Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 14:4 (Fall 2000)
Article: Strange Bedfellows: A Look At Darwinists And Traditionalists And The Strategies They Share.
Author: Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

---

PP 14:4 (Fall 2000) p. 3

Strange Bedfellows:
A Look At Darwinists And Traditionalists And The Strategies They Share.

Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

Rebecca Merrill Groothuis is a freelance writer and editor and the author of Good News for Women: A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality (Baker) and Women Caught in the Conflict: The Culture War Between Traditionalism and Feminism (Wipf & Stock). The author has revised and expanded an earlier version of this article, first published in Christian Ethics Today (Feb. 1998).

It all began with a dinner table conversation that my husband and I enjoyed with Phillip Johnson and his wife a few years ago.1 In listening to Johnson’s quiet complaints of how the prejudices and presuppositions of Darwinists have shaped public discourse on the question of life’s origin, I recognized a familiar pattern. Much of what Johnson had observed concerning the contours of the debate between Darwinists and creationists, I also had observed in the debate between evangelical traditionalists and egalitarians.2

Intrigued by the analogy, I determined to investigate further Johnson’s cultural analysis of the evolution/creation controversy. The more I learned about the debate raging in the scientific, educational, and political arenas over the origin and development of life, the better I understood the debate in the evangelical Christian community over the roles of men and women. Conversely, my own observations of the gender wars in the church enhanced my understanding of the “rules of the game” that are operative in the public debate over biological evolution. It seemed to me to be the same game, but with different players waging war over a different set of key concepts.

In each case, the public discourse is controlled by the representatives of the dominant ideology (whether Darwinism or traditionalism) through the repeated and predictable use of a number of rhetorical strategies. Lines are drawn and categories are created to the effect that the views of dissenters are dismissed before they are heard and seriously considered.

Of course, the mere fact that certain semantic strategies are employed to maintain an ideology’s cultural hegemony does not mean that the ideology itself is false. But it does mean that if the ideology is false, its falsity is being effectively concealed, and arguments in favor of rival positions are being unfairly silenced.

We need to be alert to the various rhetorical devices employed in public discourse, for the way people communicate can do more to obscure than to inform. The following observations concerning some of these communication strategies have been culle...

visitor : : uid: ()