Janelle & Jason Shives 25229 Taylor Street Apt. A Loma Linda, CA 92354 July 14, 2004 General Conference and Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Advent ATTN: Don Roth and pertinent officials Greetings, and thank you for your time. This letter is written to inform the Seventh-day Adventist Church Administration of the condition of 2 departments, at La Sierra University. These two departments, Biology and Religion, are openly teaching students that the theory of evolution is fact, and that the Bible was not meant to be taken literally. My name is Janelle Shives, and I just graduated from La Sierra University this past June 2004, with a B.S. in Biology. I transferred to LSU afier my sophomore year from Southem Adventist University. During my 2 years at La Sierra University, I have taken classes taught by “professed” Seventh-day Adventist Professors, who not only teach that the theory of (macro) evolution is true, but have been informing students that they firmly believe it themselves, and that all true science refutes the Biblical account of creation. In fact, one such professor, Dr. Lee Grismer, enjoys making students and visiting professors look like fools, if they question the validity of Darwin's theory of evolution, Aside from that, I have yet to attend 1 class taught by Dr. Grismer where he did not curse openly while lecturing, In fact, it was during my enrollment in Dr. Grismer’s “Animal Diversity” class (spring 2003) that I realized his staunch evolutionary beliefs. Many in my class, including myself, did not speak up, because we had either heard of the horror stories of those that did try to stand for the truth (or had a differing opinion), or had come to believe that evolution must be true, due to the convincing claims our teachers were making. I personally viewed an episode of “Snake Wranglers”, a show on the Discovery Channel (a worldwide cable channel) where Dr, Grismer explained that lizards had evolved over millions of years. As he was saying this, his name appeared on the bottom of the screen along with the words “La Sierra University, Professor of Biology.” Is that good PR for the church? Thad heard from former students and faculty members that these teachings had been gaing on for several years, without oversight regulation, so I thought it futile to do anything. A common response I received from those I had mentioned this information to was, “Oh, that is just too bad”, yet nobody was doing anything about it! So I am sorry to admit that my junior year at LSU, I did nothing as well. During my senior year, I pretty much forgot about those incidences, being caught up in the rush to finish my requirements for graduation, I made every attempt to stay clear of Dr. Grismer’s classes, choosing instead to take classes pertaining to subjects I was not interested in, but were classes that were taught by the only openly young-earth creationist in the department, Dr. Perumal (a former professor from Souther Adventist University), All was going well until spring quarter of 2004. All biology majors are required to take a“capstone” class that deals with issues of biology as it pertains to society, and religion. The class is team taught by the current department chair, Dr. Larry McCloskey, and the former department chair, Dr. Gary Bradley. The first 7 weeks of the course were basically indoctrination in the “FACT” of evolution. 1 felt like God was telling me to make a stand, so during this class I was more vocal. And because of my stand, a few others, who had previously been silent, started voicing their views as well. I voiced my concern to Drs. McCloskey and Bradley that the class was very one-sided in favor of evolution, In fact, the other side of the argument received no attention, So basically, the biology classes at La Sierra University teach evolution to the EXCULSION of the Adventist (biblical) view of creation. | stood up in class and made my opinion known, saying that we as students at an Adventist institution, deserve to AT LEAST hear the other side of the argument. Dr. McCloskey said that there would not be any mention of creation science in this class because in his opinion, it is not real science. I made it known to Dr. McCloskey that I had a physician-friend that was well studied in the area of creation science, who lives locally, and who was willing to make a small presentation, but Dr. McCloskey shot it down. He exclaimed that his reason for denying him access to time in class was that my friend, Dr. Sean Pitman M.D., would not be presenting on material that he had researched on himself. However, I reminded Dr. McCloskey that just recently, he had brought in a guest-speaker, Robert Wonderly (not a doctor), who gave a presentation on somebody else’s research, Dr. McCloskey gave no response. Since the Chair of the department was against teaching creation at an Adventist school, I decided to write Dr. Geraty, the President of the University. He never responded to me, so my husband (then fiancée) wrote a letter, saying that he had heard about some teachers openly teaching evolution as truth at his school. Being the President of his medical school class at Loma Linda University, my husband, Jason Shives, had gotten to know many of his classmates that were former La Sierra students. They had mentioned to him their concern while attending La Sierra, but that they felt powerless to do anything. Dr. Geraty responded to Jason’s letter, but exclaimed that all the biology teachers considered themselves to be creationists, and that he knew exactly what the church’s stance was, and assured him in his letter