Originally published on Forbes.com.
Kent Hovind is nearing the end of a long prison sentence for tax related crimes. He is now in Santa Rosa County Jail preparing for trial on new charges. The new charges relate to his involvement in filing a lis pendens to interfere with the government’s sale of property seized from his ministry. Doctor Dino, as he is known, has been giving telephone interviews.
I gave a run down of a few of those interviews in a post last week. I interviewed Doctor Hovind myself on Thursday. I also interviewed Ernie Land, Kent Hovind’s long term friend and trusted adviser who is managing Kent’s defense. My friend Jonathan Schwartz of Interlock Media is working on the tapes now. Jonathan has rather high standards when it comes to sound and color and the like but has promised quick turnaround.
Like my Jill Stein interview there will be a complete run, that will include everything that Kent and Ernie said, but you won’t see me scratching my nose. There will also be some shorter segments that address particular aspects for those of you who don’t want to invest a couple of hours of lifespan.
It’s About The Taxes Not The Dinosaurs
The primary area where I challenge the most recent batch of Hovind supporters is the question of whether the case is at all about religious persecution as this most recent video states. (No longer available)
I asked Jonathan to give me a professional appraisal of the work. He was rather impressed.
A nicely edited and dramatically scored video that hopes to gain a big viewership, amongst those folks who agree, or potentially agree, that evolution is the same as communism, that college is evil, that the IRS is one vast conspiracy against the Christian right, that Hovind’s imprisonment is the centerpiece of the persecution of Christians in America, that the big bang theory is ” stupid”. As most of the the right of the tea party videos I have seen, the quick cutting propaganda is by and large well done from the standpoint of the propagandists…the oppositional figures are presented in slow motion when they hesitate to answer a question or exhibit vacillation or weakness. The musical score is relentless. There is an assumed causality between ideas that are set out to be ever so apparent to all but the dumbest viewers.
Jonathan thinks that this short video is much better executed than UnFair: Exposing the IRS.
Tony Reed has done a great series of videos that show how investigating the claims of creation science have prompted him to learn about, for lack of a better term, science. He examines claims that Hovind is a victim of religious persecution in this video
Closer to home, Eric Hovind has indicated that he believes that his dad is not being targeted for his religious beliefs, but rather for his tax activity. He discusses that beginning a bit after the 20 minute mark on this video
I asked Ernie Land whether he thought Kent would have had any IRS difficulties if he had run his ministry in a conventionally tax compliant manner. Ernie did not think he would have.
What is so ironic about this is that Kent who is facing over $3,000,000 in civil liability for personal income taxes and self employment tax probably could have legitimately avoided most of that liability. As an ordained minister he could have elected out of social security. (A very bad idea for most modestly compensated ministers, but better than just not paying) and he could have taken much of his compensation as an income tax free housing allowance.
I should note that Doctor Hovind’s was not criminally convicted of evasion on the personal income taxes, as some reports imply. The criminal difficulties related to payroll withholding for the Creation Science Evangelism staff.
Best Defense A Good Offense?
Doctor Hovind, himself, is still promoting the religious persecution narrative in his interviews as I noted last week. It looks to me that there are two prongs to the strategy. One is to promote juror nullification, which comes up in both Kent’s interviews and those of his co-defendant Paul John Hansen. The other is to create public pressure. Kent is hoping that he will be called to testify before Congress on IRS abuse. The campaign seems to be focused on podcasts and youtube videos.
At this point I would rate Rudy Davis of lonestar1776 as Doctor Hovind’s most vocal and colorful supporter. More than any of the others I have the greatest appreciation of Rudy as a performer as in this piece where he berates his fellow Christians for lack of zeal.
Rudy remind me a lot of Fred Ward’s portrayal of Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff. (Blue shirt at 2:00 and 2:47 in this clip)
Rudy does not seem to be getting that much traffic yet.
