Martyn Iles clarifies a few things

Answers in Genesis is evolving: the Ken Ham era is coming to an end, and it’s becoming the age of Martyn Iles (although I bet Ham has kept some hooks in place to yank Iles off the stage if he does anything contrary). Their new front man is another Australian with a checkered history — he became a lightning rod in Australia with a rapid rise in popularity, but was not so successful at getting anything done. “Martyn was a fine preacher, but a poor lobbyist,” said a fellow Christian conservative, and then he was kicked out of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Now he’s back!

The fundamentalist Christian organisation Answers in Genesis (AiG), which got its start in Queensland, is closely associated with the new Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. Led by the former Queensland schoolteacher Ken Ham, AiG is part of a movement called “young Earth creationism” that preaches a literal interpretation of Genesis.

Iles’ ascent to “executive CEO” of AiG was a swift one. He spoke at an AiG event in late 2022. Then in May 2023 he was announced as chief ministry officer of the organisation, as well as leader of its Australian office.

By November he had been promoted to executive CEO – with Ham in an “oversight role” as “founder CEO” – and was being groomed to take over one of the world’s largest creationist organisations. In 2022 AiG brought in about US$62m and held US$112m in assets, according to US tax documents. The ACL, by comparison, had revenue of about A$10m in 2022.

Let us all hope he repeats his Australian performance here in America, and flames out quickly. For now, though, he has nailed his colors to the mast with an article on the Answers in Genesis website. He is loudly anti-woke. He shares this position with some prominent conservative scientists, you know.

The person who understands and believes Genesis 1–11 is woke-proof.

Such is the enduring relevance of Genesis. It has the blueprints every generation needs.

Consider the focal points of woke ideologies—race, LGBTQ, identity, environmentalism, marriage, gender, abortion, truth, power—time and time again, the answers are in Genesis.

This is because “woke” culture is an attack on the way God ordered and designed creation.

It’s nice that he’s so clear. “Wokeness” is for racial equality, LGBTQ rights, respect for an individual’s identity, pro-environment, thinks marriage is a choice, regards gender is a continuum, favors abortion rights to protect the rights of women, wants to promote truth through education, and thinks power should be shared. Anti-woke Christians are against all those things. Being in favor of LGBTQ rights and science education and the environment, to name just a few examples, is an attack on the way God ordered and designed creation..

Great. We know where we stand. God is against everything the “woke” stand for. I guess I’ll just have to be against God.

Continuing shake-up at AiG

Ken Ham is getting old. He’s been planning his successor, and I commented on the likely guys being brought to the top. The front runner, once upon a time, was his son-in-law, Bodie Hodge, who I called “a blithering goober”, and I couldn’t imagine him being put in charge of a multi-million dollar corporate entity, which is what Answers in Genesis is. We could probably map all the clawing to the top at AiG directly onto that TV show, Succession, except that I haven’t watched it.

Then Ken Ham announced who would get the keys to the Creation “Museum” and the Ark Park, and it wasn’t Bodie. He instead imported an outsider from Australia, Martyn Iles, a slick, polished blithering goober. I wondered at the time how that would go over with the whole gang at AiG, but they weren’t talking. I think Ken maintains an iron fist over his empire.

Now we have a hint to the power struggles within AiG. Bodie Hodge is out! He has set up his own little fiefdom, Biblical Authority Ministries.

Biblical Authority Ministries is solely an outreach of B. Hodge and is not associated with AiG in any way. Though obviously many articles and resources are linked to AiG’s website and materials. Mr. Hodge’s hope is that you will help support AiG and its outreaches by donations, resource sales, and visiting the attractions and also support Biblical Authority Ministries as well as both content for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For a moment, I felt a little pity. Bodie dedicated decades of his life to promoting AiG, and now he has been passed over by his own father-in-law. Yikes. But then I read this bit of his autobiography:

He is a reconstructionist and a known presuppositionalist. This shows in his response style. He grew up being taught dispensational pre-millennialism and historic pre-millennialism but after extensive study has become a post-millennialist (partial pret). He has a heart to answer questions and promote the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Oh. He’s a pretentious blithering goober who talks about himself in the third person and believes in many silly, stupid things. May his ministry crash and burn.

I called it

Back in May, I suggested that we have seen who Ken Ham’s chosen successor would be. I was correct. It’s Martyn Iles. Ho hum.

Iles was formerly the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, and was kicked out because he was terrible at his job and godless Australians kept winning legislative victories while membership in the organization declined. Let’s hope he keeps his losing streak going!

There are many people at Answers in Genesis who have stood by Ham — I really wonder about the internal politics here, when the Big Boss brings in a total stranger over the heads of the existing staff and announces that he will be the next man in charge. I almost feel sorry for Bodie Hodge, his son-in-law, who has now been officially passed over.

Who will replace Ken Ham?

Calm down, he’s not dead yet. At his age, though, he’s probably contemplating his future successor. Bodie Hodge, his son-in-law, is a blithering goober, and the other people at the top of his organization are women, so naturally they’re out of the running. Andrew Snelling, Terry Mortenson, Danny Faulkner? Negative charisma. Tim Chaffey? He’s tall, that’s about it. Nathaniel Jeanson? An insufferable twit.

Apparently, Ken has been recruiting back in the homeland of Australia, and he has landed a real winner: Martyne Iles. He’s perfect. He’s young. He’s loud. He’s a confirmed hater: he doesn’t want anything to do with the gays or the transes, he despises the idea of climate change, he hates commies. He’s a cerfiable culture warror, and his ideology lines up nicely with Ken Ham’s.

And now he’s been hired as Chief Ministry Officer for Answers in Genesis.

Also interesting: he was formerly the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, but he was kicked out. The apparent cause was that the ACL, under his leadership, was flopping badly. Australians kept passing those danged liberal laws anyway. He was ineffective and obnoxious.

The ACL grew rapidly under Iles – its membership tripled, Iles said – but its size wasn’t the board’s problem. It was struggling for political impact. In a few short years, it recorded losses on virtually every single key issue: same-sex marriage was legalised in 2017, just months before Iles took the post; almost every state in the country has loosened laws on abortion and voluntary assisted dying; and major steps against gay conversion therapy have been made in Victoria, WA and NSW. And faced with the potential for a multi-term Labor government that saw the group as – at best – irrelevant, the Australian Christian Lobby needed a major strategic reset.

So now he has left Australia to a country that if more favorable ideologically. He’s just like Ken Ham!

They have one other thing in common: they’re both abominably stupid. Here’s Iles’ “evidence for god”.

No one ever thought that intricacy could come out of simplicity or that order could come out of chaos in anything except creation.

Also, beautiful sunsets. Fanaticism and banality, such a great combination.

It’s a match made in heaven.