Who is Dr. Ken?

Inquiring, perspiring minds want to know, who is this Rev. Ken Hutcherson of the Antioch Bible Church in Redmond Washington, who can melt Microsoft's marshmallows?

He's an affable looking fellow, as you can see on his bio page. Interestingly enough, he wasn't very big for a pro footballer at six feet and 220 pounds. He married a white lady and has cultivated a mulit-racial congregation in the past 21 years of preaching.

By the bye, he preaches less than three miles from a large software maker in Redmond.

Hutcherson Facet #1

He is a literal evangelical. He honestly believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible.

I sincerely doubt that even exegesis by brilliant Biblical scholars offering anything but a straight ahead acceptance of the very faulty King James version would change his mind at all.

An example of his thinking came from a Memphis religious rally. He was widely quoted including this account, as he said, ""God took time out from all of that creation -- stopped, made man, said 'It is not good for man to be alone,' made woman -- and he created man and woman for the privilege of marriage. Do not touch God's creation."

Hutcherson Facet #2

He is a homophobic reactionary, one who wants to convert homosexuals or shun them.

In a Washington Post interview for example, he discussed his attitude.

God, Hutcherson said, condemns homosexuality. "I think it's a choice," he said. When his church members identify a gay person who is unable to change, "you kick them out," he said.

A study on his attitude about how black ministers should ban together to fight same-sex marriage is available on the very conservative Familylife.com site.

Note that this brings up a newsletter in PDF. You need a compatible reader (and tolerance) to view it.

"If the church doesn't come together and fight against the issue of gay marriages, we might as well quite trying to tell the world what's right and wrong," he said. In the same piece, he adds, "Some people have been surprised that I am not afraid to fight the homosexual community, but I have a calling from God. Nothing else worries me."

Well, from the New Testament view, I think he should be pretty worried about such intolerance.