Saturday, June 16, 2007

Inherit the Wind Indeed

Today's Wall Street Journal has a front page article on Dr. Donald Landry of Columbia University who has a proposal for expanded stem cell research using dead embryos. If you have been following the intricate medical details of the debate on embryonic stem cell research, this is potentially big news. But what struck me, aside from the interesting science, is the way that the Journal chose to frame Dr. Landry's research.

In the headline, he is called a "Devout Doctor" and the cartoon illustration is of him toting a giant medical book and a giant Bible to Washington D.C.. The subheadline talks about how he "reconciled science with religion". Most bizarrely, a back page heading says "On his bookshelf, Dr. Landry keeps the biography of John Paul II. In his bathroom, he sets up physics demonstrations for his sons." I mean, DUH.

My father was a geologist who was a deacon in the Presbyterian church and who would describe to me in loving detail how many million years old various rocks and fossils were.

Or how about this: My bookshelves are jammed with books by famous economists (and a Bible) while Doug and I discuss the meaning of topics as varied as optimization models, fixed costs, unexpected effects, and the emergence of cooperation... but also mission projects and the Kingdom of God. Maybe I should alert the Wall Street Journal.

In a sense, the WSJ headlines are a minor thing compared to what is basically a really interesting article, but they suggest a lot about how BiCoastal media types view Christians. How did we get to this situation? I have some thoughts, but they are lengthy and don't flow very well right now, but I will see if I can make some sense of them for a future post.

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