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Creation index

Dr. dino
Is Dr. Kent Hovind being edited?
(includes matter of 501(c)(3), Free-Church vs State-Church)
-
Efforts to limit dissemination?
(efforts to muzzle me?)
Dr. dino


[Introduction to Dr. Hovind],  [Dr. Hovind's justice cycle],  [Is Dr. Hovind being edited?],  [Dr. Hovind vs Wikipedia]
[Video presentation of seminars 1-7],  [Introduction to seminar transcripts],  [Seminar 1: “The Age of the Earth”],  [Seminar 2: “The Garden of Eden”],  [Seminar 3: “Dinosaurs and the Bible”],  [Seminar 4: “Lies in the Textbooks?”],  [Seminar 5: “The Dangers of Evolution”],  [Seminar 6: “The Hovind Theory”],  [Seminar 7: “Question and Answers”]

  
        
“You don't ever want to get committed to a denomination or committed to any one thing other than truth. So I'm for truth, and against error.”
        
  Dr. Kent Hovind            
  (from ‘Creation Seminar #7, pt 2’ given in 2005)  

Various questions are being forwarded here. Some of these questions arouse suspect. I will summarize here some of the things we have seen happening, and I will make a humble attempt trying to fit things together and arrive at some sort of answers.

A main wondering may very well be why Creation Today, that as it seemed replaced Creation Science Evangelism (CSE), is registered as a corporation, a so-called 501(c)(3) organization, when Dr. Hovind has advocated vigorously not to ever become that? So strictly taken, why is this Creation Today ministry not recognized as a free church?

 
Index:

    
Is Dr. Kent Hovind being edited?  (includes 501(c)(3), Free-Church vs State-Church)
  Editing and the years 2005, 2006 and 2007
  The reason I am being supplied with...
             (Includes:  Name change from ‘Christian Science Evangelism’ to ‘Creation Today’?; 501(c)(3); Parachurch or church?; Doing the work of God or government?)
  1) The shortening of seminar #5 ‘The Dangers of Evolution’
      - Summary of deletions (‘New World Order’, ‘501(c)(3) Church’, etc.)
- The 501(c)(3) Church or Getting muzzled...
  2) The editing done in seminar #7 (pt 1 & 2)‘Questions & Answers’
         - College Classes: CSE 101, 102, 103, 104 and 201 (Seminar 7: pt 1)
                (Includes notices on radio program ‘The Creation Science Hour’ (Jun 2003/Jan 2004))  
      - ‘Corporation or a church?; Becoming a 501(c)(3)’ (Seminar 7: pt 1)
- ‘About the origin of the Islam...’ (Seminar 7: pt 2)
  More about the 501(c)(3) Church and its place in time...
 
Efforts to limit dissemination?  (efforts to muzzle me?)  
  Attempts to edit or limit my own efforts to disseminate these seminars?
      - Appreciation received from CSE and Dr. Hovind (2003)
- Met with resistance from ‘Creation Today’ (2013)
  ‘Creation Science Evangelism’ (CSE) copyright change (Jan 2005)



 
Is Dr. Kent Hovind being edited?  (501(c)(3), Free-Church vs State-Church)

Back to Main Index Editing and the years 2005, 2006 and 2007

Rather unfortunately there is a question that surfaces because there is a difference between the video's of his seminars that have been issued up to 2005 and the ones that have been issued since 2007. It appears that sensitive topics have been edited out or are being skipped.

Seminar #7:  If for example you look at the Dutch DVD release published in 2005 of seminar #7 and compare this to the English 2007 DVD release, various sequences in fact have manually been edited out. Mind that I have been able to verify that both these releases are from the very same seminar as originally given in 2005. I was thus able to find all the exact sequences that had been edited out since the 2007 DVD release.

Example Seminar #5 given in 2005
This is a snapshot from seminar #5 as given in 2005. Here you have a view of the background, the wood, the lectern, the plants, the clothes Dr. Hovind was wearing (he has dinosaurs on his tie) and so on. If you would have a copy of this given seminar that exceeds the listed 82 minutes I would be very much interested to receive a copy of that, digital, vhs video, etc.. (send email)

Seminar #5:  We then find that seminar #5 basically has been cut in half. The one that was given in 2003 still amounts close to 3 hours (2hr 57m). The one however that is dated to as given in 2005 counts less than half that time (1hr 22m). Thus a whole 95 minutes shorter! Please mind here that thus far I have not been able to positively verify if this published 2005 seminar would actually have been edited, simply because I haven't found a longer equivalent. I only can tell that the Dutch release from 2005 does not include the 2005 version of seminar #5, that set includes instead the longer given in 2003 seminar #5.
Anyhow it would be rather obvious here for anyone that a lot of information must have gone missing. The question here is which information has been left out.

I haven't as yet found that the other seminars would have been interfered with. Thus far they would seem to be unaltered.

One should keep in mind here that some things happened in the year 2006. It was the year that Dr. Hovind was tried in court for supposed tax evasion, and was convicted. So we got:
    2005:  DVD release of seminar #5 & #7 still in the original version.
  2006:  Dr. Hovind convicted and incarcerated.
 
