In this encouraging workshop, Steve relates the positive experiences that he and his wife have experienced raising their four sons. With plenty of humorous illustrations, Steve shares tried and proven suggestions that have enhanced their family life. With God's help they are convinced there is hope for the family in the 21st century. (60 min)
To be Queen Elizabeth within
a certain area, deciding sales, banquets, labors, and holidays; to be Whitely within
a certain area, providing toys, books, sheets, cakes, and books; to be Aristotle within
a certain area teaching morals, manners, theology and hygiene. I can understand how this
might exhaust the mind, but cannot imagine how it could narrow it.
How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?
No: A woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.
God created the family. It is the ideal inspired institution for husbands, wives, and children. This workshop explores the role of the family in the plan of God, through a survey of scripture in the Old and New Testaments. After his overview, we will see why the family is worth preserving and protecting.
Steve shares his successes and failures of over 20 years of working to develop the habit of incorporating family devotions into the life of his family. He also shares insights into the role of the father as the pastor of the home. With references to the habits of other notable Christians, Steve shares practical tips for teaching God's word to children of all ages. (60 min)
Steve shares his own experiences as the father of 4 young men, along with insights into restoring the hearts of fathers to children and vice versa. Also included are stories of famous sons and their faithful fathers, from David and Solomon to Ken Ham and his Dad. (70 min)
Most of us, I suspect, are not great students of ‘the small print’. We employ lawyers and accountants because we recognize that carefully constructed small print may contain disclaimers, definitions and information which effectively drive a coach and horses through our assumptions about the general argument and make utterly null and void the common understanding that we thought we had. Allow me to introduce you to a piece of very small print.
Not many will have whiled away the long winter evenings by reading 'The demographic characteristics of the linguistic and religious groups in Switzerland' by Werner Haug and Phillipe Warner of the Federal Statistical Office, Neuchatel in Volume 2 Population Studies No 31, 'The demographic characteristics of national minorities in certain European states' edited by Werner Haug and others, published by the Council of Europe Directorate General III, Social Cohesion, Strasbourg, January 2000. Phew!
Helvetic Anoraks
And, indeed, why should you? Switzerland, after all, is not England. Its religious make-up is 46 per cent Catholic, 40 per cent Protestant with five per cent non-Christian faith and nine per cent of no religion at all. Their population of 6.9 million is divided into thirty Cantons and 3,000 plus communes and they are remorselessly prosperous and resolutely neutral at the heart of Europe. That does not mean that they have escaped the common social lot of other Europeans in the last half-century. Their immigrant population is ten per cent and their drug problem in major cities is all too well documented.
The historical strengths and tradition of the Christian religion in Switzerland have not produced growth but its churches have suffered far less decline than its more liberal European neighbours. The pattern of marriage, three-quarters marrying someone of their own religion (80 per cent among Christians), demonstrates a conservatism, which would seem quaint to much of modern Britain.
All of this information is readily obtainable for Helvetic Anoraks because Switzerland always asks a person's religion, language and nationality on its decennial census. Now for the really interesting bit.
Critical factors
In 1994 the Swiss carried out an extra survey which the researchers for our masters in Europe were happy to record. The question was to determine whether a person's religion carried through to the next generation and, if so, what, if any, were the critical factors. The result is dynamite. There is one critical factor. It is overwhelming, and it is this. It is the religious practice of the father of the family that, above all, determines the future attendance at or absence from the Church of the children.
If both father and mother attend regularly, the figures revealed, then 33 per cent of their children will end up as regular churchgoers with a further 41 per cent attending irregularly. Only a quarter of their children will end up not practising at all. If a father is irregular and mother regular then only three per cent of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, though a further 59 per cent will become irregulars. Thirty-eight per cent will be lost.
If the father is non-practising and mother regular, only 2 per cent of children will become regular worshippers, and 37 per cent will attend sporadically. Over 60 per cent of the children will be lost completely to the Church.
