The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality - International Voices in ...

Betwixt Text and Nature, God and Evolution 141
It is these sources that form the basis of the broadly
interpretative essay offered here. This interpretation is, however,
offered within the context of the broader sensitivities of North
American culture around the creationism-evolutionism dispute (see
below). In fact, one cannot escape the observation that the Creation
Museum is part of an intense cultural values contestation within
the United States of America. Within a broad culturalanthropological
perspective, better sense can be made of the intent
of the Creation Museum as a form of religious mass
communication. Although the Museum understands itself primarily
as an expression of faith, this expression (that is: argued
confession) is certainly not offered in a socio-spiritual void, but is
to a significant extent both a product of and contributor to North
American cultural dynamics.
The next step in the research process was to present the
substance of this essay as a paper at the Mystical Readings of the
Bible conference of the Spirituality Association of South Africa in
April 2009 in Pretoria. Input from discussions of this paper at this
conference was then incorporated, after which the essay was sent
to a number of critical readers, particularly with a view to judging
whether a critical distance had been maintained in my writing.
Upon completion of that round of consultation, the paper was sent
to Mr. Mark Looy, one of those in the leadership of the Creation
Museum, to request—as had previously been arranged—comments
on two matters: whether the information conveyed in the essay is
indeed accurate, and whether the evaluations offered are, in his
view, balanced and fair. 6 In this way, this essay is able to present
6 The only response received was the suggestion that the term “fundamentalist”
may be substituted with “evangelical,” a suggestion not followed in this essay,
because the latter term is too broad to properly characterise the religious views
encountered at the Creation Museum. I must emphasise though that I do not use
the term “fundamentalist” pejoratively, which was possibly the concern
underlying Mr. Looy’s suggestion.