that those claims were untrue and just rumors. Jason responded to that letter by saying that one of the current students was actually his fiancée, and that he knew the claims not to be rumors, but to be true. And that the teachers at La Sierra might “consider themselves to be creationists”, but they are still teaching the theory of evolution as fact, to the exclusion of the church’s and Bible’s stance on creation. President Geraty did not write’back, but rather forwarded the letters to Dr. McCloskey. Dr, McCloskey called me into his office following the next class period, and spent an hour speaking to me about the letters Jason and I had written. He felt like they were a “personal attack on his character.” He made me feel like the letters should not have been written, and he forgave me (though I didn’t apologize) for what I had done to him. I asked Dr. McCloskey if he thought it unethical to be accepting money from an organization that believes one thing, when he is teaching the opposite; he avoided the question by asking me if I thought there was any possibility that the church could bewrong. He also said that he felt that God had placed him at La Sierra University to enlighten the students to his beliefS. After speaking with him, | felt even more distraught that there was nothing I could do about the situation, ‘A day or two later I spoke with Dr. Bradley, who had not yet read the letters Jason and I wrote. He was sympathetic to my concem for science that disagrees with evolution, but suggested I try doing the seminar through my church (which is exactly what I was trying to do. If] am not mistaken, the university is owned by the “chureh”), Dr. Bradley exclaimed that they used to teach a class that included creation science, but many of the ‘graduates would get “blasted” by their following graduate programs, because they were sheltered from the “truth” here at La Sierra University. After our talk I decided to take his advice and give up on trying to get the biology dept to sponsor the Creation seminar, which I find exceedingly distressing that a biology department at an SDA institution would not sponsor a Creation seminar. After Dr. Bradley did reud the letters to Dr. Geraty, he gave me a letter the last week of school, in which I again became the bad guy. This letter from Dr. Bradley is enclosed. During the capstone course, we had two guest speakers from the religion department: Drs. Webster and Guy. To me this was the most distressing of all the class periods. These two theologians sat at the front of our class, and told us that the Bible was not meant to be an instruction manual for every aspect of life, but rather just tells us how to get 10 heaven, Dr. Webster said that the Bible is only one lens to look at the story of ereation, and that other lenses (including the theory of evolution) are needed to get the full picture. I have handouts from this lecture enclosed. Dr. Guy said, “Nobody takes the Genesis account of creation literally.” Well, I do. In closing, the seminar did occur, sponsored by campus ministries. There were over 100 in atendance and I passed around a petition to see the interest in hearing about the scientific evidence for creation at La Sierra University. This petition is also enclosed. At Southern Adventist University, seniors get to learn not only the theory of evolution, but also the scientific arguments against it. Isn’t that the way an Adventist school should teach this subject? I was looking forward to attending a similar class at LSU, but no such class exists, [did not come to LSU for easy access to Loma Linda. I came because 1 earnestly wanted an Adventist education, and I do not believe my goal was met. I paid $15,000 more each year to get something special that I could not get at a public university, but I did not get it. Students want this problem to be addressed, and I have the signatures to prove it. {don’t think that what is happening at La Sierra University is totally going unnoticed, but am hoping that something good comes out of this. What is happening at La Sierra University is wrong, and whether the church decides to do something or not, God’s will, shall eventually be done, “the rocks will cry out!” Jason and I pray for the leadership of this church, that they would stand for the right, and make the tough decisions that good leaders need to make. When action is taken, it will be unpopular since this “cancer” has ‘been left to grow unchecked for so long. But, when has true, bible-based Christianity ever been popular? Let’s do the right thing.formation, Please let us know if you need any more God's Blessings, Toe em Jason Shives Feel free to contact: sor Enclosed: 1. Copy of Petition 2. Copy of correspondence between Jason Shives and Dr. Lawrence Geraty 3. Copy of ewer from Dr. Gary Bradley to Janelle Shives 4. Handout from Religion Professors to Capstone Biology Class 5. Copy of Flier for Creation Seminar 6. Copy of Handout for Creation Seminar 1. Syllabus fer capstone class People Mentioned: 1. Lawrence Geraty, President La Sierra University 2. Larry McCloskey, Chair, Department of Biology, La Sierra University 3. Gary Bradley, Professor, Department of Biology, La Sierra University 4. John Perumal, Professor, Depariment of Biology, La Sierra University 5. Lee Grismer, Professor, Department of Biology, La Sierra University 6 Fritz Guy, Professor, Department of Religion, La Sierra University 7. John Webster, Professor, Department of Religion, La Sierra University “8 Sean Pitman, Senior Pathology Resident, Loma Linda Medical Center, Presenter for Creation Seminar held by Janelle Shives