Mummies and Daddies
Let us look at the figures the other way round. What happens if the father is regular but mother irregular or non-practising. Extraordinarily, the percentage of children becoming regular goes up from 33 per cent to 38 per cent and 44 per cent respectively; as if loyalty to father's commitment grows in proportion to mother's laxity, indifference or hostility. Before mothers despair, there is some consolation for faithful mums. Where mother is less regular than father but attends occasionally her presence ensures that, overall, only a quarter of her children will never attend at all.
Even when the father is an irregular attender there are some extraordinary figures. An irregular father and a non-practising mother will yield 25 per cent of their children as regular attenders in their future life and a further 23 per cent as irregulars. This is 12 times the congregational yield where the roles are reversed!
Where neither parent practices, to nobody's very great surprise, only four per cent of children will become regular attenders and a further fifteen per cent irregulars. 80 per cent will be lost to the faith.
While Mother's regularity, on its own, has scarcely any long-term effect on children’s regularity (except in some circumstances outlined above, a marginally negative one), it does have a positive effect on preventing children from drifting away entirely. Faithful mothers produce irregular attenders rather than regular. Their absence transfers the irregulars into the non-attending sector. But even the beneficial influence really works only in complimentarity to the practice of the father.
Shocking Results?
In short if a father does not go to church, no matter how faithful his wife's devotions, only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will become churchgoers. If a father goes but irregularly to church, regardless of his wife's devotion, between a half and two-thirds of their offspring will find themselves coming to church regularly or occasionally. A non-practising mother (with a regular father) will see a minimum of two thirds of her children ending up at church. A non-practising father (faithful mother) will see two-thirds of his children never darken the church door. If his wife is similarly negligent that figure will rise to 80 per cent!
The results are shocking but they should not be surprising. They are about as politically incorrect as it is possible to be; but they simply confirm what psychologists, criminologists, educationalists and traditional Christians know. You cannot buck the biology of the created order. Father's influence, from the determination of gender by the implantation of his seed to the funerary rites surrounding his passing, is out of all proportion to his allotted, and severely diminished role, in Western liberal society.
A mother's role will always remain primary in terms of intimacy, care and nurture. (The toughest man may well sport a tattoo dedicated to the love of his mother, without the slightest embarrassment or sentimentality). No father can replace that relationship. But it is equally true that when a child begins to move into that period of differentiation from home and engagement with the world 'out there', he (and she) looks increasingly to the father for that role model. Where the father is indifferent, inadequate or just plain absent that task is much harder and the consequences more profound. Where adults have witnessed, in their own childhood, that Church, for example, is a ‘women and children’ the thing, they will respond accordingly. Curiously, both adult women as well as men will conclude subconsciously that Dad's absence indicates it is not really a 'grown-up' activity. In terms of commitment a mother's role may be encouraging and confirmatory but it is not primary to her adult offsprings' decision. Mothers' choices have dramatically less effect than their fathers’; and, without him, she has little sway over the primary lifestyle choices of her offspring in their religious observances. Her major influence is not on regular attendance at all but on keeping her irregular children from lapsing altogether. This is, needless to say, a vital work but, even then, without the input of the father (regular or irregular) the proportion of the regulars to lapsed goes from 60/40 to 40/60.
These conclusions may not be comfortable, they may not be 'fair' but, if these figures are correct and typical, we have to address the facts as they are not how our political prejudice would prefer them to be.
In England Now
The findings may be for Switzerland but, in conversation with a few English clergy and thinking through their electoral rolls, I doubt they are largely different in the conclusion we would get from a similar survey here. Indeed, I believe there is some English work current along related lines.
The figures are of huge import to our evangelization and its underlying theology.
First of all, we are ministering in a society which is increasingly unfaithful in spiritual and physical relationships. The consequence is a European record divorce rate. There is a huge number of single-parent families and a complexity of step-relationships or, worse, itinerant male figures through the household whose primary interest can almost never be someone else's child.
