Ken Ham: The Making of An American Religious Huckster

[DonViejo]

Creationist Ken Ham is a modestly-educated Australian schoolteacher. But America's long tradition of anti-intellectualism helped him become a star religious entrepreneur.

Ken Ham’s widely watched debate with Bill Nye has brought America’s most significant fundamentalist onto the radar screen of millions of Americans for the first time. Many are shocked to discover that such views still exist and, as polls remind us, are held by more than a hundred million Americans.

The Ken Ham phenomenon is uniquely American. Creationism exists largely as an American export in other countries, and I am bombarded with inquiries when I speak on this topic in Europe. European scholars find American creationism incomprehensible. How in the world can an Australian schoolteacher with a modest education create an organization like Answers in Genesis, with a $20 million annual budget? And raise $27 million to build a creation museum? And become one of the most influential educators in the country?

The answer lies in the unique and remarkable influences of two of the major shapers of American culture: Martin Luther and King George III.

Luther, of course, is the rabble-rouser who broke away from Roman Catholicism and started the Protestant religious tradition. He had various theological objections to Catholicism, but the perhaps most significant thing he did was simply to split off from an established religion and start a “New Christianity.” In so doing he rejected the traditional wisdom of what had been his faith community. His rallying cry was sola scriptura—“nothing but the Bible”—and he rejected the notion that ordinary people needed theologically educated leaders to tell them what the Bible said. Ordinary people were invited to read the Bible for themselves, free of the insights of scholars, a Protestant emphasis that continues to this day.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/09/ken-ham-the-making-of-an-american-religious-huckster.html

[cbayer]

1. Huckster is right. Great article.

He definitely found his niche.

[hrmjustin]

2. The man is simply scary.

[Gothmog]

3. Ham is an idiot

He came off badly in this debate