical story of creation is non-historical.

“I think I was just trying to say that these guys should not read Genesis as literal history, but as a metaphor,” Buchner told the Mars’ Hill newspaper last week. “[The Bible] wishes to tell us that God made the world, not how God made the world.”

Buchner said he originally attended the conference last spring in order to protest against the view of a literal, six-day creation story.

He said it’s foolish to believe that the Earth was created in six days, adding that those that view Genesis 1-11 as 100 per cent literal are “really very unskilled” at reading the Bible.

Buchner quickly abandoned his protest, asserting that his arguments were misconstrued by conference attendees such as Copeland. His public statements never claimed the creation story to be mythological, he noted.

“I feel they are a dangerous group,” he said of those that hold a literal creation view. “They are very, very isolationist.”

According to Buchner, many supporters of the six-day creation story disregard any scholarship that refutes their claims.

Copeland and Buchner met for the first time last Wednesday as they debated both sides of the creation argument. While both left on what Buchner called “friendly terms,” Copeland is unsure whether he will continue his protest or not.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Copeland said, “but the overall truth is more important than any one person, including myself.”

Although TWU has no stated intentions of prohibiting Copeland from protesting in the future — as he is on land owned by the Township of Langley — the university also has no intentions of accommodating his request to meet with the university president or board of governors.

“We have no further plans at this point,” said Glen Forrester, executive assistant to the president.