 
2007: DVD releases of seminar #5 run only half it's original length.
            DVD releases of seminar #7 are edited.
There may thus exist a correlation in regards to the legal actions taken against Dr. Hovind and his ministry. It appears however rather clear that this shortening and editing implemented on these seminars is directly related with the Creation Today ministry being registered as a 501(c)(3) corporation and not a church.
This Creation Today ministry has thus been muzzled.

 
Back to Main Index The reason I am being supplied with...
(Includes: Name change from ‘Christian Science Evangelism’ to ‘Creation Today’?; 501(c)(3); Parachurch or church?; Doing the work of God or government?)
Well, I did send in an inquiry through to the Creation Today website that amongst other read:
  Subject: creationtoday.org > Science Question
Date: 2013-12-15 12:31:43
 
        
“Is there any reason why the 5th seminar of Dr. Hovind from 2003 counts 2 hrs. 47 min. and the same seminar from 2007 counts 1 hr. 21 min.?? Has some information been placed elsewhere? Or what are we missing here?”
        

To this I received the following response:
  Subject: RE: creationtoday.org > Science Question
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 16:47:57
 
        
“In the 2003 edition, Kent Hovind stepped considerably out of his brief as a creation speaker, and spoke on issues, on which this ministry, as a parachurch ministry, cannot take a position. Please see our policy on our website on secondary doctrinal issues. This extraneous material was edited when the 2007 edition was produced.”
        

Indeed a clarifying response although not forwarding a reasoning one should comply with. I explain this further here below. Now, we find this referenced page on their website here (external link) (last checked: 11 Mar 2014). We find that it amongst other says:
        
“Working in a parachurch ministry like Creation Today, we realize that we cannot take a stand on every issue. It may therefore be worth a brief comment explaining why we take a stand on some issues and not others. First, we must be true to what God has called us to do, and our energies, prayers and activities must not side-track us away from this calling.
        
 
Second, we recognize that there are secondary doctrinal issues, on which a parachurch ministry like ours cannot take a position. The reason for this is that there are Bible-believing Christians, whose authority on the subject of creation comes only from the Bible, who, nevertheless, differ on some of these secondary doctrinal issues. It is not that we think such issues are unimportant. On the contrary, many of us would look at such secondary doctrines very carefully in choosing which church we should attend. But Creation Today is not a church, and many who support our mission, as described above, and who agree with our Statement of Faith, might honestly hold differing opinions on the secondary doctrines. It is not that we as individuals do not feel equipped to handle questions generated by such issues. We are always equipped by the Holy Spirit to stand for our interpretations of God’s truth. It is that we choose to put aside our differences on secondary issues for the sake of the ministry’s mission.”
 
It says more on that particular page, but this is the gist of it. We learn here various very interesting things. All this however was not the position of Dr. Hovind according to his seminars that he gave during 1989 to 2005. He never referred to something like parachurch, he spoke about church. You see, his ministry, Creation Science Evangelism, was never a parachurch. There is also the matter of that one does not have to take a particular position about issues, one should still have the freedom to open up topics for discussion.

You see, Dr. Hovind advocated being a church, as a ministry is doing the work of God, you save people for God. That's is basically what a ministry is about, isn't it? In this way you answer only to God, and not to a government. This implies that it thus also would be tax free. It also means that one has free speech, whereas when you become a cooperation you limit yourself not being able to take a stand in certain topics, like politics and more such sensitive things. Dr. Hovind clearly spoke about not ever becoming a cooperation, and certainly not becoming a so-called 501(c)(3) cooperation! “But if they do, they've just put a noose around their neck. Say, hang me whenever you like.”   Dr. Kent Hovind   (from ‘Seminar 7 (pt1)’ given in 2005, unedited release)

Well, in regards to the Creation Today ministry we were in for a change though, as we find on their website here (external link) (last checked: 11 Mar 2014), that the ministry had become exactly that! It reads there:
        
“Creation Today is a non profit 501-c(3) ministry that has never been in debt. We only operate in the black and can only minister with what we have.”
        
To this effect we do also find that on seminar 7 (pt1) where Dr. Hovind detailedly folded out the position that ministries should take, that these texts have been manually edited out from the presently available DVD releases of that same seminar. (see for details my chapter “2) The editing done in seminar #7 (pt 1 & 2)‘Questions & Answers’” on this page)

Undoubtedly this change of heart of the ministry has to do with Dr. Hovind having been indicted for supposed tax evasion. The jurisdiction of having been found guilty would have lead to particular consequences. These would involve the assets of the registered ministry, arrears tax payments can now be demanded to be paid which may even lead to confiscation of assets. Also the guilty label would automatically assume various supposed truths, one of them being a confirmation of sorts that the ministry was not a church. In this way governments can actually enforce various demands on groups and people where they then have to comply with. The warning was:
        
“As soon as you become 501(c)(3), you are now a corporation, you are not a church. ... So, a church that becomes 501(c)(3), has stepped way down from where God intended him to be, and they have now become a creature of the state.”         Dr. Kent Hovind
(from ‘Seminar 7 (pt1)’ given in 2005, unedited release)
        
Well, indeed!

