The ASA was established in 1941 and we celebrated our 75th anniversary
in 2016. The ASA was formed so that “science teachers who are
Christians” could help ministers and evangelists who are dealing with
scientific subjects to help college and high school students confronted
with secular textbooks and instructors.
But the story of the ASA actually begins in Los Angeles around 1931 at
the Montecito Park Union Church. Monte- cito Park’s young pastor, Irwin
Moon (Biola educated), was seeking to reach the youth of his community
through a series of scientific demonstrations designed to illustrate
biblical truths, and to set the stage for a call to Christian commitment.
Moon’s scientific presentations at Montecito Park Union Church
attracted great interest and as his fame spread, he became flooded with
requests to take his “Sermons from Science” show on the road.
The next step in the birth of the ASA took place in late 1937 when
Moody Bible Institute president, Will Houghton, viewed a Sermons from
Science presentation at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles.
Houghton invited Moon out for a late night snack, and asked him to join
Moody Bible Institute. The two shared a passion to reach high school
and college students with their message of the compatibility of science
and faith as allies.
The next important person in our history was Alton Everest who held
degrees in electrical engineering from Oregon State and Stanford
University, and was then on the faculty at Oregon State. He had heard
about Moon through his wife, who had been a fellow student at Biola in
the late 1920s. Everest had seen Moon’s Sermons from Science while he
was at Oregon State and had constructed and delivered the equipment to
Moon in late 1940 during a Sermons from Science series in Salem,
Oregon.
Houghton, Moon, and Everest were concerned about the challenges to
faith that young Christian students faced when they went off to college
and the inability of the church of that day to help them. They
concluded that an organization of scientist-Christians would be the
best way to formulate a strategy to offset these faith shattering
encounters.
In June 1941, Houghton sent an invitational letter spelling out the
vision of the goals and membership requirements for the new
organization. Ultimately, five people would attend the ASA’s founding
meeting that was held in September 1941. They were a mixed bag
geographically, as well as in terms of academic discipline. In addition
to Everest, there were Peter Stoner—astronomer and mathematician at
Pasadena City College, Russell Sturgis—chemist at Ursinus College,
Irving Cowperthwaite—chemist living near Boston, and John Van
Haitsma–biologist at Calvin College.
The ASA founders soon identified within their group a fundamental
difference in approach from other organizations of their day. Instead
of coming together on the dual basis of a shared faith plus fixed
interpretation of science and scripture, the ASA membership shared a
basic Christian faith plus a desire to seek the truth between the many
conflicting scientific and scriptural interpretations.
Less than a year after World War II ended, the very first ASA
conference was held at Wheaton College in 1946. And we have been
holding annual meetings ever since with the exception of 2020 during
the COVID pandemic. In 2021, we held a first ever virtual meeting and
the 2022 meeting was our 76th!
Thousands of ASA members over the last 80 years have benefited from our
mission to integrate, communicate, and facilitate properly researched
science and theology in service to the Church and the scientific
community. And we look with great anticipation to what God has in store
for the ASA for the next 80 years.
With thanks to Jack Haas, Terry Gray, and Ted Davis,
who wrote the original draft in 2016, for our 75th Anniversary celebration.
The Convention Committee, 1950, Goshen College
Left to right: Hendrik
Oorthuys, Edwin Monsma, Harold Hartzler, Alta Schrock, Paul Bender
Marie Fetzer (left), Cordelia Erdman, and Alto Schrock contributed much to the 1950 ASA Convention at Goshen College
1951 ASA Convention, Shelton College, New York
James O. Buswell II and James O. Buswell III
The 1956 ASA Convention, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
