Back in September the Anglican church issued an apology to Charles Darwin for impugning his character, denying his God-given ability to think, and branding him a heretic.

The apology made my heart soar since modern medical science is based upon Darwin’s “theory.”

The truth is, if you benefit from modern medicine, then you are conceding by default that Darwin has blessed you since he opened the door to new understanding.

Yet the Church of England went even further beyond issuing an apology. It put a section on its website that is devoted to familiarizing Christians with the nature and value of Darwin’s work.

As the Reverend Dr. Malcolm Brown writes: “There is no reason to doubt that Christ still draws people towards truth through the work of scientists as well as others, and many scientists are motivated in their work by a perception of the deep beauty of the created world.”

He further writes: “For the sake of human integrity – and thus for the sake of good Christian living – some rapprochement between Darwin and Christian faith is essential.”

This is fantastic news and a great start to healing the unholy rift. Because, bottom line, it’s time for people of all religions to stop impugning those who do not share their faith. To do so is to continue an ignorant and  barbaric history which has included the Crusades.

Les Croisades by Claude Lebedel - 13th c.

Sadly, this brilliant and brave apology was exploited in an ugly manner by at least one person who used the opportunity to issue his own sarcastic press release. Naturally, it revealed far more about him that is unsavory than it did about his chosen enemy.

I’m sure that those who rip scientists and thinkers apart (allegedly in the name of Christ) do not even realize that they are in the same league with Muslim extremists who behead those they believe are offensive to Islam. Yet they are. It’s just a matter of degree.

The world has seen too many people scorned, flogged, imprisoned and put to death for daring to have a different idea about God and life. Victims have even included devout believers like the statesman Thomas More.

Yet the great irony in More’s case is that he, himself, had ordered a number of “heretics” burned at the stake while he was in favor with King Henry VIII.

Whether beheaded, gutted alive, or burned at the stake, too many have been gruesomely punished for exercising our God-given right of free will. Yet these tortures had nothing to do with Christ who asked us to love and bless those who would despise us. These atrocities were all politically motivated and perpetrated to gain worldly power.

The joke is on the barbarians, however, since Jesus clearly said that whatever you do to others, you do to Him.  So to insult, abuse or kill another is to insult, abuse, or kill God.

When we embrace this ”snake” of condemning others, we must be aware that it will always turn around and bite us as well.