Dying on that hill

Some people are so sensitive by endowment that they are the canaries in the coal mine for the rest of us. My friend Holly (not her real name) is one of those. I never knew how bad Darwinism was till I heard Holly’s story, and then the issue climbed up the list from about 10th to about first in my hierarchy of pernicious developments in modern civilization.

After Holly was first introduced to Darwinism in high school (she is now 53), she gradually went into a funk that led to suicidal thoughts. I never knew an academic subject could do that to a person, but like I said, Holly is a “canary,” and her soul was tender enough to sense the philosophical implications of believing that we come from nothing and are coming to nothing.

In the course of time, Holly became a Christian and married a Christian Ph.D. in physics, and they expected he would teach at the college level. Everything went well at first, until her husband (whom I’ll call John) started sharing the very sensible view in his classrooms that evolution is a bankrupt theory. He was peremptorily told by the administration to cease and desist. John went home to discuss this with his wife.

If John had married any other woman but Holly this story would have ended differently: The couple would have likely decided to keep their beliefs to themselves, pray a lot, and not risk his job when they had little mouths to feed.

But John is, in the providence of God, married to Holly. And Holly told her husband she just couldn’t do it. Evolution had so messed up her life that she would rather die than be involved in the demonic deceit. They figured they would get out of this secular milieu and find work in a Christian college.

John was indeed hired at a Christian college, his alma mater. But in a very short time, he was called to the carpet by the department chairman and told to stop teaching intelligent design. Though the students petitioned for his retention, John was fired.

The subsequent years have been hard for Holly and John, but God has always given them their daily bread. I asked Holly if they would do it differently if they were to start all over again. She answered, “No. We will die on this hill.”