The absentee father, whoever's 'fault' the divorce was and however faithful he might be to his Church, is unlikely to spend the brief permitted weekend ‘quality' time with his child in Church. A young lad in my congregation had to choose between his loyalty to the faith and spending Sunday with dad, now 40 miles away, fishing or playing soccer. Some choice for a lad of eleven – earthly father versus Heavenly Father and all the crossed ties of love and loyalties that would involve. With that agonising maturity forced on children by our 'failures', he reasoned that his Heavenly father would understand his absence better than his dad.
Sociologically and demographically the current trends are severely against the Church's mission if fatherhood is in decline. Those children who do maintain attendance, in spite of their father's absence, albeit predominantly sporadically, may instinctively understand the community of nurture that is the motherhood of the Church. But they will inevitably look to fill that yawning gap in their spiritual lives, the experience of fatherhood that is derived from the true Fatherhood of God. Here they will find little comfort in the liberalising churches that dominate the English scene.
Emasculation
Emasculated liturgy, gender-free Bibles and a fatherless flock are increasingly on offer. In response to this, decline has, unsurprisingly, accelerated. To minister to a fatherless society the Church of England, in its unwisdom, has produced its own single-parent family parish model in the woman priest. The idea of this politically contrived iconic destruction and biblically disobedient initiative was that it would make the Church relevant to the society in which it ministered.
Women priests would make women feel empowered and thereby drawn in. (As more women signed up as publicly opposed to the innovation than ever were in favour, this argument was always a triumph of propaganda over reality.) Men would be attracted by the feminine and motherly aspect of the new ministry. (As the driving force of the movement, feminism, has little time for either femininity or motherhood this was, what Sheridan called, 'the lie direct'). And children – our children would come flocking into the new feminized Church. (As the core doctrines of feminism regarding infant life are among the most hostile of any philosophy – and even women who weren't totally sold on its heresies often had to put their primary motherhood responsibilities on the back burner to answer the call – children were never likely to be major beneficiaries).
Nor are these conclusions any longer a matter of simple disagreement between warring parties in a divided Church. The figures, as with the Swiss, are in and will continue to come in.
The Departure of Men
The balance in the pre-1990s Church was a ratio of 45/55 (men/women). In line with Free Churches and others that have preceded us down the feminist route, we are now approaching the 37/63 split. As these latter figures are percentages of a now much smaller total and even more alarming picture emerges. Of the 300,000 that have gone during the Decade of Evangelism some 240,000 must be men!
It will come as no surprise to learn, in the light of the Swiss evidence, that, even on official figures, the children's attendance in the Church of England churches has dropped by 50 per cent over the Decade of Evangelism and, according to reliable independent projections, is actually down two-thirds by the year 2000. (Relevant CofE statistics abruptly ceased in 1996, when the 50 per cent drop was reached).
In the secular world a fatherless society, or significant rejection of the traditional fatherhood model, has produced rapid and dreadful results. The disintegration of the family follows hard upon the amorality and emotional anarchy that flows from the neutering, devaluing or exclusion of the loving and protective authority of the father.
Young men, whose basic biology does not lead them in the direction of civilization, emerge into a society which, in less than 40 years, has gone from certainty and encouragement about their maleness to a scarcely disguised contempt for and confusion about their role and vocation. This is exhibited in everything from the educational system, which from the 1960s onward has been used as a tool of social engineering, to the entertainment world where the portrayal of decent honourable men turns up about as often as snow in summer.
Feral Males
In the absence of fatherhood it is scarcely surprising that there is an alarming rise in the feral male. This is at its most noticeable in street communities where co-operatives of criminality seek to establish brutally and directly that respect, ritual and pack order so essential to male identity. But it is not absent from the manicured lawns of suburban England where dysfunctional 'families' produce equally alarming casualty rates and children with an inability to make and sustain deep or enduring relationships between male and female.
