An Evangelist Confronts Hovind
From: James Smith
[mailto:xxxxx]
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 8:37 PM
To: dino@drdino.com
Subject: Translating Your Videos
Dear Dr. Hovind:
Acquaintances of mine are interested in translating your tapes into a language in which they are not currently available. They have years of experience in such work, and their interest is a serious one.
They asked me recently to view some of your tapes, assuring me that they would take my comments quite seriously. My principal comment is that it would be a mistake to involve themselves with your materials because of the many examples of smear tactics, name-calling, personal attacks, and other unChristian behavior that they contain.
From my work as a missionary, I know how destructive such behavior is to evangelism. In addition, such behavior refelects [sic] poorly upon the integrity and sincerity of Believers as a whole.
It would be of great help to me if you could assure me that you have repented of, and asked forgiveness for, such behaviors, especially
1. The statement that depicting early humans as having dark skin is racist, and
2. The picture of the fat little evolutionist worshipping an idol of a monkey, along with the associated remarks about the fictional evolutionist's apprearance [sic].
I would appreciate the favor of a response at your earliest convenience.
Yours in Christ,
Dr. James Smith, PE
--- "Dr. Kent Hovind" <kent@drdino.com>
wrote:
6-19-2001,
Thank you for the email. I do read all my email but due to my hectic travel schedule and the 700 plus emails I get every week I cannot give long personal answers to each one and this one would definitely be faster and better live. I often only get to read and answer email while on a plane to or from my next meeting. That may make my response come too late to do any good. Even though email is free, if you need to talk with me it is much faster for me to discuss things by phone. I take scores of calls every day and would be glad to talk with you. You may call the office Monday through Friday 8-5 CST at 850-479-3466 or my cell phone is 850-572-3466. My secretary will nearly always be able to get in touch with me if it is an emergency. It may be that one of the other office staff will be able to help if I am not available, or you may find helpful information on my web site www.drdino.com/FAQ or on some of the other sites linked to my site. I will be in the office most of day Wednesday this week then gone to IL for my 30th HS reunion and doing a seminar in Lincoln. We all better serve and obey the Lord! Nothing else will matter in 100 years!
Thanks.
In Christ,
Kent Hovind
From: James Smith [mailto:xxxxx]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2001 4:08 PM
To: Dr. Kent Hovind
Subject: RE: Translating Your Videos
Dear Dr. Hovind,
Thank you for your e-mail. I live outside the US, and I can't afford to make non-emergency phone calls.
Would it be possible to give me a "yes" or "no" answer to the question that I asked:
Yours in Christ,
Dr. James Smith
From : "Dr. Kent Hovind"
<kent@drdino.com>
To : "James Smith" <xxxxx>
Subject : RE: Translating Your Videos
Date : Wed, 11 Jul 2001 09:33:46 -0500
Among the thousands of calls, letters and emails we receive every week there is normally at lease [sic] one chiding me for the way I call names and make fun of various ideas or people in my seminar. While we do reach many thousands for the Lord we certainly do not want to do anything unscriptural or displeasing to God. Is it right to use personal attacks and name calling in my seminar? How did Jesus and the prophets handle their detractors? Even a quick search of the scriptures will show that it is not always wrong to use various tactics to get the attention of sinners, wayward saints and wicked politicians. Here are just a few of the hundreds of examples found in scripture:
Luke 13:31 The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. 32And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Matthew 23:21[sic] But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!. [sic] 14Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! [sic] 15Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 16Woe unto you, ye blind guides, 17Ye fools and blind: [sic] 19Ye fools and blind: [sic] 23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! [sic] 24Ye blind guides, [sic] 25Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! [sic] 26Thou blind Pharisee, [sic] 27Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! [sic] 33Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Paul called names- Acts 23:3 Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?
Elijah did it- I Kings 18:26 And they leaped upon the altar which was made. 27And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
God called people: Psalms 14 "fool" "They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. workers of iniquity. Ps. 94:8 ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; Pro. 9:13A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.
To those who say, "I don't like the way you are reaching people." I say, "How do you reach them?" When they say, "I don't try to reach them, I leave that to God." I say, "God told us to reach them so I like my way of reaching them better than your way of not reaching them!"
If something in my seminar bothers you then edit it out. My tapes are not copyrighted. Let's just get busy and win souls!
