Update: Things Spin Out of Control at the University of Central Oklahom--Martyr Wannabes, Questionable Journalism, Mobs of Really Scary Gay Students, The Unnamed Nazi Professor, An Outraged Pastor, and Ken Ham Still Gets Paid

Sometimes things spin out of control like they have lately at the University of Central Oklahoma. And while all sorts of bellicose martyr wannabes point fingers and scream foul, the answers are not always as clear as they'd like us to think they are.

Here is what we know. A little while ago a student group at UCO named Valid Worldview approached the Student Association and lobbied to get a man named Ken Ham invited onto campus to speak. Ham would have the use of a university hall and be paid, presumably, by funds the association collects through fees assessed all students attending the school.

Valid Worldview is a, "ministry," of Edmond's Fairview Baptist Church and its pastor is Paul Blair. Brother Blair is a former NFL player, twice failed candidate for the state senate, and a card carrying member of the John Birch Society. Ken Ham runs an outfit called Answers in Genesis. The answers they've gotten from the first book of the Old Testament is that the earth is 6,000 or so years old, evolution is an atheist conspiracy meant to undermine human society and promote abortion, while dinosaurs and humans lived on the planet together at the same time.

Ham, being an absolutist of sorts, says things like you can't be a true Christian if you believe in the theory of evolution. He is also big on claiming that since his rock solid faith is accompanied by a degree in applied science, his views on evolution and the earth's geologic past are just as valid as the millions of esteemed teachers, researchers, and scientists past and present who have proven him to be bat shit crazy.

Then things got--yes--strange. "The Oklahoman," a local right wing publication, ran a page one story saying UCO dropped the invitation to Ham because the Student Association was bullied by an unnamed LBGTQ student group. The details of when and in what form the bullying took place were left to the reader's imagination.

In response UCO President, Don Betz issued a statement The Oklahoman ran Saturday on page six which in part said, the still unidentified LBGTQ group had nothing to do with the decision to un-invite Ham.

Of course that didn't stop the paper from printing three separate letters on its op-ed page Sunday written by incensed readers who condemned LBGTQ students, liberals in general, and institutes of higher education everywhere.

Also on Saturday, the LBGTQ group rumored to be connected to the controversy issued its own statement. It read in part, "Although neither the Student Alliance For Equality (SAFE)  nor its members were participants in the discussion between UCO and the President of UCO's student government, recent news articles compel us to make a clarifying statement." The author, Rachel Watson went on to say, "SAFE is and will always be fully committed to upholding and safeguarding free speech." It also said, "We reject bullying and intimidation in all of its forms as contrary to the core values of our institution..."

In other words, just like Betz had asserted, SAFE said it didn't have anything to do with the cancellation.

The Oklahoman held off on running SAFE's statement until this morning, three days after the fact and buried it on page four right below a story about the state's first confirmed case of measles in three years.

In the mean time, Blair wrote a letter to Answers in Genesis which they published on line. In it he claimed it was a tenured professor who sponsors, "the campus LGBT clubs,"(as opposed to what was hinted as mobs of really scary gay students) who, "rallied support and put intense pressure on the students in the UCOSA," to get Ham's appearance, "reluctantly," cancelled.

All of which leads to the question--What in God's name does this unnamed Nazi professor teach anyway, because he sure seems to have a lot of fucking power over a ton of students.

Further stoking his anger, Blair claims UCO is sponsoring a drag queen show at a future date. In addition the anonymous and obviously deviant professor is also the brains behind--the horror, the horror--"a safe sex carnival." The Pastor roared, "I am hoping to outrage the citizens of Oklahoma. We are not Cal--Berkeley, we are Oklahoma!"

Well, he got that right. What he didn't mention, however, is he was also looking to provide a state owned venue to a verbose loon who prides himself on denying scientific fact and whose cracked views of natural history embarrass most of Christianity--then pay the guy with student funds.

As for Ken Ham--he got everything he wanted and more. He is, according to Blair, still coming to Oklahoma to spew his gibberish, only now in the sanctuary of Fairview Baptist, rather than on the UCO campus. One assumes he will still get paid and the Fairview congregation's money spends just as well as the UCO student body's does.

Not to mention this sort of faux martyrdom is probably worth millions to his organization. Odds are money is pouring into the Answers in Genesis coffers right now thanks to The Oklahoman's initial headline, Blair's bellowing, and Ham's own online publications.

Indeed, nothing gets true believers to give up their cash quicker than the notion a man of that old time religion is being persecuted by gangs of run amok Sodomites. Even if it was, as we are now led to believe, a single unidentified professor at a university with over 17,000 students and 800 faculty members.

Right.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you can guess, the bar is open.


2-13-18