TCBI #24 - Evangelicals and Evolution - April M. Cordero

"Both Christians and atheists incorrectly accept the narrative that believers must reject evolution. I want to change this paradigm. I want to help Christians question their assumptions about this topic and broaden their perspective." - April M. Cordero April Maskiewicz Cordero PhD is a professor of biology at Christian university (Point Loma Nazarene) in San Diego and has taken on the challenging task of teaching evolution and ecology to Christian college undergraduates. She's co-authored several books and delivered several notable lectures and talks at TED and Biologos. I was connected with April by a mutual friend and I was immediately struck by her energy and charisma. April is incredibly fun to listen to and talk to and is very compassionate. If anyone is up to the task of kindly and carefully unpacking the tension surrounding the Creation/Evolution debate in evangelical circles, it's her. I was so honoured to get to have the opportunity to chat with her for a bit about that tension specifically, as well as her story of leaving and coming back to faith in a time of heavy pressure to accept either atheistic evolution or Christian creationism. April was on the cutting edge of those unwilling to accept this dichotomy in the '90s and 2000s and has helped push the Evangelical movement forward on this issue in a valuable way. I hope you enjoy our conversation.