As a former Lutheran, now a weak atheist, I would do the following:
bow head and hold hands with others as necessary during SHORT prayer sessions/blessings, but do not speak. It’s worked fine for me in Lutheran, Baptist, Catholic, Hindu, and Wiccan situations.
excuse myself for involved prayer meetings, bible study sessions, etc.
decline to lead the prayer session altogether; some folks, atheist, agnostic, UU, pagan, etc., that I know still enjoy the ceremony/etc. of religious practice even if they are no longer active, and might not mind doing such a thing if they could leave out any real mention of gods they don’t believe in; I have no interest in such stuff, personally, so I certainly wouldn’t want to force my lack of interest in ritual on others, along with my lack of faith.
not sign the paper; or, maybe, cross out the offending lines and then sign it.
talk with whoever’s in charge ASAP and explain my position, so there’s less ugliness later. With any luck, this trip will be more along the lines of a Habitat for Humanity sort of mission and less like a Spanish Conquistadores type.
I was recently debating with myself along these lines myself. I have my master’s degree in microbiology and desire to teach at the post secondary level.
I have a full time job, but I teach part time when I can to get experience. I would like to teach full time someday. This summer the opportunity to teach at a Lutheran college was offered to me. I think that I’m agnostic or a weak atheist, but I consider myself to have strong moral values. I won’t lie, which annoys my husband. I had already decided that if I had to state that I was a Christian that I would not take the job. The person hiring me knew that I was not a Christian and didn’t have a problem with that. So, I accepted the job.
After I’d already started teaching, I finally received my contract. The majority of the contract was not objectionable to me, but one line gave me pause. I am to promote (I think promote was the word, but not sure.) “the Christian life in word and deed.” Well, I’m a biology teacher and my supervisor told me to teach evolution. So, right there I see a conflict.
Anyway, I signed the contract. I can’t really promote Christian life, but I don’t discourage it either. I don’t know if I would taken the job if I’d seen the contract before I started teaching, I do know that I’m not comfortable being in the position that I’m in right now. I have decided that I will fulfill this obligation, but not accept anymore from this university.
I definately think you should tell them your beliefs or lack thereof. I will probably kick myself for the rest of my life for signing the contract. I would have been a great Jew or Catholic since I feel guilty about most everything.
Despite what Jack Chick tracts would have you believe, there is nothing contridictory between “Christian word and deed” and evolution.
I might ask for a definition of Christian in that contract. They may mean in in the same way as my grandmother, who referred to the older Jewish gentleman next door as “such a nice guy, a real Christian.”
Dr. Smith made it known through diplomatic channels that I am Jewish. Much as I expected, the leader, a good man, got all excited and talked about how he has donated to the Tomsk synagogue. I never feared the missionaries (even if it may have sounded that way) – I realize how much integrity it must take to devote 2 weeks to going to some godforsaken place and giving yourself fully to helping the people. I just was intimidated about all the talk of Jesus.
So, now I have the somewhat easier task of acting Jewish. I will dig up a yarmulke to wear if they want to see me go to synagogue. I won’t press the issue. Anyway, I think I’ll ease them into my agnostic viewpoints, and them knowing that I am Jewish is one step of separation from their flock.
The prayer session remains unresolved, though, although I am 99% sure that I will back out of it. I have bought books and music for the significant plane trip. I am doing my laundry and putting my experiments on ice. Tomorrow, I begin packing.
I don’t necessarily believe that evolution and Christianity conflict, but some more conservative religious views do.
My boss’s defintion fits with your grandmother’s descrition of the Jewish gentleman. According to my boss, the President of the campus is from the liberal Lutherans, but the VP of academics (the guys who hires faculty) is from the conservative Lutherans.
Luckily it is a biology class and I’m not expected to teach about the bible or Jesus. I tell any class that I teach that I’m going to present the data that has prompted biologists to develop the theory of evolution and the mechanisms of evolution. They just have to know it, understand it and be able to give it back to me on a test. Then they can accept it or reject it as they see fit. I even try not to express my view that it is a valid theory. I want students to think about it and make up their own minds.
You have a conflict teaching evolution in biology?
[ confused ]
That I am aware, Lutherans are not inherently Young Earth Creationists. Even within the Missouri Synod (the Lutheran answer to chasidism and Tridentine Mass societies) there are folks who recognize the validity of actual science. I have never met a YEC from the ELCA (although I am sure they exist).