Kent Hovind – Creationism’s Clown Prince
“Democracy is evil and contrary to God's law.” Kent Hovind
The American Kent Hovind is the arch clown of the creationist movement. And he appears to make over US$1m a year out of it. He's built up a serious money making machine from peddling creationism to American rednecks. PT Barnum would have been proud of him.
Unfortunately Hovind does not believe in paying unto Ceaser what was due and is now serving a long gaol sentence for tax evasion.
Based (or, rather, was based) in Pensacola in Florida, this snake-oil salesman has his own ministry, Creation Science Evangelism Ministry, and ran a trailer trash theme park (currently largely closed) surrounding his home. Until recently he has spoken at hundreds of churches, schools and other venues, mostly in the USA.
Nowadays, his prime audience for conversion is his fellow prisoners.
Hovind comes complete with a bogus first degree and a bogus PhD, the thesis of which has been subject to widespread ridicule. Both were qualifications purchased from unaccredited diploma mills. He appears to have no theological training either. He is basically semi-literate.
Hovind is a snake-oil salesman. There is nothing straight about him whatsoever. The creationism he pushes is so bad that other creationist organisations such as Answers in Genesis have publicly dismissed it. He is also up to his neck in crackpot conspiracy theories.
However, he can talk very fast and without pause and to the ill-informed and the stupid he can be convincing. He plays to prejudices, not reason. No one can get a word in edgeways. Having seen videos of him, he fires verbiage like a machine gun. He avoids any online debate (which puts him in the same position as all other professional creationists – anti-creationists call it cowardice).
Hovind doesn’t believe in democracy; Indeed, he doesn’t believe in paying tax to a democratically elected government. As a result he faced charges of 58 Federal crimes including separate counts of making threats against federal officials, filing false complaints and tax evasion.
Moreover, his disdain for any form of authority except his own also resulted in his theme park being largely closed down because of failure to apply for building permits.
In 2002, he was charged with one count of felony assault, one count of misdemeanour battery, and one count of burglary with assault/battery. In December 2002, the charges were dropped by the alleged victim, Hovind's secretary
As far as we are aware Hovind has never proselytised in the UK although he was planning a tour of South Africa this year until the courts banned him from leaving North Florida. (See comments below; we were wrong about the UK.)
Hovind’s web site is at http://www.drdino.com and a background primer can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Hovind. The Australian anti-creationist John Stear has a long report on Hovind at http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/kent_hovind's_lies.htm
Update
An interesting snippet has been sent to us by John Babbington regarding the presence of Kent Hovind in the UK. We assumed until we received it that the UK had not been blessed with Hovind’s presence. Not so.
Hovind presented a four day creationist seminary in September 2005 to the Kenny Hill New Testament Baptist Church in Bury St Edmunds. This is a church predominantly used by American military personnel from the nearby US Air Forces bases at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath. The pastor is Todd Adams (we don’t know if he is American or British) and some background on the church can be found at http://ship-of-fools.com/Mystery/2006/1166.html.
At the time John Babbington “bombarded him with a number of articles cut and pasted from the Net warning him of the character of the man but received no response except eventually a short, shirty note to leave him alone and to send no more.”
We now have a database of some 500 churches in the UK that endorse Young Earth Creationism. Only three endorse Hovind’s creationist organisation (Kenny Hill being the latest we have found out about). With few exceptions the 500 or so churches endorse Answers in Genesis although in East Anglia the Biblical Creation Society has a relatively strong influence (it is based there).
There is an interesting article on Hovind’s visit to the UK in the US military publication Stars and Stripes. You can see it at http://home.online.no/~stebi/alternat.htm.
Interesting the report states that of the church’s congregation of 300 or so (nearly all from US Air Forces bases), the majority “choose to home-school their children rather than send them to Department of Defense Dependants Schools, where evolution is taught in science classes”
As a matter of background, the US Air Force bases tend to be exceedingly self-contained. I visited one in the early 1980s and it was like stepping into America in the middle of the flat rural countryside of East Anglia. You needed to change your currency into US dollars, the police were American police in American cars. I assume that they have their own schools there as well. I’m not sure though that they drove on the wrong side of the road! (I was there, btw, sitting in on an MBA course for US military personnel.)
The report quotes a number of the US military personnel at the Church:
“Master Sgt. Douglas DeField and his wife, Liesl, have four children, ages 11, 9, 4 and 2. They prefer home-schooling and one reason is the presence of evolution and the absence of God in the DODDS schools.”
“"It's probably one of the big top five reasons," Douglas DeField said. "The schools are just riddled with evolution."”
“Liesl DeField said, "We've taught them creation. We've taught them the truth."”
“Tech Sgt. James Smith and wife, Diane, have children who just finished seventh and fourth grades. The Smiths send their children to DODDS, but prepare them to hear contradictions to what they are taught at home.”
“"We try to teach them the biblical way," James Smith said. "We feel like, because they have the background [from home], they will know the difference," Diane Smith said.”
“She and her husband do not want their children to sit quiet when they are taught about evolution, but they will not be expected to mount a vociferous protest, either.”
“"We don't want [them] being disrespectful to authority, arguing with an adult," she said. But they want their children to have the knowledge to point out another possibility for the world's creation.”
Our understanding is that belief in creationism amongst US military personnel is more prevalent than amongst the US population at large. The fundamentalists have targeted the US military – it appears to be one of the reasons why the discredited Ted Haggard located his mega-church just outside of a US military base in Colorado Springs.
However, the pressure on US Department of Defense Dependants’ Schools to teach creationism instead of science, does not look to be very high. Here is another article by the same author in Stars and Stripes - http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=26710&archive=true
