Late last week, Christian geneticist Francis Collins resigned abruptly as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). On Wednesday this week, the U.S. Senate held a confirmation hearing for a new NIH director, Stanford University medical professor Jay Bhattacharya, a fellow Christian who Collins privately disparaged as one of “three fringe epidemiologists” during the COVID crisis.
In many ways, the transition marks the end of an era.
For nearly two decades, Collins has been the most prominent — and powerful — Evangelical Christian scientist in America. After leading the Human Genome Project, Collins served as director of the NIH for 12 years (2009-2021). He then became acting White House Science Advisor in the Biden Administration.
During these years, Collins was celebrated by many Evangelicals because of his acceptance by the secular establishment. However, those Christians might have been wise to reflect on why the establishment has been so approving of Collins.
In 2019, the journal Science noted that when Collins originally was appointed as NIH director by President Barack Obama, some worried “that his outspoken Christian faith would influence his leadership.” But Science went on to assure readers that the critics need not have worried: “His religion never became an issue — he followed Obama’s order to loosen rules for stem cell research, which some Christians oppose, and has defended fetal tissue research despite criticism from antiabortion groups.”
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