Speaking of unqualified dimwits trying to pass themselves off as competent scientist, take a look at this affidavit Kent Hovind filed in 2005. It’s Hovind’s history as Hovind himself sees it.
In his literature and in his talks, one of the subjects Hovind always brings up as part of his qualifications is his history as a high school science teacher. If I made a list of the most important jobs in America, I’d put teaching science in high school way up near the top, so that’s always been a discombobulating and disquieting claim from the man. When you read his history, though, you’ll discover that he never had a moment’s training in science—he went through a succession of bible colleges, worked as an assistant pastor and pastor, and then, with no background at all, starts teaching his version of “science” at Christian schools and a Baptist college.
It’s both reassuring—that clown and fraud did not earn a position deserving of much respect—and disturbing—these Christian educational institutions apparently have very low standards if they’re willing to accept ordination in the Baptist church as a substitute for actual knowledge in a discipline for their teachers.
The other thing that’s amusing about this document is that it is so freaking god-soaked, you want to wash the anointing oil off your eyeballs after reading it. And in the middle he tries to testify about Creation “Science” to the judge reading it. It makes me wonder whether judges and lawyers get tired of testimonials from criminals that mention god and jesus in just about every sentence.
What a strange creature Kent Hovind is going to seem in the future– Like seeing evidence of a Trigonotarbida in the Triassic. How out of place ghosts and magic are in the modern era. It’s two thousand and freaking seven, and people are still trying to make up stories about why the sun rises.
That implies, Dan, that there won’t be magic in four thousand and freaking seven. Your optimism is carrying you away.
I expect to see people like Hovind outnumbering those like ourselves periodically for the remainder of time (or at least the remainder of our species).
As an aside, why are churches tax exempt in the first place? Is there a good reason for this?
My initial reaction is no, especially when one considers people like Hovind, or preachers in poor communities who live decadent lifestyles thanks to tithing, or that fucker Benny Hinn.
But are these simply people taking advantage of an ostensibly sensible thing? (I still think not, but am wondering)
“these Christian educational institutions apparently have very low standards if they’re willing to accept ordination in the Baptist church as a substitute for actual knowledge in a discipline for their teachers”
Are you surprised? I mean, really?
What kind of teaching do you expect to find in fundamentalist Christian madrassas?
I hear that yucca soap is good at getting that stuff out of your system: the Pueblo Indians used it to debaptize themselves after they revolted under Spanish rule.
Last week I visited the website of the diploma mill that gave “Dr.” Dino his “doctorate”. Patriot Bible University admits (in the fine print on its accreditation status) that no one needs to accept their degrees as valid.
More here.
From the 2005 affadavit by Kent Hovind:
From the Wikipedia entry on Kent Hovind:
Now, admittedly, it’s a long time since I read the New Testament but I don’t seem to remember Jesus opening multi-million shekel theme-parks or pulling in millions from the sale of Christian merchandise* or having the disciples carry wads of cash to grease palms on those well-paid speaking gigs around Galilee…
*T-shirt slogan: “I went to hear Jesus preach and all I got was a lousy slice of bread, a piece of raw fish and this T-shirt”?
Ian: The ironic thing is that he ADMITS to all the speaking arrangements and so on – he even offers to prove that he has them. I *think* he was trying to make himself look like a poor, hard-working, put-upon minister…. But, well, it just doesn’t work very well against anyone with half a brain.
-Adam
J Daley:
The general idea is that the US government can’t do anything like banning a religion. Taxation goes hand in hand with that as it could be used as a backdoor way of squashing a particular church–just levy a huge tax that’s narrow enough to annihilate the church in question and say, “We didn’t do anything wrong! They just couldn’t pay their taxes!”
A counter to that might be some reasonable regulation on what percentage of a church’s funds can be “owned” by the guy in charge of the church, but I haven’t thought that through and I’m sure there’s some easy to game that system. My guess is that it’s just easiest to live with the consequences of a few Kent Hovinds and Benny Hinns to avoid the complexity of a futile crusade to keep them from fleecing people.
“It makes me wonder whether judges and lawyers get tired of testimonials from criminals that mention god and jesus in just about every sentence.”
I certainly would but fortunately don’t. I read that stuff for a living and it is almost if not entirely secular in content. It is only when a professional fundie gets busted for tax evasion or crimes against nature or a celebrity wants to show redemption for PR purposes that somebody makes a big deal out of Jesus. Everybody else just talks about society, justice, and, well, the law.
As a former prosecutor, I can say that of the best parts of my job was when the judge would disdainfully interrupt a defendant trying to use jebus or god to obtain a more lenient sentence.
I once participated in a conduct court case in which the individual’s defense basically was the following: I’m a Christian, so how could you possibly think that I’ve done something wrong even though my paper is virtually identical to my roommate’s paper? I mean, I’m a Christian–how could you doubt me? Besides, God works in mysterious ways, and so even though we turned in the same paper down to the spelling papers, no wrongdoing could have taken place. Only God could explain how the papers came to be so similar. This defense, plagiarism as miracle, was a novel one, but the more we pointed out how improbable the situation was, apparently the more that demonstrated that a miracle had indeed taken place. I guess you could say that the paper was irreducibly complex.
Damn! That should be ‘spelling errors’.
>A counter to that might be some reasonable regulation
>on what percentage of a church’s funds can be “owned”
>by the guy in charge of the church, but I haven’t
>thought that through and I’m sure there’s some easy
>to game that system.
It’s already done. There was a “Bishop”(self-proclaimed) at a church in Maryland near where I used to live. He got to live in an opulent rectory, drove the Church’s Sedan DeVille, and had his way with the flock’s daughters. It was an awesome racket.
That would be disrespectful to the court, wouldn’t it? So if a secular court or an atheist judge doesn’t want to put up with it, they should have means to ask the witnesses to stove it.
[And so it seems they do, thanks Ben and enzothegrayhound!]
This seems to be fairly common practice in many countries. Over here cultural or educational valued activities can apply for tax exemption and/or monetary support, and churches can apply for both reasons.
But creationists and similar organizations aren’t in either of these categories, so I doubt Hovind would get much. Presumably they could get some exemption unless they are too cultish, but I can’t see them getting any support.
That would be disrespectful to the court, wouldn’t it? So if a secular court or an atheist judge doesn’t want to put up with it, they should have means to ask the witnesses to stove it.
[And so it seems they do, thanks Ben and enzothegrayhound!]
This seems to be fairly common practice in many countries. Over here cultural or educational valued activities can apply for tax exemption and/or monetary support, and churches can apply for both reasons.
But creationists and similar organizations aren’t in either of these categories, so I doubt Hovind would get much. Presumably they could get some exemption unless they are too cultish, but I can’t see them getting any support.
More Hovind…
http://thestubborncurmudgeon.blogspot.com
Some scumbag, of whom the outside world is well-rid, if only temporarily, wrote:
I can’t say why, but it always makes me giggle when people say they’ve accepted Jesus Christ. Like anyone’s going to be all, “Wait, which Jesus? Jesus Hamilton, works over at the hardware store?”
We’ve been over this before, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it. Churches are only-tax exempt in the same way that other charitable organizations under the IRS IRC section 501(c)(3) requirements are. The only big difference is that churches may be automatically considered tax exempt if they declare they meet the IRC section 501(c)(3) requirements without having to apply for it. The reason for this may simply be one of the IRS not having to manpower to verify the tax-exempt claim for all the various churches.
The employees of the church, including clergyman, are required to pay income and FICA taxes.
For more information see: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf
Does the 501c3 bear on property taxes?