Founder of Creation Museum banned from convention

[GlennO]

Founder of Creation Museum banned from convention
By Linda B. Blackford — lblackford@herald-leader.com
Posted: 6:04am on Mar 24, 2011; Modified: 5:12pm on Mar 25, 2011


Ken Ham, the man behind the Creation Museum and the future Ark Encounter amusement park, has been disinvited from a homeschool convention in Cincinnati next week because he made "ungodly, and mean-spirited" comments about another speaker, according to the convention's organizers.

Ham also will be excluded from future conventions, according to a statement by Brennan Dean of Great Homeschool Conventions (statement here).
"The board believes that Ken's public criticism of the convention itself and other speakers at our convention require him to surrender the spiritual privilege of addressing our homeschool audience," Dean said in the statement. UPDATE: The decision has generated hundreds of comments

Ham is a founder of Answers in Genesis, which built the Creation Museum in Petersburg, an interactive series of exhibits on "young earth" beliefs, including ones that show humans interacting with dinosaurs. Ham is also spearheading attempts to build an amusement park with a life-size replica of Noah's Ark, which will include dinosaurs on board. The project has won preliminary approval for up to $37 million in state tax incentives.

At issue are criticisms by Ham of Peter Enns of the Biologos Foundation, who has said the fall of Adam and Eve can be construed as a symbolic story of Israel's beginnings, rather than a literal description of human beginnings. (UPDATE 5:10 p.m. March 25: Ham posted audio of what he said about Enns' beliefs.)
On his blog (here and here) and in other statements, Ham takes issue with this view and Enns' homeschool curriculum.
"In fact," Ham wrote in a recent blog post, "what he teaches about Genesis is not just compromising Genesis with evolution, it is outright liberal theology that totally undermines the authority of the Word of God."
Ham was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. His publicist, Melany Ethridge of A. Larry Ross Communications in Dallas, referred the Herald-Leader to Ham's Facebook page.

"Someone needs to stand against the compromise that is pouring into the church from many directions," Ham wrote on the page. "... Because we publicly exposed one of their speakers and his curriculum because his beliefs clearly undermine the authority of Scripture, we apparently come under the heading of 'anti-Christian' in our actions."

UPDATE 5:10 p.m. March 25: More from Ham on the controversy here, and about the curriculum in question here and here. Susan Wise Bauer of Peace Hill Press, publisher of the curriculum criticized by Ham, addresses the matter here and here.


Read more: Founder of Creation Museum banned from convention | Latest Local, State News | Kentucky.com

[ShilohRose]

Hmmm. I was expecting to hear that he had said some truly hateful things, like political mud-slinging. But I don't see why they're penalizing him for this.

[GlennO]

Same here...

[arapahoepark]

I read this and basically he he was just using counter arguments against Dr. Enns and others who do homeschool conventions and completely distort the Bible....hmm...people don't like it when they are told they are wrong by someone who's right huh?

[Carl]

Not so hard to see. After all home schoolers are comprised are comprised of church goers and they carry their church philosophy into their schools. Thus they are going to teach their children the tenets of their church. So it is not surprising that they would speak out against a fundamentalist like Ken Ham. When man weighs science against the Creation story he sides with the science that he is familiar with. After all it gives him his car, his computer, his weather forecast (well lets forget that one), even the progression of all the funny bones in museums. Where the Bible doesn't fit science it is called myth and replaced with science. Err where it doesn't fit apostasy throw it out.

Back when I was a baby Christian I got into a discussion with one of the elders of the church my wife belonged to. I responded that Jesus quoted the Book of Jonah like it was real. He claimed that Jonah was a myth and is there to give us something that is easy to understand. I said if we consider that a myth then Jesus being born of a virgin is pretty far fetched to believe too, or that Jesus came back to life. He walked away shaking his head.

[king'sbloomingrose]

Exactly, Carl! Matthew 12:39-40 backs that up...but I think I'm off topic.

