#1096: Peter Ruckman

We have encountered the rabid King James Only fanatics before (indeed, even last entry’s Gary and Lisa Ruby belong to the movement), and Peter Ruckman is a big name. Ruckman, a graduate of Bob Jones University, is also the founder of the Pensacola Bible Institute, another unaccredited Taliban institution (not to be confused with Pensacola Christian College) in Pensacola, Florida, a place that has managed to establish itself as an epicenter of loon in the US (Kent Hovind was long a proud inhabitant). As is characteristic for his movement, Ruckman believes that the King James Version constitutes “advanced revelation” and is the final, preserved word of God for English speakers, since the Holy Ghost apparently considered it to be particularly important to have a good English version.

His evidence for the superiority of the King James version is on the slim side, however. According to Ruckman, “Mistakes in the A.V. 1611 are advanced revelation!” meaning that with regard to any details on which said version of the Bible disagrees with older versions, his version of KJ is right, and we should conclude that the older versions must have been corrupted. In other words, Ruckman’s views are as evidence-based and unfalsifiable as your standard David Icke conspiracy theory. He also thinks that the Septuagint, the Tanakh of Hellenistic Judaism and the Old Testament of Eastern Christianity, were hoaxes. Indeed, by claiming that the KJ is not only equal to but superior to existing Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, Ruckman has placed himself on the fringes of the KJ only movement, which is not a sign of mental health. His writings nevertheless remain popular, partially because of his caustic style and dismissals of those who disagree with him in rather colorful ways.

Given Ruckman’s relationship with evidence, you should expect him to entertain some other beliefs that would be located outside of the mainstream as well. And sure enough, Ruckman delivers. He has written about his UFO beliefs (“specifically blue aliens with blue blood, black aliens with green blood, and gray aliens with clear blood”), claiming e.g. that “some of the medieval plagues in Europe were caused by UFOs”, and he is apparently convinced that the CIA has implanted brain transmitters in children, old people, and African-Americans and that the agency operates underground alien breeding facilities. They are of course also out to get him (Ruckman), since by exposing their nefarious ploys Ruckman has apparently become a serious threat. To intimidate him they use black helicopters carrying UN troops, which are “circling your homes” with the mission of attacking and imprisoning the populace – yes, Ruckman believes in (literally) black helicopters, which is sort of like literally believing that tinfoil hats protect you from alien mind reading (which Ruckman may very well believe, in fact). There are also some musings about Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle in his writings, but it is hard for the casual reader to obtain a fully coherent picture.

In 1984 Ruckman received some attention for writing that “Negroes have to be carried. Where they are left to themselves they resort to mugging, rape, slavery, dope traffic, and eventually cannibalism,” and (much more recently) some attention for his belief that “no matter how much integration is carried out, the IQ of blacks is always lower than whites,” and (currently) his belief that “history is absolute proof that ‘race-mixers’ are mentally sick.” Other examples of racism in Ruckman’s work are discussed here (his claim that “prejudice is a permanent trait of colored people,” and that “all black people are racists. They have color-consciousness that affects every decision they make in life, and they make decisions on the basis of color,” reveal a level of self-awareness that is borderline unusual).

Diagnosis: He may be wrong, but at least he has made sure that he is wrong in as charming a manner as possible. Probably a negligible threat to civilization in the grand scheme of things, but his writings seem to enjoy rather staggering popularity in some less savory segments of the population.