It can however also be interpreted as using a means to shut someone up, which obviously was met with a success in this case. Dr. Hovind was gotten out of the way (incarcerated for 10 years even), and the original Creation Science Evangelism ministry turned silent since October 2011. The ministry that took over (Creation Today) apparently was forced to submit to becoming that (muzzled) cooperation and with the chosen label parachurch (whatever that implies to say..., a term invented by modern times as it was not in use by early churches, ah well...).

The whole point basically here is that Dr. Hovind was considered by some entities to be uncomfortable, he simply attracted far too much attention and reached too many a people, and so he had to be dealt with. And so some wheels were put in motion to accomplish exactly that...

Finally, what to say about the Creation Today employee writing to me: “In the 2003 edition, Kent Hovind stepped considerably out of his brief as a creation speaker..”? This person is basically saying here that Dr. Hovind went “out of his brief” (since 1989), for a whole 14 years! Well, according to the rules set by the original free church (CSE ministry) he certainly did not went out of his brief.

Go to index

 
Back to Main Index 1) The shortening of seminar #5 ‘The Dangers of Evolution’

 
Go back Summary of deletions (‘New World Order’, ‘501(c)(3) Church’, etc.)

Here the length of the seminar went from 2hr 57m (in 2003) to 1hr 22m (in 2005). It was thus shortened more than half its original length! The obvious questions that surface are:

  1. “Why was this cut short?”; and
  2. “What information had disappeared?”

After all there is a lot you can say in 95 minutes. It appears the 2005 otherwise compared with the one given in 2003 has been reorganized a bit. We find information in the 2005 given version that was not present in the one from 2003. I actually added these relevant sections into my published transcript of the seminar given in 2003.

Now, to find out what information had gone missing in the much shortened 2005 released version one has to make a comparison. I summarize my findings here below:
   
The 2003 version of the seminar has the interesting section that I gave the chapter title “Evolution teaching finding its way into the schools and into acceptance”, it amongst other takes up the Scopes Monkey Trial from 1925 en de film ‘Inherit the Wind’. The 2005 version skips this all. I myself find that this historical information is of particular interest. Just because it lays out how one actually went about implementing the evolution theory into the society and particularly the school system.
 
The 2003 seminar also had a whole section about “Correcting the textbooks”. Listing in full the actions that could be taken by people to correct these textbooks and more such things. Strictly taken this may have fit better in seminar 4 “Lies in the Textbooks”.
 
Then we have the section that addresses this “New World Order (NWO)”. The seminar from 2005 only has a very brief notice left about it. The 2003 version on the other hand is rather lengthy and descriptive about it. The deletion of this undoubtedly was a consequence of that Creation Today was a 501(c)(3) Church (see next).
 
Finally then we have come to so-called 501(c)(3) churches. There are 3 places in seminar #5 that was given in 2003 that addresses it. It does lay out rather clearly the position that Dr. Hovind had taken regarding this. It's consequences and one's responsibility. It appears to be all about muzzling the churches.
So there we have it.

 
Go back The 501(c)(3) Church or Getting muzzled...

The 3 deleted occurrences from seminar #5 (2003):

“Our founding fathers said: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ for instance, who gives you the right to have a church? Why do we ask the government for permission? You know just about every church in America now has become 501(c)(3) incorporated because they want to get government handout. You ought to get the book Hushmoney or the bigger version of it, In Caesar's Grip by Peter Kershaw, a good friend of mine, if you want to find all the dangers behind 501(c)(3) incorporation. The church doesn't have to get incorporated, but if you do get incorporated you better not teach against certain things from your pulpit. Did you know that if you are an incorporated church and you preach against homosexuality, IRS will pull your tax-exempt status? Churches are tax-exempt anyway. What are we asking them that for anyway, come on. You ought to read the book if you want more on that. Patrick Henry said: ‘It can not be emphasized too strongly that this great nation was founded ...by Christians. Not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.’ See the other philosophy on life is based on Creation thinking, which says laws come from the Creator, rights are Unalienable, and the Government should be limited to the punishment of evildoers and defense. The only two legitimate functions of government, they are not supposed to provide everything for you.”

“They certainly want to have jurisdiction over all the churches, and many churches have already stuck their head in the noose by becoming incorporated, and they don't realize what they've done. There's a good book if you want to read more on that, you can get it from our website or right here in our bookstore, In Caesar's Grip, about how the incorporation process, 501(c)(3), has trapped churches where they cannot speak out on certain topics. Man, 100 years ago the politicians were scared stiff of the pastors ‘cause they just get up there and preach. Ya know, “Senator Jones is a whoremonger.” Well, today if you talk about politics they'll jerk your 501(c)(3) status, and so Christians say: ‘Oh, we can't talk about certain topics in the pulpit.’ Well, then you are not serving God. If you are a prophet of God you say what God told you to say. If it hair-lips the devil, then tough. It goes back to the two basic philosophies of government, you know; evolution based on man's opinion, and creation based on laws come from the Creator. He gives us rights to have churches, he gives us rights to speak the truth.”