One might have hoped, with such an abundance of evidence at hand, that the Church would have been more confident in Biblical teaching. This has always stood against the destructive forces of materialistic paganism which feminism represents. Alas, not. Its collapse in the face of this well organized and plausible heresy may be officially dated in 1992 but the preparation for it began much earlier.
One does not need to be very far through the post-war selection procedures of the Church of England or its theological training to realize that there is little place for genuine masculinity. The constant pressure for ' flexibility', 'sensitivity', 'inclusivity' and 'collaborative ministry' is telling. There is nothing wrong with these concepts in themselves but as they are taught and insisted upon they bear no relation to a man's understanding of these terms. Men are perfectly capable of being all these things without being wet, spineless, feeble-minded or compromised which is how these terms translate in the teaching. They will not produce men of faith or fathers of the faith communities. They will certainly not produce icons of Christ and charismatic apostles. They are very successful at producing malleable creatures of the institution, unburdened by authenticity or conviction, but incapable of producing leadership. Men, in short, who would not stand up in a draught.
Winning and Keeping
Curiously enough, this new feminized man does not seem to be quite as attractive to the feminists as they had led us to believe. He is frankly repellent to ordinary blokes. A priest who is comfortable with his masculinity and maturing in his fatherhood (domestic and/or pastoral) will be a natural magnet in a confused and disordered society and Church.
Other faith communities, like Muslims and Orthodox Jews, have no doubt about this and would not dream of emasculating their faith in a counter-productive capitulation to failed modernism. Churches in countries under persecution have no truck with the corrosive errors of feminism. Why would they? These are expensive luxuries for comfortable and decadent churches.
The persecuted need to know urgently what works and what will endure.
A Church that is conspiring against the blessings of patriarchy not only disfigures the icon of the first person of the Trinity, effects disobedience to the example and teaching of the second person of the Trinity and rejects the Pentecostal action of the Third Person of the Trinity but, more significantly for our society, flies in the face of the sociological evidence! No father – no family – no faith. Winning and keeping men is essential to the community of faith and vital to the work of all mothers and the future salvation of our children.
The small print is becoming a tragedy writ large in every parish in our land.
Robbie Low is Vicar of St Peter’s, Bushey Heath, in the Diocese of St Alban’s.
NEW DIRECTIONS MAGAZINE New Directions is the publication in the UK "serving Evangelicals and Catholics seeking to renew the Church in the historic faith".
April 2002
Fathers of the Church
Robbie Low looks at the shocking influence of men
Finding Hope and Redemption in the Valleys of Life
(Formerly Pride and Expectations)
Type:
General Session, Workshop
Audience:
All, Parents and Children
Description:
This workshop is Steve's testimony of the last twenty years as the father of a child with special needs. He shares what his family has learned as a result of Johnny's disability, and the special, rewarding, and joyful role he has played in their lives. Even in the difficult experiences of life, God proved faithful. His grace sustained them and brought good out of their struggles and disappointments. (55 min)
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child
with a disability -- to try to help people who have not shared that
unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.
It's like this...
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous
vacation trip -- to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make
wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The
gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's
all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You
pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands.
The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for
Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going
to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in
Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible,
disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine, and disease.
It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a
whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you
would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy,
less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and
you catch your breath, you look around . . . and you begin to notice
that Holland has windmills . . . and Holland has tulips. Holland even
has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy . . .
and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.
And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I
was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away . . .
because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.
But . . . if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't
get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the
very lovely things . . . about Holland.
I went to my dad and said to him,
There's a new kid who's come to my school.
He's different from me and he isn't too cool.
No, he's nothing at all like me, like me,
No, he's nothing at all like me. He runs in a funnyish jerkyish way
And he never comes first in a race
Sometimes he forgets which way is first base,
And he's nothing at all like me, like me,
No, he's nothing at all like me. He studies all day in a separate class
And they say that it's called "Special Ed."
