Harmony of Faith and Science

Midwest Center for American Values is helping John Podesta's Center for American Progress organize an event in Kansas City. Below are the details, including RSVP instructions. Hope to see you there.

 

Bob Hoffman
Co-Founder
Midwest Center for American Values
(816) 763-6409
http://www.midwestvalues.org

                                   

John D. Podesta President and CEO 1333 H Street, N.W. 10th Floor Washington, D.C. 20005 Tel 202-682-1611 Fax 202-682-1867AmericanProgress.org

The Harmony of Faith and Science In cities and towns across America, the Center for American Progress is engaging the public in conversations on religion and politics, giving voice to those whose hopes and concerns have been lost in highly polarized debates. Our series of national conversations began in Denver and will continue throughout the year. In Kansas City, our conversation will focus on science and faith. How can these systems of inquiry and belief enhance each other and strengthen our lives? How can we articulate a vision that embraces both? Our panelists will discuss evolution and intelligent design, stem cell research, as well as the truths that spring from both science and religion. Please join our panel of experts and leaders in a provocative, lively conversation. Panelists:Myra Christopher, Executive Director, Center for Practical Bioethics Jack Krebs, Vice President, Kansas Citizens for Science John Tamilio III, Senior Minister, Colonial Church, Prairie Village, Kansas Moderated by: Melody Barnes, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress When: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 Program: 6:30 - 8:00 PM Doors open at 5:45 PM Light refreshments will be served. There is no cost for this event Where: All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church 4501 Walnut St . Kansas City, MO 64111 Click here for detailed directions Space is limited - Please RSVP: Click here or call (202) 741-6246 and leave a message with your full name, organization, and email address. Contact: religion@americanprogress.org Please direct any media inquiries to: Daniella Gibbs Léger (202) 682-1611 dleger@americanprogress.org Myra Christopher became President of the Center for Practical Bioethics in December 1994, and continues to serve as its Executive Director, a position she has held since the Center's inception in 1985. In addition to providing oversight to the Center, Christopher served as the National Program Officer of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation's National Program Office for State-based Initiatives to Improve End-of-Life Care. These roles allow Christopher to continue her lifelong mission to improve care for seriously ill people and their families. An author and frequent speaker on bioethical issues, Christopher has made presentations to such prestigious national organizations as the American Hospital Association, Group Health Association of America, the National Health Lawyers Association, AARP, and the American Philosophical Association. Because of Christopher's involvement with the Nancy Beth Cruzan case, Senator John Danforth sought her assistance in drafting and introducing the Patient Self-Determination Act. In 1991, she was appointed Vice Chair of the Kansas Commission on the Future of Health Care by the gGovernor and served in that capacity until 1994. She also consulted with the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations on patients' rights and organizational ethics standards. Christopher is currently a member of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging, the National Advisory Board for the Duke Institute for Care at the End-of-Life, the expert panel for the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Human Development and the advisory board for the Federation of State Medical Boards. Jack Krebs is a member of the Kansas state science standards review committee. The committee is the author of the current pro-science Draft 2 of the standards that is being threatened by the creationist "Intelligent Design" movement in the state. Krebs is also Vice President of Kansas Citizens for Science (KCFS), a group that has been actively defending science and science education from creationist and anti-evolutionary attacks since the first Kansas state science standards situation in 1999. He is a member of various national pro-science groups such as the National Center for Science Education and the Panda's Thumb weblog. Krebs has a broad background in the many facets of the "creation/evolution debate," and more generally in the relationship between science and faith within both our culture and ourselves as individuals. He is a veteran high school teacher and former curriculum director, with undergraduate degrees in anthropology and education; teaching credentials in math, sociology, and world history; and curriculum experience in science, math, language arts, social studies, and human health and sexuality. Krebs' primary interest as an anthropology student was in comparative religion and belief systems. Since then he has maintained his interests in the history and philosophy of science as well as science itself; comparative religion and metaphysics, with an emphasis on the differences between Western and Eastern viewpoints; and the sociological and political culture of our country. John Tamilio III accepted the call to be the Senior Minister of Colonial Church in Prairie Village, Kansas – a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri &8211; in 2004. Situated in one of the most religiously conservative parts of the country, Colonial Church, the second largest UCC congregation in the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ, offers a progressive alternative to fundamentalist thought and it has nourished Tamilio's interest in scholarly writing, which has been his focus over the past few years. After he completed his Master of Arts degree with a dual concentration in British and American Literature (1992), Tamilio began teaching writing and literature at Salem State, North Shore Community College, and Endicott College. He also became the Coordinator of Communication Skills and English as a Second Language at the Salem State Learning Center. Tamilio recalls, "It was during this time that I should have started applying to Ph.D. programs in English, but didn't for some reason. There was something missing in my life, something else that I needed to do. I knew that it had something to do with philosophical and theological inquiry." After much exploration, Tamilio entered the Master of Divinity program at Andover Newton Theological School in 1993, the year he married Susan Rebecca Walo, a fellow Beverly native whom he began dating as an undergraduate. Upon completing the M.Div. degree, Tamilio was ordained into full ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ (UCC), a moderate-to-liberal mainline Christian denomination. The month after his ordination, Tamilio began his pastorate at the First Congregational Church in Wakefield, New Hampshire, where he had a very successful five-year ministry. In October 2003, William L. Bauhan Publishers of Dublin, New Hampshire published Tamilio's first book, Blind Painting: Poems, a 2003 nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in Letters. Melody Barnes is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress where she directs the Faith and Progressive Policy initiative and focuses on religion and domestic policy issues, including civil rights, women's health and gender equity issues, and the judicial confirmation process. From December 1995 until March 2003, Barnes served as Chief Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Senator Kennedy's Chief Counsel, she shaped civil rights, women's health and reproductive rights, commercial law, and religious liberties laws, as well as executive branch and judicial appointments. Barnes' is a member of the Board of Directors of The Constitution Project, The Maya Angelou Public Charter School, and The Moriah Fund. She received her law degree from the University of Michigan and her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated with honors in history. --- The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."