Of all the stories we've reported here, this one has to be the biggest so far.In 2006, Dr. Kent Hovind from Creation Science Evangelism and his wife Ms. Jo Hovind were arrested for bogus charges. Both of them are now in federal prisons separately. And the implications of this case should concern everybody.
Charges:
- Failure to withhold employee-related taxes
- Structuring cashing transactions in order to evade bank reporting requirements
- Threatening and impeding the investigation of a government agency
If these charges were legitimate, they should go to jail. However, they are not.
Facts:
- CSE hired people as independent contractors. The individuals were responsible for paying tax.
- What they were charged with was a law that targets drug dealers who may have a lot of funding in the bank. For one thing, CSE is not a drug-dealing organization. Even better, that law says that you must have the bank report your withdrawal if it exceeds $10,000. They never violated this. Also to prevent drug dealers from evading this law, they have another law that says you cannot "structure" your withdrawals in such a way as to avoid reporting to the government. You'd only violate this law if you go to multiple banks in one day and withdraw more than $10,000 total. They never did.
- Dr. Hovind and his associates never threatened the investigators. They simply prayed for them as per Romans 13, etc. The government should have thanked Dr. Hovind for this, and certainly not charge him with a crime.
You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to think "the government must have another agenda for them to have arrested these people!"
I'm convinced that the "agenda" was to silence Dr. Hovind. He was an effective evangelist who loved the Lord and he had been trying to reach the world through the creation message and the Gospel. He was also a critic of the public school system and the government that's rapidly becoming a communist dictatorship. He also had some other accusations about some conspiracies, some of which I don't agree with. However, overall, his messages were sound, wholesome, Biblical and necessary for this generation. He spoke with authority as he should. He was and is a servant of our Lord Jesus.
Even if you are not a believer in Jesus and don't have sympathy for the man (and his wife), there is a good reason why you should pay attention to this case.
The Hovinds never violated any of the laws mentioned above. But the prosecutors' argument was that withdrawing total amounts like $9,500 in one day was as good as violating the evasion prevention law (which says more than $10,000 is illegal). Also they charged the Hovinds multiple times by saying that cumulatively they've withdrawn much more than $10,000. If this case is not overturned, it will be a precedence for the court so that any government prosecutor can charge you with the same crime if you have ever withdrawn more than $10,000 over any number of days. As poor as I am, I'm sure even I have withdrawn more than $10,000 in cash in my life (maybe not, but pretty close).
Let me reiterate that last point. If this case is not overturned, it will be a court precedence that the government can use to persecute anybody that the government wants to for withdrawing more than $10,000 over any number of days. This could apply to almost anybody!
Lord our God, we pray that Your hand will overturn this case. We ask for Your forgiveness for the evil prosecutors, and we ask You for Your grace to be imparted strongly to the Hovinds. Amen.
If you would like to help with this case, you can send monetary donations to Bondage Breakers' Ministries (they are helping the Hovinds with the case). Donations will be used for the legal preparations for going before the US Supreme Court.
Bondage Breaker's Ministries (Ms. Lindsey Springer)
5147 S. Harvard, # 116
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135
For more information, please visit the CSE website.
Also, please dont' forget to pray for Ms. Springer, Dr. Hovind, and Mrs.Hovind.
Printer Friendly
March 6th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
thank you for this accurate information it helps me understand this critical situtation as a creationist
March 6th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
The information you get on the Internet about Dr. Hovind is very misleading and confusion at best. I listened to Ms. Springer talk about this case at length. I was unsure about the Hovinds being innocent when the news first broke out. But now I am fully convinced.
March 18th, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Thanks for the info. I have just recently been watching some of Dr. Hovind’s videos at church and upon seeing him being arrested not 30 min. ago I was worried. The last thing that is needed is for people to turn from God because a man was falsely accused. I wonder what this world is comming to. He will get through this just like Paul did so many times in his life. I will pray for him and hope that he is released soon.