Ken Ham Disinvited from Homeschooling Events over 'Ungodly' Remarks
Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum, was disinvited earlier this week from speaking at two homeschooling conferences because organizers felt he made "unnecessary, ungodly, and mean-spirited" remarks about the conventions and other speakers.
On Saturday, Ham was still posting messages on his Facebook page about Peter Enns – the speaker who, according to Ham, he is accused of making mean-spirited remarks about. Ham accuses Enns, a senior fellow of biblical studies at the BioLogos Foundation based in San Diego, of not believing in a literal Adam and Fall. He also takes issue with Enns's belief that sin should not be discussed with young children because it would cause problems with their view of God.
"Thought I would share this video clip from Peter Enns (given to students at Westmont). In 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5 for instance, Paul talks about Adam," wrote Ham on his Facebook page on Saturday. "Peter Enns sees this as a problem – and that Adam shouldn't be in the New Testament! But this is GOD's WORD!!"
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The BioLogos Foundation was founded by Dr. Francis Collins, who formerly served as the director of the National Center for Human Genome Research and now serves as director of the National Institutes of Health.
According to the BioLogos Foundation's website, the mission of the organization is to promote harmony between science and the Christian faith. The group believes that evolution, when understood properly, "best describes God's work of creation." BioLogos does not believe in young earth creationism, which Ham's apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis (AiG) does. Young earth creationism interprets the Genesis story of creation to mean that God created the Earth in six, 24-hour days.
Ham, who spoke at the Great Homeschool Conventions' earlier events in Greenville, S.C. and in Memphis, Tenn., had made presentations on how Enns was promoting unbiblical teachings and compromising the faith. The AiG founder also took to Facebook to criticize Enns, who was also invited to speak at the conventions to promote a Bible curriculum for homeschoolers.
The AiG founder also told the crowd at the conventions that Enns had connections to another speaker, Susan Wise Bauer, whose company, Peace Hill Press, publishes Enns's Bible curriculum.
In an email to Ham earlier this week, the Advisory Board of the Great Homeschool Conventions wrote that it has decided to not only disinvite Ham and AiG from the two upcoming conventions, but from all future events.
"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," read the email, posted on the AiG website.
"Our Board believes Ken's comments to be unnecessary, ungodly, and mean-spirited statements that are divisive at best and defamatory at worst," the homeschooling group wrote, however, that it is "100% young earth" in its scientific stance.
Ham was disinvited from the Great Homeschool Conventions in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 31-April 2, and the one near Philadelphia, Pa., June 23-25.
AiG complained on its website that the Great Homeschool Conventions did not call Ham to disinvite him, but simply sent an email late at night. The apologetics ministry is seeking to talk to the homeschooling group to discuss more about the conflict.
