Creationists aim to be kings of their own tiny little worlds

I’ve written plenty here about Southern Baptist bigwig Al Mohler’s young-Earth creationism. And I’ve written about Mohler’s staggering, transparent ambition. But I hadn’t ever really appreciated how those two things fit together until I read Alan Bean’s recent insightful post, “Why Al Mohler believes the world is 6,000 years old.”

Mohler’s embrace of young-Earth creationist silliness is, Bean suggests, “a matter of institutional survival.”

The boys Al Mohler rolls with (and they are almost all boys) believe their world is under siege. These are the people who build the young earth museums where dinosaurs cohabit the earth with humans and the “apparent age” of the earth is explained away. These folks are going with the Bible come hell, high water, or the scientific worldview.

But why not interpret the Bible as a book written by inspired but fallible humans who did the best they could with the limited scientific knowledge at their disposal?

Because the Bible must be a perfect book, dictated, word-for-word, by a perfect God. Otherwise, things like male dominance, homophobia, and the virtues of laissez-faire capitalism would be open to question. It takes faith to embrace economic dogma, and the same folks who believe the earth is 6000 years old also believe, virtually to a man (and they are almost all men) will tell you that unrestrained capitalism is God-ordained.

Dr. Al and friends have cobbled together a tight, mutually reinforcing soup-can display held together by their belief in an inerrant Bible. If Al Mohler wanted to be president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, (and he did, very badly) he had no choice but to buy in without reservation. If he wanted to become the voice of conservative evangelicalism, (and he did, very badly) he had to tell people precisely what they wanted to hear. He had no choice.

That’s pretty harsh and takes a jaundiced, cynical view of Mohler — which is to say it rings true.

Bean continues:

There is no point trying to have an intelligent discussion with Dr. Al and his kin. They will say what their culture demands that they say. Their professional survival is tied to the survival of the institutions they represent. …

Which is why you won’t find mainstream evangelicals (I am thinking particularly of Christianity Today) criticizing people like Al Mohler for his self-serving obscurantism. It’s a family dynamic. Mohler may be a crazy uncle, but he’s our crazy uncle.

The family has to stick together.

And here’s a powerful piece of evidence in support of Bean’s thesis: the latest blog post from Al Mohler himself, which decries “The Cultural Revolution on the College Campus.” Yes, that title sounds like a lazy ripoff of a 1972 Nixon campaign commercial, but that’s because the whole post reads like a lazy ripoff of a 1972 Nixon speech.

The entire post is an exercise in institutional preservation. Don’t let your children be educated at some prestigious, academically rigorous university, Mohler argues, send them to his school instead.

Mohler’s aim is to delegitimize universities, academics, intellectuals, scientists, and even college graduates who attended any well-regarded school. Get rid of all of those and what’s left? Only the little world where Mohler reigns as king.

Young-Earth creationism is a tool for carving out the parameters of this little kingdom.

Sure, young-Earth creationism is scientifically falsifiable. And, yes, it’s also biblically indefensible. And yes, it’s also cruel due to the way it generates unnecessary crises of faith for young people indoctrinated into it.

But young-Earth creationism is also useful. It’s an effective way to define and defend the little fiefdoms coveted by those who would rather rule than serve.

And that’s why Al Mohler “believes” the world is 6,000 years old.