Friends,

Clint and I saw Steven Spielberg’s long-anticipated Disclosure Day earlier this month.  Interestingly, the movie opened concurrent with our government’s May and June release of three tranches of now-declassified UFO and UAP files.  What used to be a taboo topic has now become the buzz of mainstream news and provokes serious questions for people of faith.

Always fascinated by the intersection of faith and science, I began reading various pastors’ and theologians’ musings on the subject of Non-Human-Intelligence (NHI), which some will claim have long been present on the earth.  One recent snippet of news involved how a group of charismatic, evangelical, megachurch pastors were summoned by a congressman, who went on to warn them that their flocks’ faith could be destroyed by any potential revelation of extraterrestrial beings, who may even claim to be humanity’s creators.  The details of such a meeting have since been disputed, but Disclosure Day develops this very motif.

As a pastor, I have been pondering the potential for spiritual fallout after any direct revelation that we are not the only intelligent species in the universe.  What would happen if someone in authority told us that we were created by beings other than our God?  How could faith remain steady when the world feels larger and stranger than expected? Would the discovery of life beyond weaken or strengthen our faith?

Amid all these questions, I keep coming back to this:  Healthy faith can engage mystery.  Any definitive revelation of NHI has no bearing on my following Jesus and imaging his ways.  I can continue to trust God when answers are incomplete.  Any NHI claiming to be our creator would also have to have a creator, so discernment and being alert to deception would be key.

My faith for one is not threatened by wonder.  Scripture already presents creation as vast, mysterious, and filled with realities beyond human control.  The Apostle Paul even suggests that creation acts as another universal, non-verbal revelation of God.  Indeed, we are living in interesting times.  Let us respond to new revelations coming our way with discernment, humility, and wisdom, all the while keeping our confidence in God’s sovereignty.  Stay tuned: I’ll probably write more on this topic this summer.

Faithfully,

Co-Pastor Sandi