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Changing LaneA pastor’s road to atheism12 June 2006Veteran Australian broadcaster Terry Lane is back on the airwaves again. The long-time interviewer and presenter of ABC radio programs such as The National Interest has come out of retirement to do a ‘Big Ideas’ series of six interviews 1 for his former employer, the taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Mr Lane’s eloquence and general knowledge are widely admired and served him well in his career as interviewer, talk-back host, and newspaper columnist. 2 But even among his most avid listeners, there would be many who would not be aware of the complete turnaround in the course of Mr Lane’s life and of the events and experiences that he identifies as being life-changing moments for him. Was this ‘turnaround’ the type that Christians love to hear, of someone becoming ‘born again’?
Sadly, no. As Terry Lane explained in an interview with the ABC’s Geraldine Doogue (at the time of his retirement late last year), 3 more than thirty years ago he was a church pastor, having earlier graduated with formal qualifications in theology. But today, not only is he no longer a serving minister, he’s not even a Christian .
Now there’s a couple of famous names, renowned proponents of evolution. When Sir David Attenborough, possibly the best-known presenter of nature documentary programs in the world, was asked why he does not give credit to the Creator, he cited the oft-used argument that nature’s dog-eat-dog character is incompatible with ‘God’. And, consistent with his belief that evolution explains our origins, he recently gave his view of human extinction: ‘If we [humans] disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off,’ 4 (compare his fellow evolutionist Eric Pianka). So it’s not surprising that Terry Lane should cite Attenborough as being a factor in Lane’s acceptance of atheism’s bleak worldview of the meaning of life:
And what about Richard Dawkins—in what way did he make a ‘big impression’ on this former church minister? Lane explains:
As have many others, too, who tragically did not understand that Dawkins is wrong— Darwin’s ideas did not, and do not, ‘explain the phenomenon of life’. But is Lane saying that it was his interviews with Attenborough and Dawkins that prompted his abandonment of Christianity? No, because he goes on to say:
Theological college? Isn’t that where people go to build up their knowledge of God and to thus deepen their faith? Actually, as we have pointed out many times before, it depends on what is being taught at those Bible colleges and theological seminaries—many perhaps better termed theological ‘cemeteries’ (as correspondents have told us) given the way students who go there can ‘lose their faith’ rather than strengthen it. Lane recalls a college excursion into the real world as being highly confronting to his faith:
It seems that the theological college had not equipped its students with a biblical worldview, which, by definition, 5 must be firmly grounded in Genesis. Because without the knowledge that the Creation is no longer ‘very good’ but is cursed and ‘in bondage to decay’ 6 as a result of the disobedience of the first man Adam, anyone professing to be a Christian will flounder when confronted with the reality of this present world. No wonder Lane and his fellow theology students were left struggling to reconcile the horrors of the Kew Hospital with the God of Love they’d committed their lives to serving. And in Lane’s case, look where it has led. If Bible colleges are known by their ‘fruit’ (Matthew 7:16 –20) then surely this is a tragic wake-up call about the need for them to teach a plain reading of Genesis. See ‘Crisis in the Colleges—A call for reformation’. And note this: by Lane’s own admission, the seeds of doubt 7 were already afflicting him while he was still at theological college, yet this did not stop him going on to be a minister for six years. 8 So if Lane, as a church pastor, did not have answers to key issues of faith (1 Peter 3:15 ), one can legitimately wonder just what he was ‘feeding’ his ‘flock’? And how many other theological college graduates go on to pastor large (or small) churches, yet themselves are ill-equipped to encourage their congregations in the faith? No wonder so many young people in particular leave the church, saying: ‘I don’t believe!’
Lane is not the first church leader to take the slippery slide to unbelief. Charles Templeton, for example, who became a renowned evangelist while still a relatively young man, later walked away from Christianity, citing the same types of questions as Terry Lane. Sadly, Templeton went to his deathbed apparently unaware (or willingly ignorant?—2 Peter 3:5) of the abundant resources now available to readily refute his stated objections to faith. It’s also interesting that long-age apologists Lee Strobel and Norman Geisler proposed the right answer to Templeton’s specific arguments, oblivious to the fact that it flies against their long-age views. For Terry Lane, however, there may yet be time. Time for him to be made aware that the claims of Attenborough, Dawkins and many others have been addressed and refuted in creationist literature and on websites such as this one. Time to know that the Bible explains why there is death and suffering. Time to abandon the wide road (Matthew 7:13 –14) for the Way to Truth and Life (John 14:6). Time indeed, to change Lane.
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If Bible colleges are known by their ‘fruit’ (Matthew 7:16–20) then surely this is a tragic wake-up call about the need for them to teach a plain reading of Genesis.
