Ken Ham - A sad, pathetic, pessimistic view of God's creation.

For those of you who are curious about why the transition of this blog from focusing on stomping, angry, charlatan millionaires who have hijacked the Christian faith, to being more of a focus on the laymen and pew sitters that empower them, Ken Ham gives a great illustration of what many fundamentalists have evolved into.  Angry, disrespectful, pessimistic extremists who are hypocritical at best, and delusional and dangerous at worst. They remind me of Islamic extremists who want to see Sharia law in the United States. It seems both Ken Ham and Jeremiah Wright disagree with some policies in our great country, and if they can't get their way, they criticize and say we get what we deserve. They want their religion to be the law.


Read Ken's full article here: Ken Ham's sad pathetic worldview of our great country in his own words

Many of you will agree with Ken and give him a hearty "A-Men." This blog post is not for you. Nothing will persuade you that you are misguided, misled and miserable.

I humbly suggest to you that Ken is preaching the exact same nonsense that Jeremiah Wright preached that made many Christians so angry. First, Ken says "Our ministry wants to respond to...the President."  I guess this is okay since he's not blogging about the President, who is "God's man" to lead this country since God is in control and gives power to those in authority.  These same folks hate bloggers who "attack" God's man (ie: some guy with a bible degree at your church), but love when one of their own attacks the President!

President Obama said, rightly I might add, that "freedom is more powerful than fear; that we have always met challenges—whether war or depression, natural disasters or terrorist attacks—by coming together around our common ideals as one nation, as one people. So long as we stay true to that tradition, I have no doubt America will prevail. Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America." 

Sounds good to me. Sounds positive and optimistic. Nothing offensive or inflammatory to Christians there. But Ken still wants to pop-off in his blog post (sorry, online article/newsletter)to take issue with what our President meant as "common ideals."  Ken said these ideals were built on the authority of the Word of God.  NOT TRUE. Jefferson and others were Deist, who fled England to GET AWAY FROM AUTHORITARIAN RELIGIOUS GOVERNMENT!  The common ideals are equal protection, due process, our Constitution and Bill of Rights. And freedom. Freedom from the state run Church of England and from the nationalistic Catholic Church. Freedom from religion in goverment.  These are NOT just fallible man's opinions!  But this type of thinking is exactly what the Muslim extremists would argue to you, Ken. This is what they would want.  They want Sharia law. They want their holy book to be above all other laws. Those are the foundations of their society. Not ours. And neither is the Bible.  We are a nation of laws. Kim Davis and the planned parenthood shooter, both put their religious convictions above the law.  You can't do that here. You CAN do that type of thing in Muslim countries who are controlled by religious leaders and their holy book is the law. You also can't discriminate here.  But that's a post for another day.

But no big deal, Ken is wrong and is hypocritical. So what?  The thing that is most disturbing to me and most indicative of where the fundamentalists Christian extremists have taken Christianity is that Ken (and those that "A-men" his nonsense) are sad, angry, miserable, pessimistic people with no hope and they don't even realize it.  Like Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor (yes, Obama attended a Protestant church for over 20 years with his family before becoming President) who proclaimed "God Damn America" and  "the chickens have come home to roost", Ken Ham is saying the exact same thing.  Read his article again carefully. How is this different than what Jeremiah Wright had to say? You fundies were outraged at Jeremiah Wright were you not?  But you A-men Ken Ham?

What am I referring to?  Ken says if “common ideals are not built on the authority of the Word of God, then the common ideals are just man’s fallible opinions—which, frankly, will mean that America will not prevail." What?!  The Constitution, Bill of Rights, equal protection, due process, discrimination laws, religious liberties, freedom of speech, right to bear arms, etc. are all just "man's fallible opinions?"

And what part of the "Word" does Ken want to see us build on? Stoning disobedient children?  Killing and raping other civilizations that God tells us to kill and rape? Women remaining silent and not wearing make-up or jewelry? No, Ken and his ilk are seeing a progressive culture, technology, medicine, science, human rights and quality of life that is getting better and better as the culture moves away from the dogmatic beliefs of the far Christian right wing extremists and their ancient Holy Book injustices.  So he ramps up the rhetoric. And his subscribers eat it up. Ironically, Ken wants to see us go backward to Biblical times, the same as the terrorists. And why do we blame Obama for doing nothing when Christians are beheaded and persecuted and not blame ourselves or blame God?  According to Ken, the chickens have come home to roost, and we deserve this and if we act better and believe better, God will help us. This is sick, sad thinking.

Ken goes on to declare: "A fallible human being like the President can claim all he wants that America will prevail, but there’s a God in heaven who is in absolute control of the affairs of the nations!" The President is optimistic, but Ken not so much.  Ken elaborates: "Sadly, our President, even though he stated last night that he wants God to bless America, will not acknowledge the Creator God of the Bible—in fact, he has done the opposite: actively supported the removal of the one true God from the public arena. His belief in this regard was seen, for instance, in the recent lighting of the national Christmas tree in Washington, DC, when the President began his speech by saying “happy holidays”—twice."  OH MY! Really Ken? That proves your accusations, great illustration to support your points, Ken. The faithful Christian husband and father (no hint of scandal in his personal and family life for 8 years of office) says "happy holidays" and Ken says that is why God allows terrorism all over the world.

