Ken Ham, Benham Brothers at National Bible Bee: Youth Not Giving in to 'Anti-God Dogma'
A number of prominent conservative voices, including Young Earth Creationist Ken Ham and the Benham brothers, attended the 2016 National Bible Bee in San Antonio, Texas, over the weekend, praising the event as an opportunity for young people to showcase their faith.
"It is great to see young people reciting God's Word at the National Bible Bee – it shows that many young people haven't succumbed to secularist anti-God dogma," Ark Encounter and Answers in Genesis CEO and President Ham wrote Saturday on Facebook.
He also shared a photo where he posed with David and Jason Benham, along with Dr. Jerry Johnson, President and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters.
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As the organization's website explained, other keynote speakers included Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby and chairman of the Museum of the Bible.
The National Bible Bee gave 362 students the opportunity to compete against each other, with the seven-to-18 year-olds memorizing more than 800 Bible verses.
Ham spoke at the Award Celebration, which served as the culmination of the event, and asked young people to think about what they are going to do with the rest of their lives, urging them to seek God's word.
Ham also recounted the visit of Bill Nye "The Science Guy" at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky earlier this year, and said that although the two disagree on major issues regarding the creation of the world, he was happy that he got to pray with Nye at the time.
Nye has accused Ham of trying to "brainwash children," and in a letter after his visit claimed that every single one of the science exhibits on the Ark's third deck was "absolutely wrong."
The Ark Encounter CEO explained at the National Bible Bee, however, that he believes the Noah Ark story is the most important symbol of God's message to people, other than the cross, because it reminds believers both of God's punishment for the "wickedness of man," but also His "offer of salvation."
Ham said that this offer is presented in the door to enter the Ark, and challenged believers to be doing "everything we can to get people to the door of the Ark," but said that others can't be forced to go through the door.
Back in July, Ham talked about the importance of young people proclaiming their faith, and argued that unbelievers "go ballistic" when children visit the Ark Encounter.
"When I post videos such as this one that show what children have learned about the truth of God's Word, atheists go ballistic and say we are brainwashing kids — but they want to brainwash them in the hopeless, anti-God religion of naturalism," Ham said in a Facebook post at the time, linking to a short video of a 9-year-old boy talking about his visit to the life-sized Noah's Ark theme park.