Thanks,
Kent Hovind
14 July 2001
Note: Please find attached 3 letters to acquaintances who want to translate your videos. [19 May 2001, 4 June 2001, 14 June 2001]
Dear Dr. Hovind:
Thank you for your most-recent e-mail (attached) in reply to two e-mails in which I mentioned that I recommended against translating your videos into another language because you engage in gratuitous personal attacks. If you will recall, I had asked most recently whether you had repented of and asked forgiveness for two particularly offensive statements or behaviors:
1. Your claim that human-fossil researchers have racist motives for depicting early hominids as having dark skin; and
2. The sequence in which you make several personal remarks while showing your audience a cartoon of a short, fat little (imaginary) evolutionist worshipping an idol of an ape.
As I understand your reply, you have not repented of behaviors and statements even as atrocious as these, despite having been counseled to do so by other Believers. Instead, you defend these statements, citing passages in the Bible in which Jesus rebuked Pharisees, etc.
One important difference between Our Lord’s behavior and your own is that Jesus was not lying about the people whom he rebuked: you are indeed untruthful in imputing racial motives to the human-fossil researchers. Moreover, there is no example of Our Lord childishly mocking His detractors’ imaginary appearance, as you do in showing the above-mentioned cartoon. A retraction and apology are definitely in order; it’s not at all a good sign that you not only haven’t made them on your own initiative, but resist the idea that you should make them.
You advised me to simply edit out of your tapes anything that I don't like, noting the pressing need to save souls. I hope sincerely that you will read and take to heart the content of the attached letters to my acquaintances, in which I advised them not to translate your materials because doing so would be counterproductive to saving souls, and detrimental to you, personally: you are a careless, untruthful man as well as being gratuitously offensive. You are wandering far from God in this area of your life, and translating your materials would only encourage you to continue.
I implore you to heed the counsel of the Believers who have asked you to repent of these behaviors. Your many flatterers are leading you on the road to ruin.
Yours in Christ,
Dr. James A. Smith, PE
[No reply from Hovind]
From: James Smith [mailto:xxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 7:30 PM
To: kent@drdino.com
Subject: Translating Your Videos
14 August 2001
Dear Dr. Hovind,
In previous correspondence, you indicated that you refuse to repent of calling evolutionists racists, and of making fun of their imaginary physical appearance, as depicted in a cartoon that you show for that purpose in your videos. You have indicated that several Believers have counseled you about such behavior.
You are doing a great wrong by provoking evolutionists to anger by lying
about them, and moreover by blaming
their resistance to the Gospel upon their "sin nature", when you have
in fact contributed to that resistance by your own sinful actions against them.
Because you persist in your sinfulness, rejecting the counsel of your brothers
and sisters in Christ, I feel obligated to turn my written comments on your
videos over to the reputable organizations and individuals who oppose
you. (Please recall that you have wronged them.) I will emphasize
to them, that I chose to do so because of your recalcitrance. If you
should decide to repent publicly of your behavior (such as by posting an
apology and a request for forgiveness on your website), please let me know by
29 August. Otherwise, I will do as I have indicated.
Yours in Christ,
Dr. James A. Smith, PE
From : "Dr. Kent Hovind"
<kent@drdino.com>
To : "James Smith" <xxxxx>
Subject : RE: Translating Your Videos
Date : Tue, 21 Aug 2001 21:08:29 -0500
Search the Bible and obey it! KH
From: James Smith [mailto:xxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 12:51 PM
To: Dr. Kent Hovind
Subject: RE: Translating Your Videos
Dear Dr. Hovind,
I have searched the Bible, and I do obey it, such as the command to counsel brothers who are leading sinful lives; another is that we should not choose as pastors those who are in bad repute with nonbelievers (see Paul's epistles). You have a reputation as a careless, dishonest man, and my own experience shows that this reputation is deserved. Because you reject brotherly counsel, I plan to add my voice to those (including the honest nonbelievers whom you have slandered) who work to expose you.
Yours in Christ,
Dr. James A. Smith
From :"Dr. Kent Hovind" <kent@drdino.com>
To :"James Smith" <xxxxx>
Subject : RE: Translating Your Videos
Date : Wed, 5 Sep 2001 00:24:56 -0500
I heard your counsel and disagree. I will obey the Lord to the best of my ability. KH