This month, the Reverend Luis Cortes was invited to speak and offer a prayer at the Biologos conference in San Fransisco, CA. Biologos is a conference that invites the church and the world to see the harmony between science and biblical faith while presenting an evolutionary understanding of God’s creation. The concept of Biologos affirms that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God and also accepts the science of evolution as the best description for how God brought about life on earth.
As Esperanza continues to promote STEM education in our Hispanic community, we know that sometimes the Hispanic church can be a deterrent for our youth seeking careers in STEM. With an increasing population of young Hispanics and millions more becoming college-aged every year, we can help bring the United States back up to par in the global scientific community while bridging gaps between biblical and scientific beliefs. With that, we leave you with Rev. Cortes’ remarks at the Biologos conference.
Biologos Celebrating Creation Conference 2015: Prayer of The Reverend Luis Cortés Jr.
Good afternoon. Today we address an issue that is not a topic of dialogue with the majority of Hispanic Evangelical churches. This is because Hispanic Evangelical fundamentalism is often prescribed by certain Christian publications, Christian tracts, and five decades of television ministries that have eroded intellectual inquiry, and have equated intellectual inquiry to a lack of faith. So I join you here, questioning, challenging you to think about how truly absurd this is. Think about this: As a nation, within the past fifty years, we have increased our prison population from 300,000 to 2.2 million! The United States houses 5% of its own inhabitants in prison cells, and this number makes up 25% of the total world population of incarcerated. As of 2010, 33% of black male high school dropouts find themselves in prison, alongside 13% of their Hispanic peers. So here’s the question I pose to you today: How many of our youth didn’t get a chance because the church turned them away from education? Why is it more important to be spiritual than to get A’s in class? How ridiculous and sad it is, that our country is number one when it comes to imprisoning youth, but ranked 27th and 35th in the world when it comes to educating youth in science and math. Are our churches really okay with this? Therefore, let us come together in supplication to the Lord over this issue and the challenge that is ahead of us. Let us pray.
Prayer
God, we are grateful for our brothers and sisters who can see things we cannot see with our own eyes. People who can define these things, and in many cases fix them, and who can see Your face and Your spirit in them. We thank you, because these men and women bring to us Your magnificence, from particle or enzyme, or the vastness of your creation. We pray for Brother Collins and this Christian burden on his heart, and for Biologos and its purpose. We pray for all of us who are here and for this beautiful setting and food before us. We give You thanks, and we humbly ask that You will illuminate us before You. How do we enlist others to this cause that lies so heavy on our hearts today? How do we communicate to our larger Christian family of clergy? And how do we communicate with Christian mothers and fathers about the opportunity to be touched by the Creator through science? How do we let our youth know that it is not only okay, but a privilege, to seek knowledge and wisdom? And that it is okay, to discover the totality of God’s creation?
And so we thank you…We thank you for the anticipation of your continued revelation.
Amen.
Remarks and Prayer Offered By:
The Reverend Luis Cortes Jr.
Founder, President and CEO
Esperanza