March 15, 2010
On February 16, Ken Ham delivered his State of the Nation address, in which he claimed organizations like The BioLogos Foundation and liberal Christian schools like Calvin College are responsible for leading people away from Christianity. Daniel Camacho, a student at Calvin College, published a response to Ham on February 26 in the schools’ student newspaper, Chimes, titled “Ken Ham’s recent address singles out Calvin College”.
On March 6, Ham addressed Camacho directly in his blog Around the World with Ken Ham. Ham challenged Camacho to “document the lies” he accused him of using and systematically reviewed the article line by line. Ham said, “I publicly challenge you (as you wrote this public article) to a debate—even at Calvin College if you want—in regard to your accusations concerning the creation/evolution/Genesis issues that you raised. Are you prepared to stand publicly and document your accusations? Also, we are surprised that the paper’s editors would allow such an accusation like this to be printed when no documentation of an alleged lie was offered. Very poor journalism.”
The conversation between Ham and Camacho has continued. Chimes has published follow up articles from supporters of Ham on Calvin’s campus, and on March 15, Ham wrote yet another blog on the issue entitled, “You Won’t Believe What Came Out of Calvin College Last Week”.
While Camacho has not responded directly to Ham, student editor of Chimes Stephen Mulder has, implying that it is organizations like Answers in Genesis that are causing young people to leave Christianity. “It isn’t because organizations like Answers in Genesis attack other Christians who simply believe that accepting evolution and an old earth doesn’t threaten the Bible’s authority in any way,” Mulder writes sarcastically. “It’s because Calvin College teaches evolution.”