And sometimes I don't understand what he's said,
And he's nothing at all like me, like me,
No, he's nothing at all like me. His face looks kind of different from mine,
And his talking is sometimes so slow
And it makes me feel funny and there's one thing I know;
He is nothing at all like me, like me,
No, he's nothing at all like me! And my father said, "Son, I want you to think
When you need some one different and new
That he may seem a little bit strange, it's true,
But he's not very different from you, from you,
No, he's not very different from you, "Well I guess, I admitted, I've looked at his face;
When he's left out of games, he feels bad.
And when other kids tease him, I can see he's so sad.
I guess that's not so different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me. And when we're in Music, he sure loves to sing,
And he sings just like me, right out loud.
When he gets his report card, I can tell he feels proud,
And that's not very different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me. And I know in the lunchroom he has lots of fun;
He loves hot dogs and ice cream and fries.
And he hates to eat spinach and that's not a surprise,
'Cause that's not very different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me. And he's always so friendly, he always says hi,
And he waves and he calls out my name.
And he'd like to be friends and get into a game,
Which is not very different from me, from me,
No, I guess that's not different from me. And his folks really love him. I saw them at school,
I remember on Open School Night --
They were smiling and proud and they hugged him real tight,
And that's not very different from me, from me,
No, that's not very different from me.
So I said to my dad, Hey, you know that new kid?
well, I've really been thinking a lot.
Some things are different . . . and some things are not . . .
But mostly he's really like me, like me,
Yes, my new friend's . . . a lot . . . like me.
In examining the life of Isaac and David, Steve gleans helpful insights into the battles facing young people today. This workshop will clarify the issues, and encourage our youth to stand strong in their faith. All scripture is inspired and profitable for Christians of all ages, and in all ages.
This workshop is applicable for any earnest Christian who desires to develop this habit or needs encouragement to keep at it. How and why to have a daily quiet time, tips for making the time more effective, and reading through the Bible are a few of the topics to be considered. After examining the Scriptures and hearing about Steve's own experience and that of other Christians, all will be encouraged to continue to grow in their walk with God. (50 min)
Being a Disciple and Training Disciples in the Home
Type:
Keynote, General Session, Workshop
Audience:
Parents
Description:
God calls us to teach and disciple our children while we are still being discipled ourselves. This unique dynamic was designed by God to develop teacher and student alike. Steve shares his successes and failures of 20+ years training his 4 sons from young boys to grown men. He also shares insights about the father as the pastor of the home. (60 min)
Courtship and Dating, Breaking Cycles for the Next Generation
Type:
General Session, Workshop
Audience:
Parents and Youth
Description:
Is "courtship" unique to homeschoolers, or is it the logical extension of the life of faith? Having practiced this approach over 26 years ago, Steve shares his testimony of seeking a wife and how this is consistent with the Christian life. He also shares his observations of dating in the world and the church. Beginning with a short study of marriage in scripture, this is a timely exhortation to know to put God first and be led by the Spirit in finding a life partner. (65 min)
Conformed or Transformed
(Formerly In the Beginning was the Word)
Type:
General Session, Workshop
Audience:
Parents and Youth
Description:
Steve believes the word of God is inspired, authoritative, and "profitable for teaching". He also is convinced we are to be not conformed but transformed by the renewing of our mind. With these premises, he examines what the Bible has to say about education and how scripture impacts every subject area in our curriculum.
By Carolyn Caines, Supervisor
Columbia Heights Christian Academy -Longview, Washington
If I learn my ABCs, can read 600 words per minute, and can write with perfect penmanship, but have not been shown how to communicate with the Designer of all language,
I have not been educated.
If I can deliver an eloquent speech and persuade you with my stunning logic, but have not been instructed in God’s wisdom,
I have not been educated.
If I have read Shakespeare and John Locke and can discuss their writings with keen insight, but have not read the greatest of all books-the Bible-and have no knowledge of its personal importance,
I have not been educated.
If I have memorized addition facts, multiplication tables, and chemical formulas, but have never been disciplined to hide God’s Word in my heart,
I have not been educated.
