Creationist finances: Creation Worldview Ministries

This is the eighth in a series of posts about the finances of the creationist ministries which were previously reported in Reports of the National Center for Science Education in 2000 in an article by John Cole: the Access Research Network, Answers in Genesis, the Creation Evidences Museum, Creation Illustrated Ministries, Creation Moments, the Creation Research Society, Creation Worldview Ministries, the Institute for Creation Research, the Discovery Institute, and I'll add Walter Brown's Center for Scientific Creation to the list. I've already commented on Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, Access Research Network, the Creation Evidence Museum, Creation Illustrated Ministries, Creation Moments, and the Creation Research Society. Next up, Creation Worldview Ministries. Creation Worldview Ministries is "an educational missionary organization" run by Grady McMurtry of Orlando, Florida. McMurtry holds a doctorate in theology from the School of Theology of Columbus, Georgia. He gives sermons and lectures promotion creationism, publishes a monthly newsletter, and sells books, CDs, DVDs, and other products through the Creation Worldview Ministries website. As usual, the baseline financial information (1998) is from John R. Cole's "Money Floods Anti-Evolutionists' Coffers" in Reports of the National Center for Science Education 20(1-2, 2000):64-65: 1998: Revenue: $114,604 Expenses: $93,076 And the last three years available through GuideStar.org: 2003: Revenue: $139,827 ($95,049 donations, $43,759 from goods sold) Expenses: $135,636 Net assets at end of year: $122,154 Salary: Grady McMurtry, president/director: $48,500 2004: Revenue: $143,008 ($92,178 in donations, $42,880 from goods sold) Expenses: $172,977 Net assets at end of year: $92,185 Salary: Grady McMurtry, president/director: $56,000 2005: Revenue: $141,857 ($95,571 in donations, $43,486 from goods sold) Expenses: $140,968 Net assets at end of year: $93,074 Salary: Grady McMurtry, president/director: $57,500 Earlier year donations (from 2003 Form 990): 1999: $95,642 2000: $81,793 2001: $93,996 2002: $88,082 You can find CWM's 2003 Form 990 here, 2004 Form 990 here, and their 2005 Form 990 here.

Creationist finances: Creation Research Society

This is the seventh in a series of posts about the finances of the creationist ministries which were previously reported in Reports of the National Center for Science Education in 2000 in an article by John Cole: the Access Research Network, Answers in Genesis, the Creation Evidences Museum, Creation Illustrated Ministries, Creation Moments, the Creation Research Society, Creation Worldview Ministries, the Institute for Creation Research, the Discovery Institute, and I'll add Walter Brown's Center for Scientific Creation to the list. I've already commented on Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, Access Research Network, the Creation Evidence Museum, Creation Illustrated Ministries, and Creation Moments. Now for an Arizona-based organization, the Creation Research Society. The Creation Research Society (CRS) was organized in 1963 by geneticist Walter Lammerts (b. 1904, d. 1996) and biologist William J. Tinkle (b. 1892, d. 1981) as an alternative to the American Scientific Affiliation and replacement to the defunct Deluge Geology Society. The CRS, originally called the Creation Research Advisory Committee, began with invitations to join an anti-evolution group within the ASA, which were sent to Henry M. Morris, Frank Lewis Marsh, Molleurus Couperus, Edwin Y. Monsma, R. Laird Harris, Duane T. Gish, Philip V. Livdahl, and Edward L. Kessel. Of these, Kessel, a theistic evolutionist, did not join, and Livdahl did not respond. It was Henry Morris who suggested creating a separate society. (The founding of the CRS is described in Ronald Numbers' The Creationists, pp. 247-257). The ASA was considered unacceptable because it permitted evolutionists as members; membership in the CRS required assent to a four-point statement of belief:

1. The Bible is the written Word of God, and because it is inspired throughout, all its assertions are historically and scientifically true in the original autographs. To the student of nature this means that the account of origins in Genesis is a factual presentation of simple historical truths.

2. All basic types of living things, including man, were made by direct creative acts of God during the Creation Week described in Genesis. Whatever biological changes have occurred since Creation Week have accomplished only changes within the original created kinds.

3. The great flood described in Genesis, commonly referred to as the Noachian Flood, was an historic event worldwide in its extent and effect.

