Controversy is rampant at the University of Central Oklahoma. The home of the Bronchos is located in Edmond, OK which is, depending on traffic, 15 minutes, or so north east of where I currently sit. It is an ever expanding, vastly overpriced, suburb whose only national fame--if you can call it that--came in 1986 when a disgruntled postal worker named Patrick Sherrill shot and killed 14 co-workers, giving America the term, "going postal."
A little while ago the UCO Student Association, in conjunction with another student group called, "Valid Worldviews," invited Mr. Ken Ham to speak on campus.
Ham was born in Australia and grew up there, but has been living in the United States since 1987. His immigration status is unknown and normally that wouldn't be worth mentioning, but there are people around here these days who consider such things a big deal. He does have a degree in Applied Science with an emphasis in Environmental Biology from the Queensland Institute of Technology which is connected to the University of Queensland. He also holds five honorary degrees from Christian colleges and universities here in the U.S. One of them is Liberty University, three others have enrollments of well under 1,000 students, and the fifth is now defunct.
Brother Ham is also the founder and CEO of an religious non-profit known as, Answers in Genesis. He and his outfit aggressively promote the notion earth is approximately 6,000 years old, evolution is bullshit, and humans and dinosaurs co-existed. In other words the old TV show, "The Flintstones," wasn't a cartoon, but rather an animated documentary.
While his nonsense is easy to laugh at it is, in reality, serious stuff. Ham controls a business that has a 75,000 square foot museum in Petersburg, Kentucky which aims to prove his cracked notions of the world and universe. Private donations totaling $27 million paid for the facility, which includes a planetarium and the skeleton of an Allosaurus. It pulls in an average of 300,000 paying visitors a year. This despite people like museum scholar, Gretchen Jennings saying, "It lacks valid connections with world wide thinking on the chosen discipline and with human knowledge and experience." She went on to add, "It's not a museum at all."
Earlier this week, for reasons that are, at the moment, a tad murky, the UCO Student Association withdrew its invitation to Ham. The initial front page report in the local newspaper, "The Oklahoman," claimed intense bullying by the university's LGBTQ community led to the school dropping the invitation. No, not because of Ham's continuing assault on scientific fact and common sense, but because he opposes gay marriage. The paper, a notorious right wing propaganda mill, noted darkly the unnamed LGBTQ student organization refused to take a reporter's calls after the cancellation.
This led an Edmond based Southern Baptist preacher, Paul Blair to howl like a banshee about the suppression of free speech. He also accused UCO of an anti-Christian bias. Besides his ministry, Blair is a former Oklahoma State and NFL football player, a twice failed state senate candidate, and an active member in the John Birch Society. At one time he spoke against a proposed Oklahoma City ordinance which would make it illegal for the municipal government to fire gay employees just because they are gay. On another occasion he said public schools, "teach atheism and call it science."
Today, The Oklahoman published a statement from UCO president, Don Betz on page six which addressed the situation. In part it read, "While any reports of bullying will be and are being investigated, it is important to state that reports the LGBTQ community prevented Mr. Ham from being invited to campus are inaccurate and unfair to members of our campus community."
In short, "The Oklahoman" got it wrong, or knowingly printed--that's right--fake news.
As for Ham, he seemed stunned there are some people in the solid red state of Oklahoma who might actually not like what he has to say. Not to worry though. Pastor Blair has made a big show of inviting him to speak at his church on a later date, while President Betz concluded his statement by saying, "All who wish to freely express their ideas in a peaceful and civil manner, including Mr. Ham are welcome to do so at the University of Central Oklahoma."
Well, why not?
Let's face it, the guy probably doesn't care one way, or the other so UCO might as well let him talk. Indeed, it doesn't matter if he's a complete loon, or, as I prefer to think, a con man running a massive scam on what one Australian newspaper described as, "America, the center of whacked Christianity." In either case this latest craziness doesn't do anything, but increase his profile and inspire even more rubes to contribute money to him. Yes, for Ken Ham, in the end, this week was a win win proposition.
Hey, who says America isn't great?
2-10-18
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