A Mirror For The Shining Light

Lamar Smith is back from another bout of watching Hovind videos - arduous duty.  I have off the record complaints about his accuracy, so here is the video that he is mainly referring to, so you can judge for yourself .  Go to the 3:20 mark if you don't have a lot of patience- PJR

There’s a kerfuffle brewing in Hovind-world but there usually is, isn’t there?  Peter Reilly quoted Hovind quoting the Bible where an army of Israelites conquered a city by shining lights and making noise when Peter posted an article about Kent as well as in his lengthy phone interview while Kent was incarcerated.

Kent likes that passage and that image. Even while imprisoned and since his release, Hovind has called on his faithful noise-makers to urge politicians to unwind the clock and have his case overturned. In recent videos he’s also urged his followers to point their lights and noise at the Oval Office to urge Donald Trump to issue a presidential pardon to what I dearly hope is Lenox’s most controversial resident.

In a truly delicious irony and parallel with our President’s current difficulties, the line of argumentation for neither blonde man through their surrogates isn’t offering the defense “He didn’t do it.” All the light and noise amounts to “He shouldn’t/can’t be punished for what he did do!”

As I noted previously, Kent has seemed to be boasting his travel schedule which should help to spread the word about Dinosaur Adventure Land. He has also been mentioning that church camps are welcome to come to DAL this summer but as I’ve also noted, Kent’s choice of location comes with logistical shortcomings for travel and off-property lodging. DAL isn’t the easiest place to get to and there’s not much in the way of rental accommodations nearby.

Even Kent’s attempts to travel and speak more have been hindered of late. Case in point is a Ukrainian church in Northern California invited him to come and speak next week. Kent posts his schedule to encourage non-members of the host church to come and see the show.

Then the light and noise happened. According to Kent, someone called the leadership of the Ukrainian church at inappropriate hours and made inappropriate comments while revealing the more sordid details of Kent’s past.

The church had a vote and chose to “deplatform” Kent, in his followers’ words. I envision that he was still welcome to come to the church but not speak and Kent indicated he was not planning on being in attendance. On his video he put the call out for other Northern California churches to have him come as his plane ticket was already paid for.

In the video relating this Kent revealed some interesting nuggets of information, some of which have been mentioned before. He explains that he believes he knows who it was that shone and made and indicates it was not an army of Israelites but a single individual. He believes he knows who that person is but, upon further discussion with Ernie Land, wasn’t going to reveal that person’s name. Creating what seems to me to be a difference without distinction, he urged everyone listening to call Ernie and get the name from him.

Having that person’s name is essential to the next part of the plan: file 10,000 complaints through FaceBook in order to........  I have to admit, it isn’t exactly clear to me what that does. I suppose his goal is to close permanently or, at least temporarily, that person’s account. Ok, I suppose I get that, but I still don’t see what that does. It’s not clear to me how the shiner/maker’s FB account was involved and how shutting it down hinders that person’s ability to repeat this procedure in the future, so long as Kent makes his schedule public and that person has access to a phone or email, losing FaceBook seems more inconvenience and annoyance to the perpetrator than actual remedy for Kent

The fact that Kent, with noticeable difficulty, refrained from mentioning this person’s name publicly does seem to confirm what Peter Reilly has mentioned previously: there is a regulatory body of some sort over Kent and, thus far, he seems to be abiding by their wishes and instructions. This implies, but does not confirm, that Kent’s obedience to this body extends into financial matters, as well as topics fit for broadcast. That must be seen as progress of a sort.

Though it isn’t at all necessary to add to the list of examples of Kent Hovind’s hypocrisy, this latest is certainly emblematic. Kent loves shone light and made noise when he feels they are pointed away from him and onto others. When they are aimed at him he becomes a quick and huge fan of censorship.

Doing what he does is how Kent has chosen to make his living. The DAL, the DVDs, the videos and the speaking engagements are part and parcel. Having his engagements canceled must be both personally frustrating and financially precarious if it repeatedly happens. I don’t believe he should be censored though he’s about as close to the line with me, personally, as just about anyone. Whoever is working against Kent’s speaking engagements shouldn’t be censored either unless what they are saying to these congregation leaders is factually incorrect, although no one has made any mention of that.

The Ukrainian church invited someone they thought their parishioners would be interested to see and hear. They heard additional information and, unfortunately for Kent, even if the person revealed only true and accurate information, it seems to have given them pause.

They thought about it, I’d assume prayed about it, talked about it, voted on it and made what they feel is the best decision for them. That seems to me to be the best reaction to this mess.

Kent blames the perpetrator and has plans to hit back, thus avoiding, as we’ve all seen him continually do, his own responsibility for his past.

We’ll have to see how the kerfuffle in a teacup play out.

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Lamar Smith taught history in high school in Texas for twelve years.  He continues to contribute to Your Tax Matters Partner, watching Hovind videos and picking out the good bits.