1. CREATIONISTS' UN-CHRISTIAN ROW
Cincinnati Post, The (OH) - July 5, 2007
Author: Kevin Eigelbach
Readability: 11-12 grade level (Lexile: 1290)
As part of an attempt to destroy a fellow creationist group, Boone County-based Answers in Genesis raised questions about a colleague's
marriage. At least, that's Creation Ministries International's version of events, as detailed in a report by a former chief state magistrate in
Australia, Clarrie Briese.
Trying to discredit CMI Managing Director Carl Wieland to colleague Philip Bell, AIG founder Ken Ham suggested things about Wieland's
marriage that weren't true, Briese found. "It is astonishing that respected leaders of Christian organizations would stoop so low as to
resort to gutter tactics of the kind mentioned here," Briese wrote.
Briese's report is one of a number of documents about the dispute with AIG that CMI recently put on its Web site. These documents make
for fascinating reading, showing that, if nothing else, Christians in the creationist movement can't settle their differences like Christians.
At the time of his conversation with Ham, Bell was second-in-command for AIG's European branch. He later resigned, though, in part
because of the deliberate attempts at character assassination he saw at AIG, he wrote in a letter to CMI supporters.
As I mentioned last week, Briese is also a member of CMI and so perhaps is not an impartial observer. Briese reported, however, that,
when he started his research, he assumed CMI bore some of the blame for the dispute with AIG, but he found that wasn't true.
His report also discusses a letter to Wieland from the chairman of the AIG board, Don Landis, a pastor, who suggested that Wieland's
actions showed he had spiritual problems.
"Is there a past sin you have not confessed that you are aware of?" he quoted Landis as writing. "Is there a present sin such as
pornography?"
As Briese sees it, Landis deceitfully used a pastoral tone to suggest unsavory and false things about Wieland.
The conflict between AIG and CMI came to a head in May, when CMI sued AIG in Australian court, saying that AIG essentially stole
magazine subscribers from CMI.
AIG has declined to comment on the Briese report, except to say they have no merit.
AIG has taken its Australian brethren to task for resorting to the secular courts to settle the dispute, something for which the Apostle Paul
took the church of Corinth to task 2,000 years ago.
In a letter to supporters about the lawsuit, the headline reads, "Answers in Genesis under Spiritual Attack."
This wording "indirectly implies that you're somehow the aggressor, rather than the victim in all this," Wieland said.
Wieland said he didn't like taking his fellow believers to court either, but felt CMI had exhausted all other possibilities.
Though they share a common ancestor, CMI and Answers in Genesis have not had equal success. Last fiscal year, CMI had about $3
million total revenue and a staff of about 30 employees, Wieland said.
AIG received $13.6 million in total revenue in just six months, from July 2005 through June 2006. It recently opened a $33 million
creationism museum at its Petersburg headquarters.
Nevertheless, in March 2006, when CMI officially separated from AIG, three other groups formerly known as Answers in Genesis in
Canada, New Zealand and South Africa affiliated with CMI rather than stay with the larger group. "They unanimously decided they didn't
want to be associated with Answers in Genesis," Wieland said.
Staff reporter Kevin Eigelbach writes on religion for The Post. Write him at keigelbach@cincypost.com.
Edition: Cincinnati Section: Living Page number: C5 Record: 0707060073 Copyright: Copyright (c) 2007 The Cincinnati Post