[billiefan2000]

some people are out to get Ken Ham for mainly 2 reasons:


1. cause of his friendship with folks like Brannon Howse (who is a vocal critic of Rick Warren and the seeker movement and the NAR cult movements

and Ken has other friends who are "odmers" and "hateful discerning christians"

and

2. cause Ken uses facts and to many in the churches, facts dont itch people's ears

[arapahoepark]

some people are out to get Ken Ham for mainly 2 reasons:


1. cause of his friendship with folks like Brannon Howse (who is a vocal critic of Rick Warren and the seeker movement and the NAR cult movements

and Ken has other friends who are "odmers" and "hateful discerning christians"

and

2. cause Ken uses facts and to many in the churches, facts dont itch people's ears

Yep, people hate admonishment for themselves...hence the emergent church and nearly every other apostate church

[billiefan2000]

Yep, people hate admonishment for themselves...hence the emergent church and nearly every other apostate church

you are so right. false teachers get jumpy and psycho when u expose their false teachings.


a few false teachers have even come on the RR and RF sites yelling and screaming at us for calling them out.

[myinnuendo999]

you are so right. false teachers get jumpy and psycho when u expose their false teachings.


a few false teachers have even come on the RR and RF sites yelling and screaming at us for calling them out.

Exactly because that's all they have

John MacArthur was right when he said talking about false teachings "it can only survive when it isn’t scrutinized"

[billiefan2000]

Ken Ham Gives Interview About Why He Was Kicked Out of TWO Homeschool Conferences
Crosstalk America radio program had Ken Ham as their featured guest on today's program. Ken Ham is the CEO and founder of the evangelical ministry Answers in Genesis, a ministry that is devoted to protecting the doctrinal purity of the book of Genesis. He is also the director of the very excellent Creation Museum, located in Petersburg, Kentucky.


Ken Ham came on the show today to discuss why he was "un-invited" to speak at two large homeschool conventions at which he had been scheduled to speak, one near Cincinnati and the other near Philadelphia. Ken Ham explains that his dismissal came after he spoke out against the false teachings of another speaker, Dr. Peter Enns, one of the founders of an organization known as The BioLogos Foundation. Dr. Enns, who was a previous presenter and author of a homeschool curriculum that teaches spiritual error, was kicked out of Westminster Theological Seminary in 2005 for writing a book where he denied Scriptural Inerrancy (also known as Sola Scriptura, one of the fundamental Reformation principles).

This issue parallels a new book Ken Ham has coming out in mid-April titled Already Compromised. This book takes a look at the shocking state of Christian higher education.

The show can be listened to in its entirety here.

As a side note......I absolutely love the work they're doing over there at Answers in Genesis. They have some of the best and brightest scientific minds of today on staff, and they are literally turning on its ear the argument that anyone who believes in Young Earth Creation simply can't be very well educated. You can say a lot of things about the geologists, biologists, archaeologists, geophysicists, chemists, etc. who support the work being done at Answers in Genesis, but you certainly cannot say that they are not well educated.

Sola Sisters: Ken Ham Gives Interview About Why He Was Kicked Out of TWO Homeschool Conferences

[arapahoepark]

Ken Ham came on the show today to discuss why he was "un-invited" to speak at two large homeschool conventions at which he had been scheduled to speak, one near Cincinnati and the other near Philadelphia. Ken Ham explains that his dismissal came after he spoke out against the false teachings of another speaker, Dr. Peter Enns, one of the founders of an organization known as The BioLogos Foundation. Dr. Enns, who was a previous presenter and author of a homeschool curriculum that teaches spiritual error, was kicked out of Westminster Theological Seminary in 2005 for writing a book where he denied Scriptural Inerrancy (also known as Sola Scriptura, one of the fundamental Reformation principles).


Sola Sisters: Ken Ham Gives Interview About Why He Was Kicked Out of TWO Homeschool Conferences

Dr. Enns is nut. billiefan2000 have you read answersingenesis.org recently? Some of the news is rather disturbing and provoked by Enns.

He claims that adam is an allegory for Israel? Does that make sense? He's a Dr. and an old testament professor yet doesn't know a whole lot....