Number 2 of “Twelve things to do...” reads:

“Number 2. Be wise as Serpents. (Matthew 10:16 & Proverbs 22:3) I think we stick our head in a lot of nooses and let them hang us, and we could talk a long time about the many ways we have made a nexus of relationship with the government. Churches do that by getting 501(c)(3). People do that by getting Marriage Licenses and Driver's Licenses and Social Security Numbers and on and on and on, we cover all that on CSE 103.”

Go to index

 
Back to Main Index 2) The editing done in seminar #7 (pt 1 & 2) ‘Questions & Answers’

 
Go back College Classes: CSE 101, 102, 103, 104 and 201 (Seminar 7: pt 1)

(Includes notices on radio program ‘The Creation Science Hour’ (Jun 2003/Jan 2004))

Already right in the beginning of this seminar we find it has deleted particularly informative notices. He tales this right after a brief introduction of seminar 7. Indicated in purple is the deleted section.

        
There is much more information about all of these topics on our College Class. We talk College Classes CSE, the 100-series, 101, 102, 103 & 104, you can take those and where we have time we go into a lot more detail. And then the 200-series is even more depth then that, ok. So you can..., if you don't get enough information or if I don't answer one of your questions you can call in to our daily radio program. Every day 4:30 to 6:00 currently, we may change the time some day, but currently 4:30 to 6:00 central time, monday to friday, when I am not traveling. I am live on the Internet, drdino.com or truthradio.com and you can do..., take our College Classes and ask questions there, we cover just a whole lot more material. All of the slides that I use in my seminars, it is close to 7,000 now, are available to download off my website, drdino.com. Or you can just order the DVD's or CD's of all of the slides. A lot of slides, you see, they have a little asterisk, next to, near the end, that indicates there is something in the notes section of the slide. And there is a lot of things I have to skip just for sake of time, but hopefully we are going to answer some questions for you here.”
        

It tales about the (1) College Class series, his (2) radio program and the (3) seminar slides.

Radio program ‘The Creation Science Hour’ (Jun 2003/Jan 2004)
    In a sense it may have been understandable to have the part of the radio program removed in presently distributed versions of this seminar, as this radio program is not maintained this day (this recorded seminar was given December 2003). A better solution (in my opinion) would have been to keep it in there, but you instead add an explanatory notice about it on the video itself or the dvd-case. One should consider here (1) that the viewer will learn about the existence of the program, and (2) that recordings of these broadcasts actually survive. It run from at least 13 Jun 2003 to 15 Jan 2004 (I have collected a total of 40 recordings of the broadcasts). Then in addition we find that a total of 8 of these radio programs even had been videotaped while broadcasting and were later issued in a video series entitled ‘Answering the Critics’. This was a special video series that focused on answering to and giving a rebuttal to those that had criticized Dr. Hovind, this was hosted by Dr. Hovind and his son Eric Hovind.
But what do ya know. That video series ‘Answering the Critics’ is not presently available from Creation Today.

College Class series; CSE 101, 102, 103, 104 and 201
    On the Creation Today website we find that at present only CSE 101 & 102 are available (see here). I actually send them a message via their website inquiring why they were not hosting the other series, but failed to receive an answer to that. Although this in itself should not be so very surprising. CSE 103 already goes into detail about the topics that had been addressed previously in Creation seminar #5, it appears that particularly topics like New World Order and such are a nonono (prohibited) if you are registered as a 501(c)(3) corporation.
Slides shown on seminar #5 that refer to CSE 103 appear as many as 4 times. It appears in slide sections Humanism, Money Powers, Communism and New World Order.
The same goes for an analysis about religions. We find that a snippet of just 10 seconds had been carefully (seamlessly) edited out on seminar 7, part 2. On the unedited Dutch release we find it at 16:14 to 16:25, just 10 tiny seconds. It read:  (deleted part in purple)
           “But there are quite a few other religions. I want to cover a lot of this on our College Class, so I am going to skip most things for now. I won't cover them all now, just a few of the highlights. But in our College Class in the 200-series we will cover a lot of other religions. I mean there are a lot of religions out there.”         
  Apparently one went at great length to get these things out of there. Although they overlooked it here, same seminar part at 33:48 to 33:.52 (4 seconds worth). It reads there: “We've got a ton of stuff in the College Class CSE 200 series about Islam.”. Ah well..., can't get them all I guess. Anyway the message relayed by this sort of editing (this much effort for 10 seconds) should be rather obvious. Only College Class 101 and 102 are allowed, the others are... forbidden! Well, I guess you now know the ones you really should not miss out on!
These complete College Class courses though are still available from various websites that offer ripped copies for free download. You can also find DVD's offered on the Ebay. The complete series comprises of 50 sessions (10 for each of the College Class courses), and amounts to some 61 hours of lecturing.

Seminar slides
    It is a bit unclear to me why the section about these slides had been deleted. Is it for practical reasons as one had already removed the mention of the radio program and the CSE series? See, seminar slides are available at present (no doubt edited) from Creation Today, although at a cost.

To summarize this it would appear that these info's had been removed because of certain demands caused by being a 501(c)(3) corporation. It would then seem that giving rebuttals to evolutionist's/atheist's as was done in that video series ‘Answering the Critics’ would not be condoned either.