4. We are an organization of Christian men and women of science who accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The account of the special creation of Adam and Eve as one man and one woman and their subsequent fall into sin is the basis for our belief in the necessity of a Savior for all mankind. Therefore, salvation can come only through accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior.

The Creation Research Society has published a peer-reviewed journal, the Creation Research Society Quarterly, since 1964, and a bimonthly newsletter for a more popular audience, Creation Matters, since 1996. Voting membership in CRS requires at least a master's degree in some scientific field; there are non-voting memberships for other interested people, but all must agree with the above statement of belief. CRS also operates the Van Andel Creation Research Center just north of Chino Valley, Arizona, which was named after Jay Van Andel (b. 1924, d. 2004), one of the two co-founders (with Rich DeVos) of Amway (both of whom are financial supporters of creationism). As usual, the baseline financial information (1997 in this case) is from John R. Cole's "Money Floods Anti-Evolutionists' Coffers" in Reports of the National Center for Science Education 20(1-2, 2000):64-65: 1997: Revenue: $263,391 Expenses: ? (not given in Cole's article) And the last three years available through GuideStar.org: 2003: Revenue: $245,867 ($153,356 donations, $44,590 in dues, $27,225 from goods sold) Expenses: $300,589 Net assets at end of year: $1,109,742 Salary: John Meyer, lab director: $38,042 2004: Revenue: $324,942 ($236,244 in donations, $5,732 in program service revenue, $38,387 in dues, $13,981 from goods sold) Expenses: $330,803 Net assets at end of year: $1,102,797 Salary: Kevin Anderson, director: $39,598 In 2005, the CRS switched to a July-June fiscal year, so their 2005 Form 990 is for six months only (and is on a 2004 form). 2005 (January-June only): Revenue: $110,967 ($49,347 in donations, $2,663 in program service revenue, $28,348 in dues, $13,983 from goods sold) Expenses: $153,841 Net assets at end of year: $1,052,000 Salary: Kevin Anderson, director: $23,175 2005 numbers doubled for an estimate of full-year (which doesn't account for seasonal variation): Revenue: $221,934 ($98,694 in donations, $5,326 in program service revenue, $56,696 in dues, $27,996 from goods sold) Expenses: $307,682 Would would leave net assets of: $1,009,126 Salary: Kevin Anderson, director: $46,350 CRS has had more expenses than revenues over the last three years reported at GuideStar.org. Unless their revenue is large in the second half of the year, it looks like 2005 shows a dip in revenue; it appears that they likely receive most membership dues in the first half of the year (unless they saw substantial growth in 2005 after a decline from 2003 to 2004). CRS has a little over half a million dollars worth of investments to draw upon to cover these annual deficits. You can find CRS's 2003 Form 990 here, 2004 Form 990 here, and their 2005 Form 990 here.

My bank is on the ball

I got a call from the fraud department of my bank this morning, asking me whether I had used my debit card this morning at The Sports Basement in San Francisco for a $71.00 charge. I said that I hadn't, and they said there was a debit prenotification, which they've seen as a prelude to withdrawals from around the globe using cloned cards or electronic access to accounts. They had already blocked further use of my card information, and under my banking agreement I would not be liable for any loss in any case.

When I asked how my information got out, they indicated that they believe the miscreants are just using brute force--changing numbers based on a known card to find new valid card numbers. The only alternative I could see based on my card habits would be if I inadvertently used an ATM with a skimmer attached to the front of it somewhere or fell victim to an ATM with a tapped phone line connection. I rarely use ATMs these days; this may provide me with some incentive to do so even less frequently.