If I can explain the law of gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity, but have never been instructed in the unchangeable laws of the One Who orders our universe,
I have not been educated.
If I can classify animals by their family, genus and species, and can write a lengthy scientific paper that wins an award, but have not been introduced to the Maker’s purpose for all creation, I have not been educated.
If I can recite the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble to the Constitution, but have not been informed of the hand of God in the history of our country,
I have not been educated.
If I can play the piano, the violin, six other instruments, and can write music that moves men to tears, but have not been taught to listen to the Director of the universe and worship Him,
I have not been educated.
If I can run cross-country races, star in basketball and do 100 push-ups without stopping, but have never been shown how to bend my spirit to do God’s will,
I have not been educated.
If I can identify a Picasso, describe the style of a da Vinci and even paint a portrait that earns an A+, but have not learned that all harmony and beauty comes from a relationship with God,
I have not been educated.
If I graduate with a perfect 4.0 and am accepted at the best university with a full scholarship, but have not been guided into a career of God’s choosing for me,
I have not been educated.
If I become a good citizen, voting at each election and fighting for what is moral and right, but have not been told of the sinfulness of man and his hopelessness without Christ,
I have not been educated.
However, if one day I see the world as God sees it,and come to know Him, Whom to know is life eternal, and glorify God by fulfilling His purpose for me,
Creation - Chapter 1
Six Day Work week - Chapter 1 (Exodus 20:9)
Man given Dominion - 1:26 and 28
Eden as the Ideal - 1:31
Sabbath - 2:2-3
Headship of the man - 2:2-3 (1 Timothy 2:11-14)
Tree of Life - 2:9, 3:22
Stewardship - 2:15
Work - 2:15, 3:17-19, 23
Covenant - 2:16-17, 6:18, 9:9
Death - 2:17
Disobedience resulting in a curse - 2:17
Obedience resulting in blessing - 2:17 and 3:22
Marriage - 2:24-25
Devil - 3:1 (Rev. 12:9, 2 Cor. 11:3)
Sin - 3:6
Sin separating fellowship with God - 3:8
Savior through the seed of the woman - 3:15
Work brings sweat - 3:17-19
Pain in childbirth - 3:16
Clothing - 3:21
Eternal Life - 3:22
Original Sin inherited - Chapter 3 (Romans 5:12)
Occupations - 4:2, 3, 20, 21, 22
Sacrifices and Offerings - 4:4 & 8:20
Temptation - 4:6-7
Curse - 4:11
Name of Jehovah - 4:26
Translation - 5:24
Righteousness - 6:8-9, 7:1
Worldwide judgment - 6:13, 17
Sanctity of family unit - 6:18, 9:9
Way of escape for the righteous - 7:1
Clean/unclean animals - 7:2-3
Worldwide Flood - 7:6
Capital punishment - 9:6
Forming of nations - Chapter 10 and 11
Dividing of nations - 10:25
Unified language as the ideal - 11:1
Different languages, the curse - 11:7-9
Babylon - 11:9
Origins (From Henry Morris)
1. Origin of the Universe
2. Origin of Order and Complexity
3. Origin of the Solar System
4. Origin of the Atmosphere and Hydrosphere
5. Origin of Life
6. Origin of Man
7. Origin of Marriage
8. Origin of Evil
9. Origin of Language
10. Origin of Government
11. Origin of Culture
12. Origin of Nations
13. Origin of Religion
14. Origin of Israel
New Testament Allusions (From Henry Morris)
At least 200 direct references and allusions
All NT Books contain allusions to Genesis except:
Philemon and 2nd and 3rd John
More than half of the allusions are to Genesis
1 - 11
63 are to Genesis 1 - 3
14 are to Genesis 6 - 8 (Flood)
25 are from Jesus Christ
Colleges and Seminaries Claiming To Teach A Literal Genesis
Answers
in Genesis is not officially recommending these schools. We
recommend personal contact with any school under consideration for attendance.
