I think I'll skip this one

Posted 25 May 2012 by Richard B. Hoppe

For my sins I'm on AIG's emailing list, so I get regular invitations to various YEC and apologetics events. I got this one just the other day:

Voddie Baucham at Proclaiming the Faith 2012 We are excited to announce that Dr. Voddie Baucham of Voddie Baucham Ministries and pastor of the Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, will be joining us at the Proclaiming the Faith family conference in Branson Missouri this July! Voddie was one of the favorite speakers with us two years ago at our family conference in Sevierville, Tennessee. The following quote from Grace Family Baptist website describes Dr. Baucham's unique style of teaching: Voddie makes the Bible clear and demonstrates the relevance of God's word to everyday life. However, he does so without compromising the centrality of Christ and the gospel. Those who hear him preach find themselves both challenged and encouraged.
Voddie's area of emphasis is Cultural Apologetics. Whether teaching on classical apologetic issues like the validity and historicity of the Bible, or the resurrection of Christ; or teaching on biblical manhood/womanhood, marriage and family, he helps ordinary people understand the significance of thinking and living biblically in every area of life.
Joining Dr. Baucham will be Todd Friel from Wretched Radio, Mark Spence of Ray Comfort's School of Biblical Evangelism, Ken Ham, and all your favorite AiG speakers. This is a summer experience you don't want to miss! Bring your whole family for a week of fun, teaching, and a challenge to proclaim your faith. Register online today at www.proclaimingthefaith.org.

I don't think I could take Ken Ham and a Ray (Banana Man) Comfort minion on the same program. I don't have Jason Rosenhouse's forebearance.

23 Comments

https://me.yahoo.com/a/JxVN0eQFqtmgoY7wC1cZM44ET_iAanxHQmLgYgX_Zhn8#57cad · 25 May 2012

I'm holding back until Robert Byers has a seminar.

Glen Davidson

eamon.knight · 25 May 2012

A *solid week* of that level of inanity?! I think my brains would liquify and run out my ears by about Wednesday.

Gary_Hurd · 25 May 2012

I could never sit through any of that bs.

Tenncrain · 25 May 2012

I as a kid/teen attended a few ICR events with family during the 90s/early 2000s, just before the time AIG grew in influence. Amazing to think as recently as eight years ago, I would have wanted to go to an event like this.

williamsdax1 · 25 May 2012

Voddie makes the bible clear.
Thank god,finally,someone.
Oh. It's Voddie

marion.delgado · 25 May 2012

Richard if you change your mind you can *cough* and raise your hand and yell HERE! If they say anything you find questionable.

Ian Derthal · 26 May 2012

I'm hoping to hear Ken Ham, in the flesh, on the 13th August 2012, if only to say I've heard both P.Z.Myers and Ken Ham in real life.

I wonder who'll be the more challenging ?

https://me.yahoo.com/a/PEzPIDl5yZq_ophitb7kJOTDwIEO#3c0e4 · 26 May 2012

It sounds like a great week of mythology for all

Charley Horse · 26 May 2012

Branson is one of if not the most frequented stop of church buses.
With all the heavy hitter speakers being on the agenda, they have to
be expecting a lot of donations and/ or paid admission. Tax deductible, of course.

FL · 26 May 2012

Hmm. You guys claim to be about "science", but you constantly discuss religion. You guys supposedly hate and despise creationism, but now you provide free advertising for young-earth creationist events and speakers.

Sounds kewl to me. Is it any wonder that PandasThumb is among my favorite websites?

harold · 26 May 2012

Tenncrain said: I as a kid/teen attended a few ICR events with family during the 90s/early 2000s, just before the time AIG grew in influence. Amazing to think as recently as eight years ago, I would have wanted to go to an event like this.