Creationist finances: Creation Moments

This is the sixth in a series of posts about the finances of the creationist ministries which were previously reported in Reports of the National Center for Science Education in 2000 in an article by John Cole: the Access Research Network, Answers in Genesis, the Creation Evidences Museum, Creation Illustrated Ministries, Creation Moments, the Creation Research Society, Creation Worldview Ministries, the Institute for Creation Research, the Discovery Institute, and I'll add Walter Brown's Center for Scientific Creation to the list. I've already commented on Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, Access Research Network, the Creation Evidence Museum, and Creation Illustrated Ministries. Next up, Creation Moments. Creation Moments was originally the Bible-Science Association, founded in 1963 by Pastor Walter Lang (not to be confused with the director of "The King and I"). "Creation Moments" was a short radio program and a column in the Bible-Science Newsletter, a monthly periodical published on newsprint that was home to some of the wackier claims of young-earth creationism, which often made for entertaining reading. One regular contributor was Nancy Pearcey, who was played a significant role in the development of "intelligent design," including contributing material previously published in the Bible-Science Newsletter to the book Of Pandas and People. Pandas played a major role in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case, as it was over successive drafts of that book that the words "creationism" and "creation science" transformed into "intelligent design" in later revisions. Bible-Science Newsletter editor Pastor Paul A. Bartz was Lang's successor, and as "Creation Moments" became more popular than the newsletter, the organization's name was changed accordingly. The Bible-Science Newsletter ceased publication in 1998, but the "Creation Moments" radio program is syndicated on multiple Christian radio networks and is broadcast in both English and Spanish, where it appears daily. Each year the daily scripts are combined into an annual volume of devotionals which the organization sells along with other books and items like calendars and Christmas cards. The organization is now under the management of Lu Ann Strombeck, its Chief Operating Officer. Canadian creationist Ian T. Taylor, author of "In the Minds of Men: Darwin and the New World Order" is on its board of directors and his organization, TFE Publishing, is occasionally paid by the organization to edit scripts. Taylor is perhaps best known for claiming (along with Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasingh) that Archaeopteryx is a hoaxed fossil created by putting feathers on a true reptile, while other creationists (such as Answers in Genesis) claim that it is a true bird and not a reptile. Creation Moments, Inc. refers to itself as "CMI," which is the same label used by Creation Ministries International, the organization composed of the Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada groups that split off from Answers in Genesis. Creation Moments is based in Foley, Minnesota. As usual, the 1998 information from John R. Cole's "Money Floods Anti-Evolutionists' Coffers" in Reports of the National Center for Science Education 20(1-2, 2000):64-65: 1998: Revenue: $292,318 Expenses: $284,846 And the last three years available through GuideStar.org: 2003 (July 2003-June 2004): Revenue: $308,506 ($218,240 donations, $49,327 program service revenue which is $48,877 in book sales and $450 in seminar income) Expenses: $228,679 Net assets at end of year: $120,440 Salary: Lu Ann Strombeck, COO: $30,900 2004 (July 2004-June 2005): Revenue: $269,996 ($229,007 in donations, $40,645 in program service revenue which is $40,145 in book sales and $500 in seminar income) Expenses: $241,860 Net assets at end of year: $149,233 Salary: Lu Ann Strombeck, COO: $32,471 2005 (July 2005-June 2006): Revenue: $268,966 ($217,492 in donations, $51,050 in program service revenue which is entirely from book sales) Expenses: $256,358 Net assets at end of year: $161,184 Salary: Lu Ann Strombeck, COO: $34,590 Creation Moments has its own building for its offices, and as of June 2006 owes $21,501 on its mortgage, paying $550/mo. The original mortgage was only $35,000; they apparently paid $44,400 for land and $96,166,71 for the building. Their donations and revenue have grown over the last few years, except for a dip in book sales in 2004. You can find CM's 2003 Form 990 here, 2004 Form 990 here, and their 2005 Form 990 here.

Bush doesn't want the public to know who visits

After being embarrassed in the Jack Abramoff scandal by records of Abramoff's visits to the White House in Secret Service records, the White House signed an agreement with Secret Service that the visitor records they collect count as White House property, not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Talking Points Memo has the memorandum of understanding here.

Kerry and the troops photo shows Michelle Malkin's unreliability

A photo of John Kerry eating breakfast "alone" in the U.S. Embassy mess hall in Baghdad was circulating in the right-wing blogosphere, touted as evidence that he was shunned by the troops. The left-wing blogosphere's initial response was to question the authenticity of the photo due to the erroneous date/time stamp on the photo (caused by the photographer failing to set the date on the camera) and the presence of the flags of Britain and Portugal in the background (which other photos and personnel on site have confirmed are really there--and the Portugal one will be removed since Portugal no longer has personnel in Iraq).

Michelle Malkin supplied evidence of the authenticity of the photo (but failed to recognize that it disproved her claim of Kerry being snubbed) by locating another photograph with Kerry, wearing the same shirt, sitting and eating with the troops. She then harshly criticized those who argued that the photograph was a fake, throwing out charges of "hysterics" and "moonbattery."

