Hell and Hamnation:

Not Ken Ham, I know, but  an easy mistake to make.

I was interested to see YEC theme park manager Ken Ham commenting on the news item that was the subject of my last post, namely, the atheist “church” that has recently started meeting in London. (See Ham’s blogpost dated 5 Feb). Ham, needless to say, responds to this news with his usual highly offended self and reaches into his deep supply of censorious terms, quoting from what is probably a well-thumbed part of his Bible, Romans 1, St Paul’s condemnation of Roman society: Ham's lament is one of unrelenting woe: “Shaking their fist at God”, “Suppress the truth in unrighteousness”, “mock the death and resurrection of Christ”, “they are worshipping man”, “The Devil always tries to copy the things of God”.  (It’s worth comparing Ham’s spiritual fulminations with those of Real Catholic Michael Voris.)

Ham puts the blame on the mainstream church:

“…. it’s really because of the church and its rampant compromise on God’s Word that these people are on a journey away from Christianity”  

In some ways that statement is very telling because it’s evidence that Ham and his ilk are feeling increasingly marginalized from the Christian mainstream and this is probably a good thing. But of course in Ham’s epistemically arrogant fundamentalist mind more, yes more hell and hamnation are required to fix the problem! That’s just what we don’t want! If  the atheist church are to remain on speaking terms with Christians, then the last thing we want is for Ken Ham to turn up on their doorstep as their neighbour! This man has a ministry of condemnation: He can only see people who argue with him as thoroughly depraved and will not mince his words in accusing them of such. A personality of his authoritarian disposition will inflame passions and divisions and cause hatred; schismogenesis here we come! Ham is a fine example of the jaundiced fundamentalist mind that readily reads heinous sin and malign motives into a critic's actions and is therefore fertile ground for conspiracy theory . (See also here)

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Addendum 09/02/13: If you log into your Facebook account and go to this page you can see Ken Ham’s reaction to the above post. How Ken came by this post I can only guess as I generally avoid contact with fundamentalists and nowadays only link to their pages if I have to.

I can’t begrudge Ken the need to solicit some words of support from his Facebook following, given that relative to the greater society the culture he stands for is in a minority, even amongst Christians. But really, the kind of comments we see from Ken’s supporters rather make the point; they live in a world of black and white, the black being the hearts of those heretics, apostates, pagans and atheists they perceive to be ranged “against” them. In this context any criticism is likely to be read as an affront, an insult, a sign of lurking sinister motives and therefore worthy of strong disapprobation.  This sense of persecution connives with their egos in as much as they see themselves as important enough to be the focus of insult and hatred. A world view that includes an expectation of persecution, along with that familiar fundamentalist epistemic arrogance, fortifies the faithful against attack.

Now Ken if you are reading this be assured that I don’t reciprocate your censorious opinions by thinking of you as a particularly bad boy –  like the rest of us you are just being human, all too human.