Dec 14, 2006

Kent Hovind: Blessed, Spoiled and Honored

My son asked me recently how Kent Hovind was spending his time in prison. I responded that if I knew Kent Hovind, he would be preaching. We decided to look it up and found that he has a blog while he's in prison.

Preaching the gospel isn't the only thing Kent Hovind is doing while he's in prison. He's making lists of all kinds of things to thank the Lord for, such as having a bed, clean water, food, and paper and pencil. There is no complaining spirit here at all.

He spends his time not only preaching the gospel, but diligently discipling five new converts, having verse-by-verse expository Bible study with them four times every day. He calls prison a "pastor's dream." He is teaching grown men basic math, science, and reading. He is teaching one man to read using Genesis and John. He gives away food rations to men who memorize Scripture verses. He has learned empathy for men whose lives revolve around drugs and alcohol, showing them a different way. He is investing his life into those men God puts in his path.

He lists 19 possible reasons for God allowing this to happen, all of which show humility. I won't list them here, because you need to see how a true man of God responds under adversity. I'm glad to see he hasn't lost his sense of humor either; don't miss his joke about David Gibbs and the second law of thermodynamics.

I am only sorry that I came across this too late to write a letter of support to the court. The deadline was last week. I shall see what else we can do to support him at this time, however, in addition to daily prayers.

In comparison to many other Christians who have been imprisoned, he says, "I am blessed, spoiled, and honored to be a child of God." My initial assessment of him was right; he is not your typical "famous" Christian, and my son and I thanked God that we were able to spend time with Kent Hovind last summer.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a great website. Thanks for sharing.

Jerry said...

Jen,
The guy broke the law. He went to jail for it. I'm glad he is doing well, but I'd rather we didn't make him out to be some sort of super saint. And as for his Bible studies, I am a little concerned about those too, because having watched some of his videos, I can say based on firsthand evidence that he is not a very careful exegete. For instance, his blanket condemnation of beverage alcohol shows that he follows the Baptist party line in a stunning ability to ignore all the postive things Scripture has to say about moderate consumption. But that should surprise no one, because as Ken Ham has pointed out, Hovind has embraced some argruments for creation science that have been discredited. Hovind's continued use of such arguments has given ammunition to pagan scientists wishing to ridicule Christians.

Blessings,

Jerry

Anonymous said...

I don't believe she is making Kent Hovind into "some sort of super saint." Yes he broke the law, but if you went to jail, would you be teaching grown men the bible, and writing down things to be thankful for?

Anonymous said...

As i understand it, there is absolutely no law that requires the average worker, such as those employed by CSE, to pay income taxes. There were a couple of Supreme Court decisions in the early 1900's that defined income and taxing power. Furthermore, the "income tax law" was never ratified. Ever. Check into it.
Rob

Anonymous said...

Jen,

I am a pastor of a church in Ohio, I warned Kent and told him he would be starting a jail ministry because he would go to jail.His response was arrogance.

God gives all of us mercy, but only after repentace.

Anonymous said...

Jen,

This hypocrisy on your part is over the top. You spend time and energy trying to expose other Christian leaders yet you praise this particular one who has been caught, tried and sentenced for breaking the law. You have tried to justify it in several different posts and now you act like the guy is to be adored, where is your consistency? Or is that a dumb question?

Jen Fishburne said...

H&HH, the point of my blog is not necessarily to expose Christian leaders who refuse to repent, although I have done some of that, but I do also give credit where credit is due, as you will see that I have said many great things about RC Sproul and even some good things about Doug Phillips as well. The things I write about on my blog are in some way personal to me. These three men - RC, Doug, and Kent Hovind - have all had a tremendous impact in my life, teaching me many things from God's Word. BUT, I do not ever want "man" to be an idol in my life, so if I see really evil deeds that need to be exposed, and God has given me an avenue to do so charitably, I will warn others.

In Kent's case, no one has shown me any evidence that he has broken any laws. He might have waded into this foolishly, and he probably involved his wife unnecessarily, but I have yet to see that he has violated either man's law or God's, unlike Ligonier, which clearly violated I Cor. 6 at the very least.

The point of this post, though, is to show my respect for his behavior in prison. If he had a self-defensive, bitter attitude in prison, I would have lost a lot of respect for the man. But how many prisoners do you know that spend most of their time ministering to other prisoners? His focus is right where it should be and that is an attitude I hope I can emulate.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure glad someones standing along beside Kent Hovind. My sons two years ago travelled around Canada and the U.S.A. and stopped in at Kent's Museum. He fed them, trusted them to sleep in his book store and just gave them a very refreshing time to total strangers from Canada. My boys came back awed by someone who lives what he preaches and within a day on coming home I overheard my 14 year old son sharing the gospel with an older teenager from Germany. I hope we as Christians are praying for them at this time and not shooting him along with the world.

mike said...

Jen,

I too am a believer in Christ. The Word of God speaks to this situation in many ways. First, obedience to authorities and laws that do not break God's laws is required. The Word says that we have nothing to fear from rulers or authorities if we obey but that we should fear them if we break the law because they are agents of God. Even Jesus payed his taxes to Rome. Secondly, I see no REAL humility in Brother Hovind. True humility would repent and accept the consequeces of sin while asking for mercy, not praying that God will let it slide and God would allow him to get off scott free. We reap what we sow and we have to deal with the harvest. God can still use this to Brother Hovinds benefit if he will yeild to it and allow God to work in him through it. If he doesn't this trial will continue for his benefit to draw him to repentance and forgiveness. I hope he will realize the truth of God's Word and cry out for forgiveness and ask for grace to walk through the consequences of his actions.

Blessings,

Mike

Anonymous said...

Dear Jen,
I was also there with my husband. I remember seeing you. Thank you for your post. It is really nice to see someone stating the facts without getting really emotional from either side.

kathy said...

I will stand by and support Kent Hovind.I am upset he is in prison and he doesnt deserve to be there. We have crooks sitting in Congress. I have no use for the government its corrupt. The only thing that is for sure is Kent Hovind is teaching us about our Lord and Savior and trying to give us the gift of life that Jesus died on the cross for. I will see Kent in Heaven, The idiotic things on this earth will be no more. I and my church will be sending cards and letters in support for this great man Thanks Kathy Campbell
New Life Baptist Church
Phoenix,Az

Karina said...

Just wanted to post and say thanks for posting the link to his blog. I just heard the news recently and there are literally hundreds of websites devoted to 'hovind hating'.

Unknown said...

All it really boils down to, was that the out of control arrogant IRS, the evolutionists, and atheists wanted him out of the way because too many people were listening to him and realizing that Darwins fairy tale of evolution was just that, a fairy tale. The creation story makes far more sense that evolution could ever possibly make for any number of reasons which I would need a lot more space than allowed here. The IRS was not getting their meat hooks into money earned by Kent n CSE that the IRS was never entitled to in the 1st place n they don't like that. If you don't engage in federal privilege in 1 form or another, then you are not required to pay income tax of any kind, and you are not required to have your workers fill out any type of tax forms. Kent could have just added up his workers hours time how much an hour he was giving them, n just payed them in cash n the IRS could not have done anything legally, but illegally, God only knows what they are capable of. Kent messed up by having his workers fill out 1099's, that's how they got him. As a private sector company, there is no law in existence requiring private sector companies to require their private sector workers to fill out a tax form of any kind, and when the IRS has been asked to present the law that states so, they become mysteriously silent.