 
Go back ‘Corporation or a church?; Becoming a 501(c)(3)’  (Seminar 7: pt 1)

  
     A video clip of the unedited version of this seminar. A transcript follows directly here below.

The quoted text here below that appears as purple has been edited out from the since 2007 released DVD's of this same seminar!
          
  

        
“Here's what's happened though. The Constitution of the United States, Article One, Section 10 says: ‘You have the right to make a contract.’ Let's suppose Adam says: ‘Brother Hovind, I'm going to pay you $10.00 an hour for the rest of my life.’ Ok, ...and he signs a contract. And then he does not fulfil the contract. Well, then I can sue him. And he could say: ‘Well, I've got a constitutional right to keep my money.’ Yes you do, but you also have a constitutional right to make a contract. And you made a contract. So, the judge is just going to uphold contract law.
        
 
Now, what churches do is they sign a contract, and they don't even know they are signing it. They sign up to become a 501(c)(3). As soon as you become 501(c)(3), you are now a corporation, you are not a church. See, God creates people and God established the church. People created government. And government creates corporations. So, a church that becomes 501(c)(3), has stepped way down from where God intended him to be, and they have now become a creature of the state. If you read Internal Revenue code 508 which is where 501(c)(3) comes from, go turn over a few pages to 508. Internal Revenue code 508 section (c)(1)(a) says: “Churches are mandatory exceptions.” Not an exemption, they're an exception. The government recognizes churches do not have to get 501(c)(3) status. But if they do, they've just put a noose around their neck. Say, hang me whenever you like. They can't talk about politics, you can read 501(c)(3). They can't get involved in political campaigns. So, separation of church and state? I would say, well, if you are 501(c)(3), probably correct. If you are a real church ministry, no; no problem.
 

Later in this same part of seminar 7 Dr. Hovind says:
        
“Well, I am against pollution, and I am against destroying things unnecessarily. But the real purpose of this environmental movement and this big scare about global warming is not to save the earth. The purpose is to establish Communist plank #1: Abolish private property. They want you to have to get a permit to cut down a tree on your own property. One guy in California had this tree that was growing, ...obviously, into his house, and it was crushing the front porch. The house was a 100 and some years old. It had been planted and the tree was caving in the front porch. He went to get a permit to cut down the tree. They said you can't cut down the tree, because the trees are protected. He said: ‘Well, then I need to get a permit to remodel my porch.’ They said: ‘No, the house is 100 years old. That's a historic building. You can't remodel the porch.’ Talk about stupid! Why go ask for a permit at all, that's what starts the problem. You see, once people sign a contract to become a servant of whoever, then you are under contractual law. You know, if you sign a contract and become 501(c)(3), well then you better do everything what they tell you to do, ok. So don't sign the contract. Don't get yourself tangled up in those things. That gets difficult to do.
        

 
Go back ‘About the origin of the Islam...’  (Seminar 7: pt 2)

Noted is here that the Creation Today ministry doesn't carry the little comic book ‘The Prophet’as advocated in below video anymore. I did however acquire a copy of it. In the tale told a previous Jesuit priest appears and reveals that he participated in secret briefings in the Vatican, all under oath and induction, in where this information was relayed.
It is available from its publisher Chick Publications here (external link) (last checked: 11 Mar 2014).

  
     A video clip of the unedited version of this seminar. A transcript follows directly here below.

The quoted text here below that appears as purple has been edited out from the since 2007 released DVD's of this same seminar!
         
  

        
“Here is a picture of the pope kissing the Koran. The Catholic Catechism is in our library out here. You can read it for yourself. Some of the things they believe are pretty interesting. They say in the Catholic Catechism 841: ‘The Church's relationship with the Muslims,’ is ‘The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, ...the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God...
        
 
There is an excellent little comic book called The Prophet you can get from our ministry, it's like $2.00 or something like that, by Jack Chick. He goes through the history of the Muslim Church and how they started. Very few people realize it was the Catholics that started Islam. They started the whole religion purposely to try to get the Holy Land back for the Catholics. They build up the Islam, they funded Mohammed, they trained him, they send a Catholic nun out of the monastery. They said: ‘We want you to come out of your convent. Go find a young promising Muslim, marry him, and train him to raise up an army of Arabs to go take back the Holy Land for the Mother Church.’ Quite an interesting story if you want to read about that. It started to work but then it failed because the Islam got so big. They said: ‘Well, forget you are a Catholic, it is not what we want.’ And nowadays Muslims, which is now 10-20% of the world population, Islam; I don't think most of them know that they really started of as a front for the Catholic Church.
 

 
Back to Main Index More about the 501(c)(3) church and its place in time...

There is a bit more to say about this development of these so-called 501(c)(3) churches as opposed to the regular old-fashion tax-exempt Church. Or should we address it as Free-Church vs State-Church?

It appears that Dr. Hovind had a bit more to say about it. On the set of seminar slides accompanying the Creation seminars of Dr. Hovind I found the slide here pictured on the right. Here the controversary is listed as: Church sovereignty versus State church. I fear that the Creation Today ministry will not carry this little publication!