What's the beneficial part? I was raised in a non-traumatizing Baptist church. I'm not religious, but I have an aunt who still travels around to small village churches to be the volunteer organist. However, the positive side was about community, music, holiday festivals, stuff like that. Nothing associated with the church cost serious money (there was a "collection plate" - and I believe that funded the whole operation - but donations were modest). From the perspective of someone who would have been interested in this kind of thing, can you explain to me what the appeal is? I think I know what the appeal is to adults (mainly, the religious claims are a proxy for and justification of bigotry which they would be ashamed to express on its own, without the excuse of religion). I certainly know why adults would take children to this (to make sure that the child is firmly brainwashed in the same bigotries that they hold, as a guard against independent thinking). But I don't see anything that anyone, let alone children, would enjoy - just time and money wasted in a "doubling down on the unreasonable stuff" response to cognitive dissonance. What would be the enjoyable part? This is a sincere question, and not intended in any way to be insulting.

https://me.yahoo.com/a/JxVN0eQFqtmgoY7wC1cZM44ET_iAanxHQmLgYgX_Zhn8#57cad · 26 May 2012

Wow, a place named after a well-known challenge to anti-science religious claims actually ends up discussing anti-science religious claims. This is ironic to Floyd.

You supposedly think (ok, it's just you who makes the claim, but anyhow...), FL, but you constantly indicate otherwise.

Glen DAvidson

co · 26 May 2012

FL said: Hmm. You guys claim to be about "science", but you constantly discuss religion. You guys supposedly hate and despise creationism, but now you provide free advertising for young-earth creationist events and speakers. Sounds kewl to me. Is it any wonder that PandasThumb is among my favorite websites? FL

The fact that FL thinks this is in any way supportive of his silly ideas is telling. Is it any wonder that we find your posts boring and childish, FL?

fingerslip · 26 May 2012

I had never heard of Voddie Bauchman so I looked him up on youtube. About 5 minutes in, it became clear that the good pastor has a bee in his bonnet about youth ministries. He calls age segregation in any classroom, the product of 'Darwinian evolution'.

Whaa?! Is this the good pastor's own little contribution to the creationist canon, or has evolution become an all encompassing slur?

hoppy · 26 May 2012

Before anyone goes running to Branson be aware that men must arrive wearing a white belt, white shoes, loud pants and shirt. Ladies apparel should be floral design in brightest possible colors with earrings about the same size as hubcaps. Perfume must be floral scent and very overdone.
If you are driving to Branson a Mercury Marquis is the vehicle preference followed by Lincoln towncar or Buick (bigger is always better). For this particular trip a bobble head jesus would be a great addition.

Ian Derthal · 26 May 2012

Before anyone goes running to Branson be aware that men must arrive wearing a white belt, white shoes, loud pants and shirt. Ladies apparel should be floral design in brightest possible colors with earrings about the same size as hubcaps. Perfume must be floral scent and very overdone. If you are driving to Branson a Mercury Marquis is the vehicle preference followed by Lincoln towncar or Buick (bigger is always better). For this particular trip a bobble head jesus would be a great addition.

and Abe Lincoln type beards, as opposed to ZZ top type beards !

W. H. Heydt · 26 May 2012

hoppy said:...men must arrive wearing a white belt...

I'm active in the Society for Creative Anachonism. Since I'm not a Knight, I'm afraid a white belt is Right Out for me... --W. H. Heydt (Hal Ravn, West, Mists)

John Pieret · 27 May 2012

Wretched Radio?

Why do I suspect that is the closest these people will get to truth in advertizing ... and that it's accidental?

DavidK · 27 May 2012

hoppy said: Before anyone goes running to Branson be aware that men must arrive wearing a white belt, white shoes, loud pants and shirt. Ladies apparel should be floral design in brightest possible colors with earrings about the same size as hubcaps. Perfume must be floral scent and very overdone. If you are driving to Branson a Mercury Marquis is the vehicle preference followed by Lincoln towncar or Buick (bigger is always better). For this particular trip a bobble head jesus would be a great addition.

Before you put the city down, Branson is a very nice place, I've been there many times. They rival Nashville for country & western music, it's a very nice vacation spot, particularly for older people, and I still have acquaintances there. Yes, they do cater to the religious crowd there, unfortunately, but tourism is their primary, and basically, their only livelihood. They don't dress sleazily or wildly, don't drive crazy cars, they do mind their manners, and they do, yes, indulge in religious activities. You can't go to a C&W show without hearing a praise the lord or some jesus song. The region is commonly referred to as the buckle of the bible belt. That being said, I really don't know who would attend this type of show, unless it's accompanied by some kind of religious program; they're pretty anti-science down that way. Then again, it's the perfect setting for creationists to surround themselves with like thinkers whom they can try, most regrettably, to soak the tourists/towns' folk, for donations.

