University Boots Creation Museum Founder from Speaking

Editor’s note: This article was adapted from a news release that was recently distributed to the media.

In another example of free speech being denied on a university campus, Ken Ham, founder of the popular Creation Museum and Ark Encounter attractions, has been booted from speaking at the University of Central Oklahoma next month.

Ham’s presentation in the school’s Constitution Hall was objectionable to a campus LGBT group, which put heavy pressure on the UCO Student Association (UCOSA) and university officials to cancel the March 5 speaking engagement. In his proposed talk at UCO, Ham would have discussed the two different worldviews and their starting points when interpreting scientific evidence, as he did in his evolution/creation debate with Bill Nye “the Science Guy” four years ago.

Ham noted,

Free speech in America is under increasing attack by some very intolerant people. In this case of discrimination, I find it highly ironic that after being booked to speak in the school’s Constitution Hall, our constitutional right to free speech and the free exercise of religion, guaranteed under the First Amendment, have been denied. . . .

A small but vocal group on campus put up a fuss about my talk and the university caved in, tearing up the contract and contradicting its policies of promoting “free inquiry” and “inclusiveness” on campus.

Answers in Genesis has posted a web article with more details about the cancellation.

Local pastor Paul Blair, who worked through a campus group to arrange to have Ken Ham appear in UCO’s Constitution Hall, will now host the free lecture at his church, Fairview Baptist in Edmond, on March 5. He is available for interviews at (405) 315-5924.

Ken Ham is president and founder of Answers in Genesis (AiG), an apologetics (i.e., Bible-defending) ministry based in northern Kentucky, near Cincinnati. In 2016 AiG opened the Ark Encounter, a one-of-a-kind Christian themed attraction with a massive Noah’s Ark in Williamstown, Kentucky, which draws up to 8,000 guests in a day. The Creation Museum, located west of the Cincinnati Airport, has welcomed well over 3.5 million visitors and has proved to be a major family attraction in the Midwest. For more information, visit AnswersInGenesis.org.