This publication ‘Hushmoney’ has been condensed from the larger publication ‘In Caesar's Grip’ by Peter Kershaw. In Caesar's GripWhich liner notes say: “This 160 page book is the most in-depth exposè that has ever been written on the legal and theological pitfalls and perils of church incorporation and the IRS 501c3 tax-exempt status. Includes valuable historic information regarding the origins of the corporation and why the early church was accused of civil disobedience for refusing to incorporate.”

Some of the chapter titles read: “Christianity, Inc.” and “Dear Mr. Caesar, I'd like to be a Christian (can I have a license please?)”. Now, isn't that interesting! There is the obvious matter of control!
A demand for licensing is also something we see enforced within the present Church of Scientology. They too demand you to be licensed, but here it is primarily a matter of a money drive. Nonetheless had its founder already as early as 1950 clearly stipulated that “Dianetics is not in any way covered by legislation anywhere for no law can prevent one man sitting down and telling another man his troubles, and if anyone wants a monopoly on dianetics, be assured that he wants it for reasons which have to do not with dianetics but with profit.”  L. Ron Hubbard  (from ‘Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health’; Book Three: Therapy; Chapter I: The Mind's Protection; 1950, 1973 edition, p168). The official Church of Scientology today however does not follow these guidelines herewith ignoring that the US Code of US law directs that one can not claim copyright on a practice. US Code (see at (B)) (external link) (last checked: 16 Mar 2014).
There is a slight difference though with a ministry of church becoming a 501(c)(3) church. As you can still get your tax-exempt status, but at the same time you also sign up for getting muzzled. Within the Church of Scientology the matter is simply that it had become a for profit organization, which was certainly not its original outset.

This Peter Kershaw wrote several books about the 501(c)(3) subject matter, releasing video's and appears to have been regularly speaking about the development of more and more old-fashion tax-exempt churches turning into 501(c)(3) churches and how to turn it around. We see for example this talk ‘Does the Government Control Our Churches?’ in where the “Author of ‘Hushmoney’, speaks out against IRS controlled 501(c)(3) churches, will share how the churches have been allowing Caesar to control them and how you can help your church become free of Government control!”.

There is this website hushmoney.org (external link) (last checked: 16 Mar 2014), which is pretty much devoted to materials about this subject. They call themselves actually a ministry, and why not. On their website I found amongst other this here below:  (do note the obvious resemblance of the muzzled priest found on the cover of Peter Kershaw's booklet cover of ‘Hushmoney’)

   
WWJ, Inc. & The 501c3 Church
WWj Inc & The 501c3 ChurchMost churches in America today are organized as “non-profit tax-exempt religious corporations.” Have churches always operated as incorporated 501c3 organizations? No, this is a relatively recent trend that began in the 1950s. Prior to that churches operated as churches, and they were much better off, in every respect. In this presentation you'll discover why:
  • An incorporated church is a “creature of the State” and declares the State is its “Sovereign.”
  • Incorporation does not protect a church from being sued, but only ensures that it can be sued.
  • A church is non-taxable and, therefore, does not need to become 501c3 to avoid paying taxes.
  • A church is automatically qualified to receive tax-deductible contributions without ever applying for 501c3 status.
  • 501c3 churches have limited freedom of speech and are restricted in speaking out on vital moral issues of the day.
WWJ, Inc. & The 501c3 Church?
DVD
$25.00 
 

It is the liner notes that are particularly interesting here. It states that this trend from Free-Church to State-Church is of a rather recent date. It thus didn't used to be that way. So what happened? Then it lists the limitations a Church and/or ministry limits itself to if they go along with becoming a 501(c)(3) church..

It mentions 1950s, now at what time interval did this same state started to interfer with the textbooks and assured that evolution ‘science’ became the dominant line of teaching (i.e. if you want to call it teaching...)? Well, the answer is during the later ’50s as well. (see here, separate window)) So, who wants to regulate here and for what reason?

Anyhow..., why settle for a 501(c)(3) church?

Go to index

 
Efforts to limit dissemination?  (efforts to muzzle me?)

Back to Main Index Attempts to edit or limit my own efforts to disseminate these seminars?

I have been hosting transcripts of Dr. Hovind's Creation seminars 1-4 (given 1998-99) this since March 2003. I was actually the very first to do that, they were just not around anywhere else on the Internet. For years I remained the only person making these available. During the years I have received many pleasant appreciations for this initiative. Apparently it was filling a need.

Then since December 2013 I instigated an old plan to have updated seminar versions, this time also including the missing seminars 5-7, this available in the English, Dutch and Swedish language. I did contact Creation Today about that project. And that had some, ...well, let's call them, repercussions...

 
Go back Appreciation received from CSE and Dr. Hovind (2003)

I have been in contact with the Creation Science Evangelism ministry during 2003-04. The following email response I received from CSE in 2003:
  Subject: Transcripts
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 13:32:44
 
        
“Dear Michel,
        
 
My name is Jonathan Sampson. I work with Dr. Hovind here at Creation Science Evangelism. Your email directed to Martha has come to my attention. We're very appreciative that you took the liberty of transcripting these seminars and would seek your permission to link to your website from www.drdino.com. In your email you've requested to speak with Doctor Hovind about further information. Please reply to this email with a telephone number and a convenient time for us to contact you so you can further discuss this topic or any other with Dr. Hovind. Thank you again for the time you've spent on this and please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
 
 
May God bless you over and over
Jonathan Sampson
Creation Science Evangelism
www.drdino.com
 
I did get the opportunity to forward my information to Dr. Hovind.

