Answers in Genesis is fond of a peculiar metaphor: portraying secularism and Christianity as two castles in a bitter war. You can find lots of cartoons at their site illustrating this binary worldview, but the latest adds a new flag to the array of banners flying from “secularism”.
Yep, “Pedophilia” is new. These guys think that if you’re not Christian, you’re a pedophile…conveniently ignoring all the Christian preachers who’ve been exposed as sexual abusers. As summarized by William Trollinger:
One other thing about Ham’s fortress image. In Righting America at the Creation Museum Susan Trollinger and I argue that Ham and AiG and the Christian Right hold to a radical binary. In this binary the world is divided into two groups, Christian and Secular. Each group is identified with a set of linked terms that necessarily are the opposite of the other group’s set of linked terms.
So, according to this image, to be secular is to be a racist pedophile who supports the killing of babies and the disabled, and who suffers from gender confusion. To be Christian is to be “color-blind,” anti-pedophiliac, life-affirming, and very clear on the gender binary and one’s place within it.
What’s going on here? Do secularists have a reputation for raping babies or being racist? No, this is just propaganda. If you’re wondering where it came from, the answer is obvious.
Referring to the image displayed here, which Ken Ham has circulated via Twitter and Facebook, a friend asked if, by adding the “pedophilia” flag to the “secular worldview” fortress, Ham “is trying to appeal to QAnon” devotees?
It seems obvious that the answer is yes.
That site then links to an insane video filmed at Ken Ham’s Ark Park by a rambling QAnon devotee — it’s a maddening mess by a guy wandering around ranting at a camera, with the permission of AiG, blithering on about God wanting Trump to have two terms, etc. AiG has been suspiciously quiet about it all, not publicly speaking out for or against QAnon, while it’s clear where their sympathies and pocketbooks lie. It’s Q that has been demonizing Democrats, liberals, and anyone sane by accusing them of being pedophiles who drink the blood of children, and now AiG pops up and libels secular folk as pedophiles? It’s not hard to see who they’re catering to.
“all the Christian preachers who’ve been exposed as sexual abusers”
I’m sure the reply is “well they’re not “real” Christians…”
To my eyes it makes the whole thing look even tackier and less professional. I’m aware that you Americans generally insist on spelling “paedophilia” without the initial “a”, but to the rest of us it just looks like a mistake. “Pedophilia” looks for all the world like a love of feet.
The GOP waves white flag in the same-sex marriage wars
@2: Yes, please lecture us about American confusion of spelling and meaning.
Doctor driven out of home by vigilantes
On the bright side and related, the Holy land Experience theme park in Florida has shut down and been sold to a hospital chain.
This is the theme park owned by Trinity Broadcasting which is the Paul and Jan Crouch organization.
The Holy Land Experience never really made it to breakeven and was usually subsidized by millions of dollars.
Racism? Yes, Ken, please, define exactly what “racism” actually is and why it’s bad thing.
Bet ya get it wrong.
@ 5
From what I heard, Advent Health is a Seventh-Day-Adventist-run outfit, so I don’t think it’s much of an improvement.
Reginald Selkirk@4,
Touchy, touchy… or should that be tuchy?
The more fundie xianity disappears down the rabbit hole of hate, lies, and toxic christofascist far right wingnut politics, the less they appeal to normal people.
Ken Ham and AIG aren’t even trying to do anything but appeal to their base any more, which is, according to the polls, shrinking rapidly.
So when will the Creation Museum and Ark Park follow the Holy Land Experience and all the other xian theme parks into chapter 11 bankruptcy? Well, who knows when.
Attendance was never as high as AIG projected but has been running around 800,00 to 1,000,000 or so a year. Seen one plastic dinosaur seen them all. These are static exhibits based on fantasy and mythology and don’t change. I can’t see that they will get much in the way of repeat business. It’s also relatively expensive for what it is.
OTOH, their overhead seems to be pretty low. How many people does it take to maintain the plastic dinosaurs and plastic people and run the gift shop anyway? I don’t have enough information to even estimate their breakeven but suspect it is pretty low.
They may creep along for years as a monument to the evils of fundie xianity.
It is.
I don’t think much of religious groups running hospitals either. The two main ones these days are the Catholics and the Seventh Day Adventists. I would avoid Catholic hospitals, especially if you are female. The horror stories are numerous.
Even so, a hospital over a xian theme park run by dubious scammers like TBN and the Crouches has to be an improvement.
Reginald Selkirk @4: As you well know if you live in the US, stupidity transcends boundaries, although it seems to favour some more than others.
There was a news story some years ago about someone in the US being fired for using the word ‘pedagogical’ in a report. They were eventually reinstated, IIRC.
That may be true. But given that something like 30% of the US electorate believe (or at least, say they believe) Trump won last year’s election, there appear to be enough abnormal people that it need not worry Ham unduly.
An equitable solution to this spelling difference is to make everyone unhappy and require it to be typed as pædophila.
Thær is næ problæm with thæ ligæture.
Æmen, hællæluiæ.
Tell me again how many high profile atheists have been outed as pedophiles vs. how many high profile Christians?
We all remember that Ken’s occasional partner is superstitious bullshit, Ray Comfort, got offended when someone asked if he was a “bibliophile” because he thought it meant he had a sexual fetish for his precious holy book?
Then again… Maybe he does.
@7 I don’t know if it is still the case but the by far best hospital in Dayton used to be run by Seventh Day Adventist.
The mildly deranged penguin suggests Ken “Piglet Rapist” Ham is confusing eating babies with pædophila.
These people screeching about vast pedophilic torture cults are doing so because they’re trying to create an excuse to do what they want to do anyway, which is to slaughter all the people they hate. That’s why there’s this ludicrous slurry of accusations pouring out of the right right now; they want blood so badly they can taste it, but they lack the courage to spill it without a veneer of legitimacy. So they accuse the people the intend to make their victims of being the worst things they can imagine- Satanic cannibalistic child molesters- and they repeat it over and over until they believe it enough to start killing en masse.
For now it’s just stochastic terrorism that inspires the occasional murderous rampage, or smaller atrocities like the QAnon man who murdered his two very young children with a spear gun.
It’s wrong to think of the majority who repeat these lies are deranged, however. What they’re doing is quite logical, from their perspective. They want to slaughter their “enemies,” but most people are opposed to committing mass slaughter. Therefore, they make their enemies out to be the worst, most heinous monsters they can imagine, until genocide seems like the least bad option.
I don’t trust ANYTHING run by people who believe in a god.
Yes, that includes our own government.
Yes, even under Biden.
The tone deafery is hilarious. And racism?? The Christian far right practically invented this evil as we know it. Also their gender issues are a hot mess.
Once again, every accusation from those types is nothing more than a confession of what they are guilty of.
I notice Ken never mentions the Curse of Ham (pun unintended) when he babbles about how racist “darwininans” are. Doesn’t the Bible say something about correcting the moat in one’s own eye before correcting someone else?
Walter – I think it’s spelled “mote”, though perhaps Christians should clean up the moat of their own castle…
I thought it was the Xians who’re reputed to drink blood? (Not, of course, specifically babies’ blood but, nonetheless…)
The Old Testament god had no problem with abortion, if a women was suspected of having been made pregnant by somebody other than the husband.
.
Historically, the churces have had certain “issues” with gender.
And we should ask why the southern baptists separated from the northern baptists.