Lancaster Bible College and Apologetics for the Church will co-host a half-day seminar titled “Dignity Beyond Accomplishment: Valuing All People in a Culture of Death.” Geared toward pastors, church leaders, counselors and more, the relevant and timely seminar will present the latest threats to the sanctity of life along with a powerful apologetic for a Christian view of life and dignity.
Organizing the event from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 13 on the Lancaster Bible College campus, 901 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pa., is Dr. Mark Farnham, LBC Professor and Director of the online Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics program. He is also founder and director of Apologetics for the Church and author of “Every Believer Confident: Apologetics for the Ordinary Christian.”
“In contrast to a culture that grants value only to those it deems worthy, the Christian faith recognizes that each person is made in God’s image and, therefore, possesses inherent dignity and value,” Farnham said. “While some countries have even boasted that they have eliminated Down syndrome by mandatory abortion, Christians have a long history of valuing and rescuing all human life discarded by the culture of death.”
The keynote speaker for the event will be Dr. Justin R. Hawkins, a postdoctoral fellow at The Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University. His research areas include virtue ethics, bioethics, disability theory and the relationship of political theory and Christian theology. Hawkins earned a PhD with distinction from Yale University and also holds a Master of Arts in Religion in the Philosophy of Religion from Yale Divinity School and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Georgetown University.
Farnham has been teaching Apologetics in local churches for nearly 20 years. He earned a PhD in Apologetics from Westminster Theological Seminary and holds a Master of Theology degree in New Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary as well as a Master of Divinity from Calvary Baptist Seminary. In addition, he has co-authored “Talking About Ethics: A Conversational Approach to Moral Dilemmas” and the forthcoming “Talking About Worldviews: A Conversational Approach to Philosophical Questions.”
Registration for the “Dignity Beyond Accomplishment” seminar is open at lbc.edu/events. The cost is $29, which includes materials and refreshments.