UCO student group rescinds invitation to Christian speaker
LGBTQ group opposed Ham’s views on marriage
EDMOND — The University of Central Oklahoma Student Association rescinded its invitation to a well-known Christian apologist to speak on campus following pressure from an LGBTQ group.
Wednesday, Stockton Duvall, UCO's student body president, said student government leaders, in partnership with a student group called Valid World Views, had asked Ken Ham to visit the campus on March 5 to share his perspectives about the science behind Darwinian ideas.
Ham is the founder of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky; the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky, a replica of Noah's Ark as chronicled in Genesis; and chief executive officer of the Christian creation apologetics organization Answers in Genesis.
Duvall, a junior business management major, said members of a group affiliated with the Women's Research Center/ BGLTQ+ Student Center at UCO opposed Ham's visit because of his view that marriage is between one man and one woman.
Duvall said he and
other student government leaders made the decision to rescind the invitation after learning of the opposition to his visit.
He spoke about being bullied and personally maligned by the group that opposed Ham’s visit in a statement that he posted on Twitter and Facebook to address the issue.
“I want to be very clear on this, there have been members of our campus who have tried to bully me in my decision. While none of these examples have involved members of the administration, there is definitely something that must be done to address this issue. I am not the first person to be personally attacked by a very vocal group on campus that has little tolerance for opposing views,” Duvall said in his statement.
Representatives of the group that opposed Ham’s visit could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Ham, in a telephone interview, said what surprised him was not that opposition arose, but where it occurred — in a state well known as conservative.
“I was shocked that it actually happened in
Oklahoma, which is considered to be in the Bible Belt area. I think it’s going to be eye-opening to a lot of people,” he said.
Duvall said it was unfortunate that some members of the community mistakenly believed that Ham had been banned from campus by the UCO administration. On the contrary, he said administrators told student government leaders that they would support any decision they made on the matter.
Charles Johnson, UCO’s vice president of university communications, confirmed that assessment on Wednesday.
“The university may advise, but does not direct, the activities of UCOSA. In fact, in the spirit of the UCO policy on freedom of expression, the university president, provost and the vice president of student affairs supported and did not deny the proposal to bring Mr. Ham to campus to encourage conversation and debate of diverse perspectives. This was prior to UCOSA’s cancellation of the invitation to Mr. Ham,” Johnson said Wednesday in a prepared statement.
“This experience reinforces our resolve to make our campus a welcoming environment for the civil expression of diverse thought. And, we will continue to support
the student-centered culture we value and promote at the University of Central Oklahoma.”
Meanwhile, the Rev. Paul Blair, senior pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, said Ham will appear at his church on March 5 in a presentation open to the public.
He said Ham is a friend and the UCO student group Valid World View, affiliated with his church, had contacted him to see if he could help arrange Ham’s visit.
He said he was disappointed that the invitation to Ham was rescinded, but he wasn’t surprised because such incidents have been occurring across the country.
“The group that always cries out demanding tolerance and accusing others of bullying, it seems that they are the ones that are accused of bullying and not tolerating others,” Blair said.
Ham agreed with Blair’s comments in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
“When I heard that it was an LGBTQ group or people associated with them that had put the pressure on the student group to cancel me coming, it’s sadly what I’m seeing across the nation in regards to such groups who claim they want inclusiveness and claim they are against
discrimination but they themselves discriminate, particularly against Christians and the Christian message,” Ham said.
“Sadly, we’ve seen the same sort of intolerance from other secular groups against our organization.”
Ham said he has noted an increasing number of colleges and universities where protests erupt over conservative speakers or people with conservative Christian values coming to speak.
Ham said he wasn’t planning to speak about his views on marriage but, when Duvall suggested that he sign a statement agreeing not to discuss that topic even if it came up during the question-and-answer session, he refused.
“I wasn’t prepared to do that because I believe there should be freedom of speech and that’s what the university should allow. I don’t attack those people. I don’t hate them. I wasn’t going to talk on them or deal with that in my presentation, but if it came up in question time I would want the freedom to answer those questions,” Ham said.
No contract was yet in place committing the university to paying Ham or his organization, a university official said.