Ken even tells us what "we all know:"  "While he may use the word Christmas on occasion, we all know that when the President says “happy holidays,” like in his speech, it’s largely a deliberate way to keep Christ out of Christmas.  Now, Christians should respect the office of the presidency and pray for our elected officials. But when their actions go contrary to the absolute authority of God’s Word, then we should say something." (On this I happen to agree with Ken. We should say something. Especially when men of gawd do those things.) What? What actions has the President done that are contrary to scripture.  And why is it that "we should say something" about this, but not when pastors actions (like adultery, child molestation, manipulating the gospel for personal gain, etc.) are contrary.  Then we are "taking up offenses" and should "let God handle it" right, Ken? 

Ken even drags faithful Christian wife and mother, Michelle Obama into it with these egregious and damning accusations against her: "Also at the Christmas tree lighting, the first lady, along with the Muppet character Miss Piggy, read a story from the children’s book A Visit from St. Nicholas—a story about Santa Claus."  Oh, the horror and blasphemy. She must be stopped. Great point, Ken. And way to follow that accusation with a plug for your own business interests: "At our Christmas Town program at the Creation Museum, we celebrate Christmas in the right way." Cha-Ching!

I could go on and on about all the nonsense, contradictions, hypocrisy and manipulation in Ken's short article, but I will end with this most scary worldview, shared by Jeremiah Wright in his "God Damn America" sermon.  Ken says emphatically and clearly: "Second, did God hear President Obama at the end of his speech when he said “God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America”? I suggest God did not. (He claims to know what God hears and cites Isaiah chapter 59) He then explains it this way: "God’s principles do not change. What he said to the rebellious Israelites, He also says to us today." There you have it. The owning of slaves, the treatment of women, the raping, the stoning all apply to us today. So, according to Ken our sin as a nation is great. Although there are churches on every corner in every town in every state. And tax exemptions given to all religious organizations. Ken still laments "the reminders of the Christian faith are being removed from this nation—crosses, Nativity scenes, and displays of the Ten Commandments are being taken down from public places. Also, prayer, the Bible, and the teaching of creation have been largely removed from public schools"  Oh my!  Seriously Ken? Is this all the proof you have to rally your troops to send in donations and support your business interests? Wait until they come for your tax exempt status, then tell us how persecuted you are. Or wait until we put prayer back in school and the Muslim, or Rabbi, or Priest or liberal protestant come in to pray.

And this quote sounds an awful lot like Jeremiah Wright's "chickens have come home to roost" sermon when Ken asks the rhetorical question: "How could God hear this plea when the iniquities of this nation and the President are so great?" He then answers it himself for his readers: "I humbly suggest that God “will not hear” the President when he asks for God’s blessing on this nation! How could God hear this plea when the iniquities of this nation and the President are so great?"

That is sick. That is hopeless. That is manipulative. That is defeatist. That is sad if it represents the thinking of Christians in this great country.  So what is Ken's advice on how to fix all this?  He states: "This nation as a whole, and the President in particular, needs to repent before the one true God and return to His Word as the absolute authority in ALL matters of life and conduct. The President can talk about the threat of continued terrorism all he wants. But unless this nation deals with gross sin that permeates the culture, I sadly predict that this nation will not see the end of terrible tragedies, like terrorism."  He quotes Jeremiah chapter 18, verses 5-10 as a reminder to us that God is in control of the nations.  This ought to terrify anyone that sees radical Islam as a threat.  Ken wants the same theocracy and adherence to a Holy Book to govern life and conduct. Stoning disobedient children? Killing and raping the people of other nations who God says to take their land? Scary, scary, scary. Maybe we can bring back the Inquisition and let Ken decide who to question and what questions to ask and what the right answers should be? Then God will bless our land, whatever that means.

Ken, seriously, maybe you have this all wrong.  First, maybe we are blessed by God. Gas prices are low. Unemployment is low. Churches are tax exempt. Freedom of religion is protected. It's a great, great, awesome country.  Equal rights have never been more available to more classes of people. But if you disagree, and think this country is in bad shape because they took down the Jewish law from the courthouse, maybe God is punishing our country and bringing disaster upon us because of all the abuse done by the clergy and religious men and churches who have done nothing but build more buildings and careers and then suddenly want to blame everybody but themselves for society's ills.  Maybe as was said to David by the prophet: YOU ARE THAT MAN! Fundies need to stop blaming everybody and everything else, and look in the mirror. Look in the churches. Then and only then, will God bless the USA.  Can I get an "A-men?"  No?  Okay. Peace.