Here Jonathan Sampson (on the left) appears together with Richard Rives that presently runs the Wyatt museum (from seminar slide).
[Just as a further tiny side note, Jonathan Sampson is several times referred to by Dr. Hovind on seminar #7 (given December 2005) as ‘Jonathan’. Quote from seminar: “Now the RATE project book (from ICR) is difficult reading, heavy reading. Jonathan, you're awfully smart. How far did you make it through the book? About half way and it's taken you almost a year?” This appears indeed to be the very same Jonathan as the book that Dr. Hovind comments here about appears as a seminar slide with the label on that book saying ‘Property of Jonathan Sampson’.]
One week later I received this following message:
  Subject: Creation Science Evangelism Transcripts
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 15:31:42
 
        
“Michael [sic] - Dr. Hovind thinks you've done a wonderful job on the transcripts. He wants to know if you would be willing to do to the newest version (all seven tapes) and how much it would cost. We are placing a link on our site to yours. Great job!
        
 
Martha Harris
Secretary to Dr. Hovind”
 
Well, I can tell from own experiences that transcribing Dr. Hovind is not an easy task. You see, he talks very fast indeed. You simply have to set the playing speed at a lower level to be able to keep pace while typing. Another obstacle I was facing is that English is just not my native language. My English skills are rather excellent, but it is not the same as working with a native language. Besides that I am not a professional nor a very experienced transcriber, although I had done my share in this area. It was at this time that I started projects on these pages asking people to help transcribing, and indeed some humble work got done this way albeit it took some time.

Either way, I did receive some very nice appreciation from Dr. Hovind and the people working at CSE back then!

 
Go back Met with resistance from ‘Creation Today’ (2013)

The times however were a-changin'. Just 10 years later, near the end of 2013 I send in an inquiry to Creation Today. Here I informed the ministry about the project I was working on. In their response I was rather astonished to read the following lines:
  Subject: RE: creationtoday.org > Science Question
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 16:47:57
 
        
“The material in the Creation Seminars is owned by this ministry, and subject to copyright. We give permission to anyone, who has bought the DVD, to copy it for ministry use. There is no permission for you to host any of the material on your website, and would respectfully insist that you take it down - though we have no way of enforcing you to do so, nor will make any attempt to do so; we rely on your integrity as a Christian not to break our copyright any more.”
        
Well, isn't that all so very nice! Apparently it was not being appreciated anymore. Well, not by this individual anyway. The matter here is that I was not even in breach of some copyright regulation. Purposely Dr. Hovind had not placed any copyright on his materials, it was free for dissemination, as long as it was not sold for money and thus profit. Later in 2005 a small change was made (because of apparent misuse amongst other on YouTube that took sequences out of context in order to attack), it was now ruling that the material can still be used freely as long as no changes are made in the text and presentation. The copyright regulations for these materials give no directions about that it even has be be for some particular or any ministry use. Now what is meant by that anyway? Does it not serve the ministry worldwide to have these seminars made available in the way that I have done? Does the ministry not receive attention and interest because this was done? The ministry receives free advertisement as I received no monies from anyone for this initiative of mine.

The person that send me this message from Creation Today signed with Director of Ministry Development (I refrain from mentioning his name here). Now, is there here a misunderstanding with this person about the purpose why Dr. Hovind was travelling around and speaking some 170 times a year giving these seminars? Was it not because he wanted to get his message out there circulating? Through the years I did receive many appreciations for my efforts, which makes one wonder how many more people got introduced through me to the CSE ministry and its message. The matter is here: “What's your cause?” (I Sam. 17:29). Seems to me there is some misunderstanding present here... Quite frankly, I actually think this individual is here guilty of a disservice to the purpose of the ministry as originally stated by Dr. Hovind.

Anyhow, I responded back with:
  Subject: RE: creationtoday.org > Science Question
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2013 00:20
 
        
“It never fails to amaze me how many people have misunderstandings concerning copyrights. Dr. Hovind has made very, very clear in his seminars that the material in his seminars may be freely distributed if it is for non-profit. It says this also very clearly on the DVD's that CSE has distributed.
        
 
For your information I have been in contact with the CSE ministry during 2003/04 and Dr. Hovind. Dr. Hovind himself has expressed no objection me having these transcripts there. Rather the contrary. If he does not object, then who are you to tell otherwise??”
 
I also forwarded some of the appreciations I had received from the CSE ministry and Dr. Hovind from 10 years earlier. I asked specifically to have this response to be forwarded to the person that attempted to limit my efforts. Well, I received no further reply... Which all in itself, I found being rather impolite. A response for example could have let to that I would not have published the occurrence of this incident.

