HBO’s Bill Maher and the plot to deceive AiG

In my April letter that we will send out to our mailing list, I will give you all the details about this shocking situation. In the meantime, here are some of the highlights of this elaborate deception. It was a good wake-up call for us, and our security crew is already taking measures (ahead of the museum’s opening date) to prevent any similar re-occurrences. These security initiatives will start now.

A video crew arranged to come to AiG to visit the Museum, calling themselves First Word Productions. At the end of their tour they wanted an interview with me in my office and they asked for permission to drive around the back of the building to bring in equipment. Under the pretext of needing to talk to Mark Looy (who supervises and approves such visits) one of the crew distracted Mark. Then, without permission and without registering with AiG security (as they knew was required), they distracted another AiG employee and shut their door so they could sneak Bill Maher into the building while I was waiting for an interview.

Mark had declined an interview with Bill Maher two or three years ago to appear on his Politically Incorrect TV program. Maher wanted me to fly cross country (essentially taking two days out of my life) for maybe five minutes of airtime, during which I would simply be mocked. Maher is a notorious anti-Christian. The situation above had even more sinister elements to it, which I’ll detail in April. When someone like Bill Maher goes to such elaborate lengths to get into AiG, it tells us how dangerous they consider this ministry and how high-profile this ministry has become.

Because I thought Mark had approved everything, I figured Mark must not have told me who the person interviewing me was to be. Bill Maher did interview me. Though respectful in one sense, most of his questions were just mocking attacks on God’s Word. Once we realized what had happened—that he had been “smuggled” into the building—we confronted the crew. They said it was a “misunderstanding.” As a result, we’ve now totally changed and tightened protocols for media and other visitors, well before the museum is to open.

Creation Evangelism in India

What a thrill it is to read this ministry report about creation evangelism in India. As you can see, AiG had a special part in this.

The first Global Advance Apologetics conference was held in Visakhapatnam, India on January 15–18, 2007. The conference was held on the Christ for India campus in conjunction with the COTR seminary. 450 pastors and seminary students attended Monday evening through Thursday sessions. The purpose of the conference was to bring current Biblical and Scientific Creation information to these key workers to build their faith and equip them for evangelism in the truth and authority of the Bible and to support missions and ministries in India in general through Global Advance and Christ for India. Printed materials for the conference were approved by Answers in Genesis, the largest worldwide Apologetics ministry. This included translation, printing and distribution of the booklet Is There Really a God? in Telegu, the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Christian Worldview Outreach provided funds for translating and printing of thousands of these booklets to be distributed through the network of churches and ministries of Christ for India. This has become a part of the worldwide effort being launched by Answers in Genesis to bring the wealth of recent apologetics material available in English to language groups around the world. A conference packet of notes and additional articles in English were also provided and funded by CWO. Additional translating and printing projects have been discussed throughout the year that this conference has been planned. It is exciting to see great resources brought to the growing church in India.

AiG’s Planned Giving Website—a “Gold Level Site”

This week we received the following notice about the Planned Giving website (John Pence, AiG’s in-house legal counsel is the Director of Planned Giving):

Congratulations on your excellence in planned giving eMarketing. You are now a Gold Level site! The number of GiftLegacy/GiftLaw page-views for your organization in 2006 are very impressive. A letter with more information about your award will be coming soon. The giftlegacy.com web site honors you as one of the top 25 Gold GiftLegacy organizations. Your photo and the name of your organization will be included on that site. There are also 50 additional Silver and Bronze honorees listed.

Our www.genesisgift.org website was in the top 25 of all planned giving websites provided by Crescendo Interactive, the leading website provider for planned giving services in the country. We had over 260,000 page views in 2006, which is excellent for a planned giving website, and it means that our website is being accessed and used by hundreds of people.

If you are interested in helping AiG financially through planned giving, then I encourage you to check out AiG’s planned giving website at www.genesisgift.org.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken Ham