But now Greg Sargent at TPM Muckraker has tracked down the details of what Kerry was doing sitting with at least one person in a suit (visible in the photo--Kerry was clearly not alone)--he was intentionally sitting away from everyone else in order to have an off-the-record conversation with two reporters, Marc Santora of The New York Times and Mark Danner of The New York Review and The New Yorker. They confirm that Kerry was not being snubbed by the troops, and in fact soldiers stopped by during their conversation to ask for photographs with Kerry:

"Santora was to my right," Danner also said. "It was very early in the morning at about 8:30, in the green zone. The reason that people weren't sitting directly around us was that we were having a private conversation." Asked if the troops showed animosity to Kerry, Danner said: "Not in any way that I noticed. A number of soldiers came up and asked to have their photograph taken with him."

This is typical of Malkin--right on a specific detail (the photo was genuine) but completely wrong in the overall argument (that Kerry was being snubbed by the troops). Will she or the other conservative bloggers who have made the claim that Kerry was eating alone because he was snubbed by the troops admit their error?

UPDATE (February 1, 2007): Snopes also has coverage of this Malkin claim.

More than 50% can be above average

Glen Whitman at Agoraphilia points out how the common example of cognitive bias that "80% of us believe that our driving skills are better than average" can be a correct description of reality, when the median is greater than the mean. By example, the mean time to conception for women trying to get pregnant is 7 months, but 50% of such women are pregnant within 4 months and 75% pregnant within 6 months, so 75% of such women do "better than average."

Creationist finances: Creation Illustrated Ministries

This is the fifth in a series of posts about the finances of the creationist ministries which were previously reported in Reports of the National Center for Science Education in 2000 in an article by John Cole: the Access Research Network, Answers in Genesis, the Creation Evidences Museum, Creation Illustrated Ministries, Creation Moments, the Creation Research Society, Creation Worldview Ministries, the Institute for Creation Research, the Discovery Institute, and I'll add Walter Brown's Center for Scientific Creation to the list. I've already commented on Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, Access Research Network, and the Creation Evidence Museum. This time out, I'll look at Creation Illustrated Ministries. Creation Illustrated Ministries began in 1993, producing a magazine called Creation Illustrated. The magazine is published by a homeschooling couple, Tom and Jennifer Ish of Auburn, California, who describe how they got started here. As usual, the 1998 information from John R. Cole's "Money Floods Anti-Evolutionists' Coffers" in Reports of the National Center for Science Education 20(1-2, 2000):64-65: 1998: Revenue: $202,950 Expenses: $198,414 And the last three years available through GuideStar.org: 2001 (July 2001-June 2002): Revenue: $232,381 ($52,154 donations, $179,961 program service revenue) Expenses: $241,795 Net assets at end of year: -$66,079 Salaries (18.3% of revenue): Thomas M. Ish, president: $24,000 (plus $7,947 in expenses) Jennifer L. Ish, secretary: $10,500 2002 (July 2002-June 2003): Revenue: $307,582 ($109,715 in donations, $197,700 in program service revenue which is $167,095 from subscriptions, $4,095 from book and video sales, $26,510 from advertising) Expenses: $285,364 Net assets at end of year: -$43,861 Salaries (11.0% of revenue): Thomas M. Ish, president: $15,000 (plus $6,706 in expenses) Jennifer L. Ish, secretary: $12,000 2003 (July 2003-June 2004): Revenue: $357,600 ($96,782 in donations, $259,339 in program service revenue which is $170,815 from subscriptions, $26,005 from book and video sales, $62,519 from advertising) Expenses: $363,742 Net assets at end of year: -$50,003 Salaries (19.8% of revenue): Thomas M. Ish, president: $39,000 (plus $12,205 in expenses) Jennifer L. Ish, secretary: $19,500 Creation Illustrated Ministries is apparently run as a home-based business, with the organization leasing office space from the Ish family, but not actually paying for it. The Ish family have also run up mileage for the nonprofit which they have not been reimbursed for, bringing the total amount the organization owes them up to $305,180. As an organization, CIM is running up debt to its founders/officers, the Ish family, which is the main cause of its negative net assets. It is seeing revenue growth from year to year, but two of the last three years of reports above show expenses exceeding revenue. It looks like it is working well enough to keep going and continue making a living for its founders, but I would expect a business running for over a decade to be able to start reducing its debt as revenue grows. Their website indicates that Jennifer Ish's responsibilities for circulation and fulfillment have been outsourced to "a magazine fulfillment company in Southern California," which may have led to improved efficiency. You can find CIM's 2001 Form 990 here, 2002 Form 990 here, and their 2003 Form 990 here.

