#1837: Ben Kinchlow

Benjamim “Ben” Kinchlow is best known for being the co-host of The 700 Club from 1975 to 1988 and again from 1992 to 1996, though he has also hosted other shows on the Christian Broadcasting Network, such as Straight Talk, which was not about straight talk. He is also the founder of Americans for Israel, and regularly writes columns for WND. Apparently he used to be a Black Nationalist before becoming a fundamentalist wingnut extremist.

Kinchlow the Constitutional scholar

Kinchlow is opposed to the separation of church and state (“The concept of separation of church and state used incessantly by anti-prayer, anti-Bible and anti-God forces to erode our constitutional liberties”), and since he is delusional, he has convinced himself that the separation of church is not suggested in the US Constitution (“[t]here is absolutely nothing in the U.S. Constitution or any other founding document that articulates, supports or defends the concept of the separation of church and state”). Instead, it is a communist idea; it is, as he has repeatedly pointed out, part of “the Soviet (not the U.S.) Constitution.” He also thinks the Establishment Clause violates the Free Exercise Clause, which is idiotic, and like most dominionists and dominionist sympathizers, he rejects (willfully ignores) the 14^th Amendment. And no, he doesn’t have the faintest idea how the Constitution is supposed to work.

Kinchlow on politics

Naturally, Kinchlow was no fan of Obama, and as people like him are wont to do, he would quickly revert to delusions, lies and conspiracy theories in his criticisms. So, among Kinchlow’s complaints was that Obama “made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries,” something Obama neither has done nor has the power to do, “has erected a multitude of New Offices,” which Obama neither has done nor has the power to do, imposed “Taxes on us without our Consent,” which he cannot do either (only Congress can – details to which Kinchlow’s mind is impressively immune), “subjugated the country to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws,” something Kinchlow didn’t attempt to explain further.

According to Kinchlow, Obama is, if not a Muslim, at least “registered as a Muslim in Hawaii.” Apparently he read it “somewhere”. He doesn’t tell us when Hawaii started registering people by religious affiliation. But he does conclude that the White House is now “claimed for Islam”. He manages to derive that conclusion because he is a moron as well as a liar.

Here is Kinchlow’s brand of American exceptionalism. It’s … exceptional (“America is the first example in human history of a nation where people were given the right to vote, elect representatives and determine their own political fate [one wonders whether the crucial term here is “human”, and what that would imply];” “America has […] created a veritable paradise compared to most of the world;” “We have, on the whole, tended to be a moral and devout people. At home, we made a choice to end slavery [a few centuries after everyone else, but still], even at the cost of a bloody Civil War;” and, the best: “Abroad, again and again, we have chosen to side with less powerful nations when they have been attacked by aggressors. Americans have reached out at home and abroad with the hand of charity to people who are hurting.”)

Kinchlow’s solution to accusations of racism against the police is “No more white cops responding to distress calls in ‘da hood’;” if “no black cops are available, let the residents handle the situation, or wait until one is available.” As opposed to Kinchlow (“Bingo! All charges of racism will cease immediately”) we do not think the solution will make all charges of racism cease immediately.

Kinchlow and facts

Facts has never really mattered to Ben Kinchlow. So, for instance, when he claims that Iraq was involved in 9/11, he can neither back it up nor does he see the need to. He also has a tendency to attribute fake quotes to historical figures to bolster his agenda.

Kinchlow on evolution

Kinchlow is a creationist. According to Kinchlow, evolution is a religion of murder. The argument goes as follows: evolution is the religion of the godless (because of a dictionary that defines religion as “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe;” yeah, that definition did in fact include some further conditions on what it takes to qualify as a religion, but Kinchlow disregarded those); religions come with moral codes; the moral code of evolution is murder. So there. And no, he doesn’t show any evidence of understanding the basics of the theory of evolution or the difference between a scientific theory and a moral code. Here is his description of the theory of evolution: “our theory (a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural) is … we crawled out from the primordial ooze onto dry ground – and voila!” That … doesn’t much resemble the theory of evolution, but the “voila” part does resemble certain creation stories. “What is life? No one knows for sure, but it is assuredly much more than the result of a random bolt of lightning striking a pond of primordial stew,” continues Kinchlow. Ka-zing! He also helpfully emphasizes that “[k]eep in mind, according to the dictionary, a theory is a ‘proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural.’ It is a speculation, a guess, a conjecture,” which is not the definition of a theory [scientific] even according to the dictionary Kinchlow was using, thus demonstrating, once again, that he is dishonest in addition to stupid. No surprise there.

Ultimately, Kinchlow concludes, evolution is a religion that leads to eating babies.

Christianity, on the other hand, is not a religion, according to Kinchlow (forgetting his own definition for a moment): “One of the factors contributing to this precipitous deterioration of our society is the mistaken idea that the Bible is about religion and religious activities. Nothing could be further from the truth. This Judeo-Christian ‘Book,’ unlike some other ‘holy books,’ is not about establishing religion, but about creating order from disorder, control from chaos.”

Diagnosis: Good grief is Kinchlow dense and dishonest! People actually seem to listen to him, but it’s hard to determine what percentage of his audience tune in for the sheer entertainment value of such breathtaking inanity.