#bjubc2017

[wutbju]

From a current student at Bob Jones University regarding Bible Conference with Ken Ham.

Note the “pre-college” audience description. We know that means 6th-graders.

Thanks to sharp WutBJU reader! 

[wutbju]

That’s Ken Ham’s going rate for speaking engagements.

It appears that BJU used Celebrity Talent Promotions to book Ham. 

But $10.5-13.5k? Is that the total for all eight speaking events or a one time fee? We don’t know. 

Unless there’s some deal they’ve worked out. 

[wutbju]

#bjuedu You are really trying too hard with the advertising for #bc2017. #MarketingFail

[wutbju]

Imagine your co-worker asks you, “How did you fit all these widgets into this box?”

And your conclusion is, “Well, this is a big box. This box is exactly 12″ x 12″. If you do the math, that’s 144 square inches. It’s a really big box! And there’s only just one size widget. So I think there is plenty of room in the box for those widgets.” And off you went on your merry way.

That’s not an answer. That’s avoiding the answer and deferring to your self-contained expertise. That’s making your co-worker always dependent upon you to get the job done.

Ken Ham’s answer to “Abby” is no better:

First of all, God told Noah how big to make the ark. . . . It was really big! Now another thing is that although there are hundreds of names of dinosaurs, there were probably only about 50 actual kinds. So, there may have only been a total of 100 dinosaurs on the ark. That still seems like a lot, doesn’t it?

But did you know that most dinosaurs were actually quite small? . . . And for the few dinosaurs that grew large, it would make sense that God would send smaller young adults. You know, after looking at all of these facts, I think there was plenty of room on the ark for the dinosaurs. 

That’s not an answer. Ham is not teaching elementary school any kind of scientific inquiry. He’s teaching them again to accept his word for it. 

[wutbju]

After having set up his primary goal to prove that dinosaurs are the key to getting people to Jesus, Ham really stumbles on question two.

“Joy B” adorably writes, 

Did Noah take dinosaurs on the ark?

Ham, in essence, gushes “Why not?”

Can you even imagine it? Dinosaurs on the ark? It is so very cool to think about. And we can be sure they were there because the Bible tells us that every kind of air-breathing, land-dwelling animal went aboard. Now, Noah did not know of the word dinosaur back then. In fact, that word was made up in 1841 to describe land animals found that had very unique bone structures, uncommon to other animals. Dinosaur literally means “Terrible Lizard.”

But we do know what God tells us — that all the kind of land animals were on the art. Well, that just had to include the dinosaur kinds, too!

What? That’s your proof? You set up dinosaurs as the sine qua non for the Christian faith, and all you can come up with to answer this question is, “You bet!”

It is not WutBJU’s intention to answer the question of a literal Flood. I can’t. It’s not my expertise. You can go to Biologos for that. But I can evaluate an argument. 

And Ham’s isn’t an answer. And his response is certainly not proven. Ham wants his reader to accept his word as God’s Word. “Ham said it. I believe it. That settles it.”

That’s not the way to make a follower of Jesus, Ken. That’s the way to make a follower of you.

[wutbju]

Ken Ham published a series of Answers for Kids, and a WutBJU reader has shared parts of Volume 2, Dinosaurs and the Flood. Ham claims to be writing these for elementary school age children.

But notice the theological primacy he gives to . . . Jesus? No, no. . . . The BIble? No, no. . . . The universality of sin? No, no.

Dinosaurs. 

You have to believe in dinosaurs or else you’re a faithless reprobate.

As I have traveled the world these past 30+ years, I realize that dinosaurs are used more than anything else to indoctrinate children (and teens and adults) into believing the idea of millions of years or earth history.

Many Christian parents have been unable to counter this indoctrination because they don’t know how to answer questions about dinosaurs, the fossil record, and the age of the earth. They cannot defend biblical authority and the Genesis history that is foundational to the rest of the Bible.

Sadly, when children don’t get biblical answers, many of them are put on a slippery slide to unbelief—doubting the first part of the Bible (Genesis). This can ultimately lead to their doubt and unbelief of the rest of the Bible....

My prayer is that this book will give crucial answers to assist you in building within your children a foundation to know and trust God’s Word — right from the very first verse — and that one day that may put their faith in our Savior — the Creator of the universe — Jesus Christ.

Dinosaurs are the tool of evolutionists. And if parents can’t counter the evolutionists, their children will inevitably fail to believe in Jesus. 

That’s what he sets up. It’s Dinos or Die. 

And that’s not just for kids. It’s for “teens and adults.” It’s for Bob Jones University college students too. . . .

[wutbju]

On the Lunch Menu through Bible Conference, February 14-17, is the same dish: Ham & Cheese. As in Ken Ham and his Science-ish Cheez.

The justification for this diet is this:

Have you looked at what Ken Ham actually says? 

Most BJU alumni grew up as some variety of Creationist. For many, that started with George Mulfinger’s Physical Science text in 9th grade. Some of us have dropped the ideology altogether, some have morphed into an Old-Earth Creationism, and some have remained consistent in the Young-Earth Creationism we learned in our youth.

Ken Ham’s variety, however, is completely different. He has become so reductionistic and so commodified that any resemblance of theological depth is gone. Forget science. His theology is plain-ol wacky. You can follow the entire feed under the hashtag #Ham&Cheese.

So at noon every day, WutBJU will serve up a plate of Ham & Cheese. And ask yourself: is this what you’d want your Middle Schooler to learn? Would you have bought this schlock in college?