Creationist finances: the Creation Evidence Museum

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the finances of the creationist ministries which were previously reported in Reports of the National Center for Science Education in 2000 in an article by John Cole: the Access Research Network, Answers in Genesis, the Creation Evidences Museum, Creation Illustrated Ministries, Creation Moments, the Creation Research Society, Creation Worldview Ministries, the Institute for Creation Research, the Discovery Institute, and I'll add Walter Brown's Center for Scientific Creation to the list. I've already commented on Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, and Access Research Network. The Creation Evidence Museum (formerly Creation Evidences Museum) of Glen Rose, Texas is run by Rev. Carl Baugh, one of the most unreliable young-earth creationists still around. Baugh, born in 1936, was the Kent Hovind of his day, and boasts a CV that includes promoting Paluxy River dinosaur footprints as human footprints, diploma mill degrees, and running a diploma mill. Baugh is one of the creationists who has been called out by name in criticism by Creation Ministries International. One of Baugh's claims is that a 19th-century miner's hammer he found in a concretion in Ordovician or Silurian rock is an "out-of-place" fossil proving that the earth is young. Baugh has refused to allow the handle of this hammer to be radiocarbon dated. In a written debate I had with Walter Brown of the Center for Scientific Creation, Brown raised this hammer as a problem for evolution, and stated that it had not been dated because of Baugh's three "understandable" conditions for dating it, one of which was that someone else pay for it. Glen Kuban has an up-to-date summary of the claims regarding this hammer. And now, the financial data--first, the 1998 information from John R. Cole's "Money Floods Anti-Evolutionists' Coffers" in Reports of the National Center for Science Education 20(1-2, 2000):64-65: 1998: Revenue: $420,460 Expenses: $365,816 And the last three years: 2002 (Aug 2002-July 2003): Revenue: $610,693.35 Expenses: $565,340.58 Net assets at end of year: $1,178,851.97 Salary: Carl Baugh, president and director: $63,780.72 The 2002-2003 Form 990 is printed by hand. 2003 (August 2003-July 2004): Revenue: $493,797.03 Expenses: $498,214.66 Net assets at end of year: $1,174,434.34 Salary: Carl Baugh, president and director: $66,717.50 2004 (August 2004-July 2005): Revenue: $494,361.26 Expenses: $466,491.23 Net assets at end of year: $1,202,304.37 Salary: Carl Baugh, president and director: $68,639.80 The Creation Evidence Museum is another small and not terribly influential organization. About half of its annual expenses go to running the museum, much of the rest to salaries and benefits, with a few thousand dollars a year spent on various forms of "research." Its income is about $300,000 a year in donations, $170,000-$200,000 in receipts from admissions, merchandise sold, etc. The good news is that gross receipts from admissions and merchandise sold have declined, not hitting $200,000 since 2001. It also looks like revenue may have peaked in 2003. The decline is attributable to a decline in sales of "educational products," as museum entrance fees and lecture fees have increased: Museum entrance fees and lectures: 2002: $24,055 2003: $23,295 2004: $27,961 Sales of "educational products": 2002: $151,454.55 2003: $144,242.14 2004: $139,375.02 Most of the museum's assets are in buildings, equipment, five vehicles, and the museum collection of artifacts. At the end of July 2005, it had less than $20,000 in cash on hand, and $61,000 in investments. This is not a museum sitting on a large endowment that will continue to operate if the cash flow were to stop. You can find CEM's 2002 Form 990 here, their 2003 Form 990 here, and their 2004 Form 990 here.

Radley Balko visits Rack and Roll Billiards

Radley Balko of The Agitator paid a visit to David Ruttenberg's bar in Manassas Park, Virginia, and witnessed firsthand the police harassment.

(Also see previous coverage.)