To me this occurrence appears a bit well suspect, particularly this in combination with the editing done on seminars #5 & #7. Which reason was explained to me by this very same person. And thus I looked into it a bit more. Apparently this person joined the ministry as late in time as April 2011. Previously active for some 30+ years in writing and speaking about creation. Has a background in teaching high school science and degrees in chemistry. Further he used to be a manager in Answers in Genesis (another young earth creationist ministry).

He thus appears to be doing a variety of good things, here however he made a rather huge miss with me which I have no intention to be quiet about. It reminisces me a bit about Dr. Hovind's saying that in order to get a person to believe or adjust to some falsity (in this case, a demand), that you have to wrap it in with some truths (in this case, supposed responsibilites).
Then trying to get (enforce) my submission through writing to me “we rely on your integrity as a Christian.” Now, who is actually “we” ?, and then assuming a rightness in his claim regarding these copyrights?! Yeah right, I don't take this very nicely though... not at all. All it does, is putting me on the alert!! To be brief, I am basically told here what is to be true to me! It is not being done through means of giving correct information, it is done by means of supposed authority and statement.
It has by the way not very much outstanding either with being a Christian or not, but it has with the values of integrity that indeed are found also in this collection of books that we refer to as the Bible.

The guy noted that he was the Director of Ministry Development. Well, what does that mean anyway? Wasn't my effort a free of charge means to attract attention to this very ministry, now for a number of years? One starts to wonder if this individual actually has understood why he is there in the first place? He probably has failed to clarify for himself what it means. Ah well...

By the way this is the same guy (and in the same e-mail) that had stated that in the pre-2007 (unedited) seminars “Kent Hovind stepped considerably out of his brief as a creation speaker, and spoke on issues, on which this ministry, as a parachurch ministry, cannot take a position.” (see earlier chapter: “The reason I am being supplied with...”)

Anyhow, this person's various responses expose an obvious wrong cause and for the wrong stated reasons! Although there is something to say about that. You see, after the incarceration of Dr. Hovind the CSE ministry went obviously through various ordeals. Because of it, their whole existence was at serious jeopardy. You then have the choice to make some concessions or disappear altogether. See for example this video from Eric Hovind here (Mar 26, 2013) (last checked: 10 Apr 2014).

So it may very well be that this Director of Ministry Development may have received his instructions, although in my opinion I find that he abides to these a bit well overzealous!

As of the release of Dr. Hovind it is needless to say that I not in particular support Creation Today, instead the support should go to the newly rekindled CSE ministry. As yet the CSE ministry is not selling materials though, and the ones that are sold by Creation Today are edited. As it would appear Creation Today do and have done what they can in the framework they are allowed to operate in. Creation Today is run by Eric Hovind (sone of Dr. Hovind) and Paul Taylor. But you see, they have received their restrictions and instructions, but we, out there, have not! Well, you just read along here below...

So, I guess one should thus remind oneself about “What's your cause?”...

“...Christians say: ‘Oh, we can't talk about certain topics in the pulpit.’ Well, then you are not serving God. If you are a prophet of God you say what God told you to say. If it hair-lips the devil, then tough.”

“And we've got a bunch of Christians that are scared to do anything for fear somebody might not like them. Duh..., we are supposed to be Christians you know. They didn't like the disciples very well or Jesus himself, did they? Our job is to do what's right, leave the results up to Him. Ok.”          Dr. Kent Hovind
         (both quotations from ‘Creation Seminar #5’ given in 2003)

In ‘Seminar Notebook’ (edition 2004) we find:
        
“Remember, none of my material is restricted. This is by design. For years I have said, ‘There is a war going on. You don't ration out bullets during war time!’ If you can shoot and want to use my ‘bullets,’ feel free to do so.”          Dr. Kent Hovind
        
Well..., I guess I am shooting then... and with rather high quality bullets at that...!


        
“WHAT IS TRUE FOR YOU is what you have observed yourself
  And when you lose that you have lost everything.
        
 
What is personal integrity?
  Personal integrity is knowing what you know—
  What you know is what you know—
  And to have the courage to know and say what you have observed.
  And that is integrity
  And there is no other integrity.
”          L. Ron Hubbard
(from ‘Ability 125’, Feb 61 “Personal Integrity”)
 

 
Back to Main Index ‘Creation Science Evangelism’ (CSE) copyright change (Jan 2005)

As per 1 Jan 2005 the following rules applied:.
        
“No one is allowed to duplicate our materials except under the following conditions:
        
  1)
Materials are to be copied, unedited, unaltered and distributed absolutely free of charge.
 
  2)
Anyone with assumed or previous permission to sell them issued previously is hereby revoked.
 
  3)
Under no circumstances are copies of our videos / DVD’s to be sold for any price.”
 
  (from ‘Letter from Dr. Kent Hovind’, consult in full here (pdf file))  
The reason for this was due to an apparent misuse by some individuals that willingly and purposely made misrepresentations.

Prior to this one was basically free to alter these as one saw fit. It read:
        
“None of the materials produced by Creation Science Evangelism are copyrighted, so feel free to copy those and distribute them freely.”
        
Today they can thus only be distributed in unedited form. Well..., that means to say ...as long as the editing is not done by the ministry itself...

 

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