dalehusband · 28 May 2012

FL said: Hmm. You guys claim to be about "science", but you constantly discuss religion. You guys supposedly hate and despise creationism, but now you provide free advertising for young-earth creationist events and speakers. Sounds kewl to me. Is it any wonder that PandasThumb is among my favorite websites? FL

Dealing with fraud in religion is also part of promoting good science, of course. Creationism by nature is fraud. Warning people about scams being perpetuated is not the same as promoting them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Tenncrain · 28 May 2012

harold said: But I don't see anything that anyone, let alone children, would enjoy - just time and money wasted in a "doubling down on the unreasonable stuff" response to cognitive dissonance. What would be the enjoyable part? This is a sincere question, and not intended in any way to be insulting.

Such events had many fun activities geared for young people, somewhat like kid activities at church. True, there was undeniably some non-religious reasons to go, including music, including as a teenager when meeting the opposite sex ;) But even as a young teen, I genuinely admired ICR founder Henry Morris (I only went to a few ICR events, but I was a bit bummed upon learning that one Alabama event I missed had Henry Morris as speaker). I enjoyed Morris's articles in the ICR Impact newsletters, and his books like The Genesis Flood (with co-author John Whitcomb, if anything Whitcomb is more grounded in the Scriptures than even Morris was). I found Morris to be highly diplomatic as well as informative. I often eagerly awaited ICR newsletters in the mailbox, so I suppose it was natural to extend this enthusiasm to ICR events. When you have relatively little exposure to different views in church and in conservative parochial schools, you don't know better. Even when I attended public schools, I don't think I heard the word evolution once. I didn't have fully free and open access to the net until college during the mid-2000s. Even when you do get bits and pieces of other views, Morton's Demon can play havoc.

Richard B. Hoppe · 28 May 2012

Tenncrain said: I enjoyed Morris's articles in the ICR Impact newsletters, and his books like The Genesis Flood (with co-author John Whitcomb, if anything Whitcomb is more grounded in the Scriptures than even Morris was). I found Morris to be highly diplomatic as well as informative.

Whitcomb is (I think he's still alive) a theologian, while Morris' degree was in hydraulic engineering.

harold · 28 May 2012

Tenncrain said:
harold said: But I don't see anything that anyone, let alone children, would enjoy - just time and money wasted in a "doubling down on the unreasonable stuff" response to cognitive dissonance. What would be the enjoyable part? This is a sincere question, and not intended in any way to be insulting.
Such events had many fun activities geared for young people, somewhat like kid activities at church. True, there was undeniably some non-religious reasons to go, including music, including as a teenager when meeting the opposite sex ;) But even as a young teen, I genuinely admired ICR founder Henry Morris (I only went to a few ICR events, but I was a bit bummed upon learning that one Alabama event I missed had Henry Morris as speaker). I enjoyed Morris's articles in the ICR Impact newsletters, and his books like The Genesis Flood (with co-author John Whitcomb, if anything Whitcomb is more grounded in the Scriptures than even Morris was). I found Morris to be highly diplomatic as well as informative. I often eagerly awaited ICR newsletters in the mailbox, so I suppose it was natural to extend this enthusiasm to ICR events. When you have relatively little exposure to different views in church and in conservative parochial schools, you don't know better. Even when I attended public schools, I don't think I heard the word evolution once. I didn't have fully free and open access to the net until college during the mid-2000s. Even when you do get bits and pieces of other views, Morton's Demon can play havoc.

Thanks. This is why I think of religion as a set of shared rituals and/or beliefs that confer group membership. For my grandparents generation, the local church was a supportive, and fairly tolerant, source of community. I suppose to some degree this is what the "atheist movement" is trying to create. Being from an austere but non-political-to-liberal traditional denomination, I tend to see the right wing propaganda side of creationism, and perceive it as a hijacking of the type of church I was raised in, which I hate to see hijacked even while not really believing in the religion. It's no coincidence that "diplomatic" Henry Morris became active just around the time when civil rights, women's rights, and the very beginning of gay rights were new. And it's also obviously true that the latter day fundamentalists tend to bilk people of money, and imply that God will reward their members with money, both of which are decidedly most unlike the tradition I was raised in. At the same time, it's worth remembering that shared ritual has had some kind of powerful appeal for humans for a long time, and that losing it with no clear replacement may not be easy for many people.