Not all schools on the list share the same theological or denominational
backgrounds. Individual instructors may vary in their own views and
curricula. This list is intended only to provide the names of those
institutions that claim to teach a literal Genesis, consisting of six-24
hour days, a young Earth, no death before sin and a global Flood.
Appalachian Bible College
100 N. Sandbranch Rd., Bradley, WV 25818
Phone (304) 877-6428
Arizona College of the Bible
2045 W. Noukem Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85021
Phone (602) 242-6400
Bahnsen Theological Seminary
P. O. Box 328, Placentia, CA 92871
Phone (714) 572-8358
Bob Jones University
1700 Wade Hampton Blvd, Greenville, SC 29614
Phone (800) 252-6363
Cedarville Christian College
Box 601, Cedarville, OH 45314
Phone (937) 766-2211
Christian Heritage College
2100 Greenfield Drive, El Cajon, CA 92019-1157
Phone (619) 440-0209
Clearwater Christian College
3400 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33759
Phone (813) 726-1153
Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary
4801 Allen Road, Allen Park, MI 48101
Phone (800) 866-0111
Jackson Hole Bible College
P. O. Box 6490, Jackson, WY 83002
Phone (307) 739-8630
Maryland Bible College and Seminary
6023 Moravia Park Drive, Baltimore, MD 21206
Phone (410) 488-2606
Masters College
21726 West Placerita Canyon Rd., Newhall, CA 91322
Phone (805) 259-3540
Masters Seminary
13248 Roscoe Blvd., Sun Valley, CA 91352
Phone (800) 225-5867
Melanism: Evolution in Action
by Michael E. N. Majerus
Oxford University Press: 1998.
338 pp. £55, $105 (hbk), £23.95, $45 (pbk)
From time to time, evolutionists re-examine a classic experimental
study and find, to their horror, that it is flawed or downright wrong.
We no longer use chromosomal polymorphism in Drosophila pseudoobscura
to demonstrate heterozygous advantage, flower-colour variation in Linanthus
parryae to illustrate random genetic drift, or the viceroy and monarch
butterflies to exemplify Batesian mimicry. Until now, however, the prize
horse in our stable of examples has been the evolution of 'industrial
melanism' in the peppered moth, Biston betularia, presented by most
teachers and textbooks as the paradigm of natural selection and evolution
occurring within a human lifetime. The re-examination of this tale is
the centrepiece of Michael Majerus's book, Melanism: Evolution in Action.
Depressingly, Majerus shows that this classic example is in bad shape,
and, while not yet ready for the glue factory, needs serious attention.
According to the standard textbook litany, before the mid-nineteenth
century, all B. betularia in England were white moths peppered with
black spots, a form called typica. Between 1850 and 1920, typica was
largely replaced by a pure black form (carbonaria) produced by a single
dominant allele, the frequency of which rose to nearly 100% in some
areas. After 1950, this trend reversed, making carbonaria rare and typica
again common. These persistent and directional changes implied natural
selection. In a series of studies, this conclusion was verified by several
investigators, most prominently Bernard Kettlewell of Oxford.
According to these workers, the evolution of colour was caused by birds
eating the moths most conspicuous on their normal resting site -- tree
trunks. The increase in black moths was attributed to pollution accompanying
the rise of heavy industry. A combination of soot and acid rain darkened
trees by first killing the lichens that festooned them and then blackening
the naked trunks. The typica form, previously camouflaged on lichens,
thus became conspicuous and heavily predated, while the less visible
carbonaria enjoyed protection and increased in frequency. After the
passage of the Clean Air Acts in the 1950s, trees regained their former
appearance, reversing the selective advantage of the morphs. This conclusion
was bolstered by a geographical correlation between pollution levels
and morph frequencies (carbonaria was most common in industrial areas),
and most prominently by Kettlewell's famous experiments which showed
that, after releasing typica and carbonaria in both polluted and unpolluted
woods, researchers recaptured many more of the cryptic than of the conspicuous
form. The differential predation was supported by direct observation
of birds eating moths placed on trees. Finally, Kettlewell demonstrated
in the laboratory that each form had a behavioural preference to settle
on backgrounds that matched its colour.
