Kenyan Bishop Has Bone to Pick With Turkana Boy

From The East African Standard:

Kenya's world-class collection of hominid bones - primates belonging to a family of which the modern human being is the only species still in existence - is at the centre of a silent but intense war being waged by a section of the evangelical churches. . . .

Bishop Boniface Adoyo of Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC), Christ is the Answer Ministries, is championing the 'hide-the-fossils' campaign, which has left scientists and historians perplexed.

Later this year the National Museum of Kenya will undergo a major renovation and will include the "Origin of Man" gallery, which is the source of the controversy. The gallery will display "Turkana Boy," a nearly complete homo erectus skeleton. Adoyo and some other religious leaders fear that the exhibit promotes Darwinian evolution and is an affront to a biblical view of creation. What isn't clear is whether Apoyo and company are protesting how the museum is displaying Turkana Boy or that the museum is displaying Turkana Boy. The existence of the skeleton is not in doubt. An effective protest, in my view, must explain how Turkana Boy fits into the bishop's understanding of biblical creationism. (According to the AP, "Bishop Adoyo believes the world was created 12,000 years ago, with man appearing 6,000 years later. He says each biblical day was equivalent to 1,000 Earth years.")

The East African Standard piece thankfully includes what other Christian voices have to say about the exhibit:

[Dr Wilson Chiko] says churches should busy themselves in evangelising to the youth and children, and pursuing social justice, instead of worrying about hominids.

"We need serious evangelisation and expansion of Christianity to new frontiers. Fighting skeletons will not help much. What are we going to replace the hominids with to demonstrate the biblical values?" he asks. . . .

Catholic Archbishop Ndingi Mwana'a Nzeki says history should be respected. "I have not been informed of the impending campaign, but history should be respected. We cannot run away from it," Ndingi says.