The Word From Harlem
Reverend James David Manning appears to have a much larger following than Rudy does. I have to really appreciate Reverend Manning who has put himself in the running to be my new BFF with this video (No longer available)
Reverend Manning has quite a presence. If it were the year 2000 and I were casting a movie about our first African American President Reverend Manning would get serious attention from me if Morgan Freeman were not available . I might have considered Senator Obama for the chief of staff role, if Denzel Washington were occupied.
Reverend Manning does not think we really have an African American President . I have to admit that I am with him there maybe 5% or so. I really wish that our first African American President had been descended from Frederick Douglas or Harriet Tubman or at least somebody who knew them, but we need to get over those things. I mean our first Irish Catholic President graduated from Harvard rather than Holy Cross or one of the lesser Catholic colleges , but we still celebrated.
I should say that Reverend Manning and I will have to agree to disagree on quite a few things. He has extreme opinions on homosexuality that he has not been shy about expressing, which is probably the primary reason he is so controversial. His language directed at African American men, whom he thinks are letting down their women and children is even harsher.
Kent Hovind’s Most Prominent Supporter?
The least fringe person, kind of like the poorest person on the Forbes 400, in the most recent Kent Hovind support group is probably the Reverend Wiley Drake. Reverend Drake is the pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Vista California.
Not only that. Reverend Drake was elected second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006
Southern Baptists, of course, are not a fringe group. The Southern Baptist Convention with something like 16 million members is the second largest Christian denomination in the country. President Jimmy Carter was affiliated with SBC until 2000. Also there is my blogging buddy, Reverend William Thornton who blogs on SBC issues and is my go to guy on all matters evangelical.
Reverend Drake became prominent in 2009 for his imprecatory prayer wishing the death of our President. Representatives of SBC indicated that this was not a sentiment shared by most Southern Baptists. I can’t help but remember the chilling feeling that I had in 2009 when I realized that we had just elected the first member of a particular minority group who was relatively young with an attractive wife and two little kids to be President. Having a member of the clergy wish the trauma of 1963 on his country again is pretty disturbing.
Where Is This Going?
As far as I could tell, the last time Reverend Wiley Drake made Fox News was in 2011 when he commented on the proposals to drop “Southern” from the SBC name.
We’re very conservative, very biblically based. We always have been known for that,” he said. …”To take ‘Southern’ out of our name would be to water down our theology … and hide who were are as Baptists.
I asked Reverend Thornton what was theological about the Southern in SBC?
Nonsense, of course. The move to drop ‘Southern’ was based on brand and image improvement, although the public thrust was to decouple us from deep south roots, slavery and all that.
WD is like the activist who shows up at a corporate annual meeting and loves to get some time behind the mic.
As far as Reverend Drake embracing the Hovind persecution narrative goes, Reverend Thornton had this to say.
What we sometimes do best is generate outrage as a supposedly victimized class or individuals. This isn’t a winning strategy in our society if the goal is to make disciples. If the goal is to keep the evangelical, beleaguered choir stirred up, then it’s a winner.
I have no doubt as to the sincerity of Reverend Manning and Reverend Drake in their support of Doctor Hovind. I also think that they may be using his cause as a vehicle back into the limelight. The big payoff would be getting a Republican politician of some prominence to take up the Hovindication cause . I asked Kent if there were progress on this front. He told me that there have been expressions of interest, but no one is willing to go on the record yet.
What Would A Happy Ending Look Like?
What I would like to see happen is for Kent Hovind to renounce his tax resisting ways and to be allowed to plead out on the current charge with no additional time. Ernie Land tells me that they have not been able to raise enough money for a conventional defense. He also indicated that there is a group of businessmen anxious to back a commercial version of Dinosaur Adventureland that Kent could provide the intellectual guidance for. One of their conditions is that he become conventionally tax compliant. Kent has actually indicated that he might consider adopting a similar course to Eric and focus on exposing the lies of evolution and saving souls to the exclusion of fighting the tax system. I hope it is not too late for that.
Keeping Up
The most up to the minute complete coverage of the Hovind controversy is probably Kent Hovind and Jo Hovind v USA – IRS.