Criticisms of this story have circulated in samizdat for several years,
but Majerus summarizes them for the first time in print in an absorbing
two-chapter critique (coincidentally, a similar analysis [Sargent et
al., Evol. Biol. 30, 299-322; 1998] has just appeared). Majerus notes
that the most serious problem is that B. betularia probably does not
rest on tree trunks -- exactly two moths have been seen in such a position
in more than 40 years of intensive search. The natural resting spots
are, in fact, a mystery. This alone invalidates Kettlewell's release-recapture
experiments, as moths were released by placing them directly onto tree
trunks, where they are highly visible to bird predators. (Kettlewell
also released his moths during the day, while they normally choose resting
places at night.) The story is further eroded by noting that the resurgence
of typica occurred well before lichens recolonized the polluted trees,
and that a parallel increase and decrease of the melanic form also occurred
in industrial areas of the United States, where there was no change
in the abundance of the lichens that supposedly play such an important
role.
Finally, the results of Kettlewell's behavioural experiments were not
replicated in later studies: moths have no tendency to choose matching
backgrounds. Majerus finds many other flaws in the work, but they are
too numerous to list here. I unearthed additional problems when, embarrassed
at having taught the standard Biston story for years, I read Kettlewell's
papers for the first time.
Majerus concludes, reasonably, that all we can deduce from this story
is that it is a case of rapid evolution, probably involving pollution
and bird predation. I would, however, replace "probably" with "perhaps".
B. betularia shows the footprint of natural selection, but we have not
yet seen the feet. Majerus finds some solace in his analysis, claiming
that the true story is likely to be more complex and therefore more
interesting, but one senses that he is making a virtue of necessity.
My own reaction resembles the dismay attending my discovery, at the
age of six, that it was my father and not Santa who brought the presents
on Christmas Eve.
Occupying a quarter of the book, the Biston analysis is necessary reading
for all evolutionists, as are the introductory chapters on the nature
of melanism, its distribution among animals, and its proposed causes.
Majerus, however, designed his book for both professional and lay readers,
and this causes some unevenness in the material. The Biston story is
sandwiched between less compelling chapters, including long sections
on the basic principles of genetics and evolution, which can be skipped
by evolutionists. Other discussions, involving melanism in ladybirds
and other Lepidoptera, as well as the author's unpublished work on habitat
selection, are full of technical details that will overwhelm the lay
reader. Unfortunately, most of the work described is inconclusive; despite
the widespread occurrence of melanism, its evolutionary significance
is nearly always unknown.
What can one make of all this? Majerus concludes with the usual call
for more research, but several lessons are already at hand. First, for
the time being we must discard Biston as a well-understood example of
natural selection in action, although it is clearly a case of evolution.
There are many studies more appropriate for use in the classroom, including
the classic work of Peter and Rosemary Grant on beak-size evolution
in Galapagos finches. It is also worth pondering why there has been
general and unquestioned acceptance of Kettlewell's work. Perhaps such
powerful stories discourage close scrutiny. Moreover, in evolutionary
biology there is little payoff in repeating other people's experiments,
and, unlike molecular biology, our field is not self-correcting because
few studies depend on the accuracy of earlier ones. Finally, teachers
such as myself often neglect original papers in favour of shorter textbook
summaries, which bleach the blemishes from complicated experiments.
It is clear that, as with most other work in evolutionary biology,
understanding selection in Biston will require much more information
about the animal's habits. Evolutionists may bridle at such a conclusion,
because ecological data are very hard to gather. Nevertheless, there
is no other way to unravel the forces changing a character. We must
stop pretending that we understand the course of natural selection as
soon as we have calculated the relative fitness of different traits.
Jerry A. Coyne is in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, University
of Chicago, 1101 E. 57 Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
