#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.

#1095: Gary & Lisa Ruby

We’ll actually let Marco Rubio off in virtue of the benefit of the doubt. His pronounciations on the age of the Earth would admittedly qualify him, though one suspect opportunism rather than intellectual commitment (as one does in most of the stuff Rubio is saying or doing, in fact) – that goes for his backpedalling as well. We’ll harass the little people instead.

Gary & Lisa Ruby run the website Liberty to the Captives, a relentlessly fanatically religious website devoted to promoting conspiracy theories, woo and pure fantasy, from the nephilim to the New World Order; it isn’t one group that’s behind the New World Order, but everyone from the scientologists (here is their article “Terri Schiavo and scientology – the Death Connection”) to RaptureReady (!). It is worth a visit. They have, for instance, a section on how Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings lure kids to practice witchcraft – as do promoters of essential oils, apparently, and prayer circles (“praying with hands clasped to form a circle is not found in the Bible. This practice, adopted by churches around the world, comes directly from witchcraft”). Indeed, even Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series is covert promotion of witchcraft, according to the Rubys; apparently the series even promotes equipping people with microchips – how’s that for Satan worship?). And of course Obamacare is “stealth euthanasia” (as Rob Panzer says: “When patients enter hospice simply because they are elderly, weak or forgetful, it is a red flag that something definitely is not right”) – there is even a link to witchcraft in Obamacare, as demonstrated by Michelle Obama’s involvement with voodoo.

In other words, there is a simple way to sum up the theological position of the Rubys. Everyone who disagrees with them, whether it is on politics or theology, are really promoters of witchcraft and the New World Order. Christian rock? Check. No Greater Joy ministries (that’s Michael & Debi Pearl)? Indeed.

Diagnosis: You get the gist. These people should be avoided at more or less all costs.

#1094: Karen Rowe et al.

Karen Rowe

Acupuncture doesn’t work, and integrating acupuncture with homeopathy doesn’t exactly help. Karen Rowe thinks otherwise. By adding homeopathy to acupuncture Rowe came up with “acupoint injection therapy,” which is so idiotic that it landed one of its practitioners an appearance on The Dr. Oz. Show. The idea is to inject homeopathic remedies into acupuncture meridian points, and according to Rowe “what makes this system of medicine so remarkably effective is that it is one of the few therapies that is administered directly into the matrix of the body,” which is about as accurate and meaningful a claim as it sounds. The goal is … you guessed it … to detoxify your body.

Akhila Bourne

Of course people have taken acupuncture even further. There is, for instance, Russ Greenfields “biopuncture”, and Akhila Rosemary Bourne & Manohar Croke promote something they call … colorpuncture – esogetic colorpuncture, in fact. The guiding idea is that “we know today that man is essentially a being of light. And the modern science of photobiology ... is presently proving this.” Right. “In terms of healing ... the implications are immense. We now know, for example, that ... light can initiate, or arrest, cascade-like reactions in the cells, and that genetic cellular damage can be virtually repaired, within hours, by faint beams of light.” Actually, I don’t think Bourne & Croke know what “know” means.

Manohar Croke

Colorpuncture consists of shining colored lights on acupuncture points. Nothing more is needed, since esogetic colorpuncture is designed to “address the non-physical origins of illness as well as its physical symptoms.” Indeed.

Diagnosis: Loonery and quackery without limits, and it is rather hard to believe that these practitioners actually believe that their techniques work. They surely cannot describe the mechanisms in anything resembling a coherent, accurate manner, and can definitely not provide evidence that stand up to even the most charitable scrutiny. 

#1093: Hal Rounds

Hal Rounds is an attorney, Tea Party leader and spokesperson (Tennessee), and a wingnut’s wingnut – though, really, the whole group has to be indicted for their suggestions concerning education policy. The educational platform for Rounds and his group is historical revisionism and sanitization, and suggests in particular that history textbooks should cover up nasty things like America’s treatment of natives and slavery because it makes past leaders look like hypocrites. In other words, history should not try to depict historical events accurately – instead, it should be replaced with hagiography to ensure that children won’t be exposed to anything that could lead them to question American exceptionalism: “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership,” as they put it. According to Rounds, the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.” Rounds’s group doesn’t seem to have been particularly stable or significant, and seems in fact to have more or less disbanded later on. Still.

Diagnosis: Minor moron, and probably relatively insignificant, although his views on education are more widely shared than is comfortable.

#1092: Sid Roth

Sid Roth is a Messianic Jew who runs the website “It’s Supernatural” (google it yourself) devoted to converting Jews to Christ and promote all sorts of flimsy endtimes babble and miracle reports. You can also buy plenty of books (e.g. Stories of Supernatural Healing, coauthored with Linda Josef, “Ph.D”) and educational material, for instance a delectable Personal Trainer for Tongues, which invites you “to discover how easy it is to pray in tongues” and teaches you how to “prophesy your destiny”, “increase your revelation of God’s Word” (I have no idea what it is supposed to mean), charge “your spiritual battery” and activate angels. The articles on the site encompass all the usual topics; if you should want to, you can for instance read how L.A. Marzulli has “uncovered an amazing cover-up by the U.S. government and Smithsonian Institute to hide evidence Darwinism and ‘evolution’ have been disproven. Instead it supports what the Bible says!” (Roth claims that he originally thought the theory of evolution sounded reasonable, but later discovered the holes – heard that before?) Roth’s conversation with James Nienhuis concerning science, young earth creationism and global warming may give you an idea of how well he understands what he is promoting. One of his videos purporting to explain evolution and promoted by the WND is discussed here; it features … Bruce Malone. Also promoted by the WND is his video on how to change your DNA with genetic salvation, whatever that means (Francis Myles, who enthusiastically promotes the idea, sure doesn’t know).

Diagnosis: I am not going to give him too much space. Roth is just your standard liar for Jesus, and that’s really it – the only notable feature being how he couches his fire-and-brimstone fanaticism in a language borrowed from New Age personal development bullshit. Idiot, and a minor player on religious fanaticism’s anti-science team.