SPEAKS AT UPPINGHAM SCHOOL -
AT THE HEART OF THE ENGLISH EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT

Christian Witness Ministries is consistently supportive of the Answers in Genesis (AiG) ministry founded in the seventies by Ken Ham, an Australian schoolteacher, ably assisted by his friend Dr. Carl Wieland.
AiG is engaged in defending the truth of the Bible from the very first verse and, in so doing, has collected a staff of highly qualified Christian scientists. This is not only in Australia, but now also with a fully staffed headquarters in America, where Ken is involved in the building of the first Creation Museum. There are also bases and contacts in many other countries including the UK.
These scientists see clearly, for instance, how the evidence observable today actually fits the Biblical description of Noah's flood totally logically, unlike the evolutionary theories put forward by the humanists. Many of these scientists came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ from an atheistic evolutionist position, which makes their testimonies very powerful and tuned in to contemporary thinking. Such credible challenges to establishment thinking are being noticed more and more by the media of the world. Christian Witness Ministries congratulates Ken and his team for fearlessly defending God's Word in this way.

Recently we have been following the furore that arose from Ken Ham's visit to the UK in March 2002, where he spoke in a state school at Gateshead in the north of England. Cries of "Fundamentalist Talibanism" have even been heard in the British Parliament, where calls have been made to have this sort of teaching banned. Now one of our contacts from Sydney, an expatriate Englishman, Alistair Welch, tells us that Ken also spoke at his old English Public School, Uppingham, in the county of Rutland, near Leicester.

Click on the photo for an enlargement

Our overseas readers should realise that in Great Britain "Public Schools" are in fact private, a situation dating back many hundreds of years. Uppingham was founded by Edward Thring, a staunch Christian, in the 1500's - comparatively recently by English standards! Presumably because Uppingham does not receive public funds, Ken's talk was of no media interest at all. Philip and Kathleen Powell, being from the "old country", immediately grasped the significance of Ken speaking in one of these schools, which are a bastion of English conservatism. Philip asked Alistair if he could tell our readers more.

Alistair Welch is a third generation old boy of Uppingham. Old boys are known as "OU's", standing for Old Uppinghamians. He immigrated to Australia some thirty years ago and subsequently experienced a powerful conversion to Christianity. Uppingham School in the fifties and sixties was male only, comprising around six hundred pupils, and still had the old systems of fagging and beatings, reminiscent of Victorian Britain. Readers may remember it was said that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, such was the influence of these elite and cloistered precincts. At Uppingham, as at Eton and other such public schools, prayer assemblies were held twice a day, most days in the Chapel, a beautiful structure reminiscent of a small cathedral. In such an atmosphere of worship, resounding with the hymns of famous believers like Charles Wesley, one would think many Christians would surely be nurtured and then launched upon an unbelieving world as instructed by Our Lord in His great commission.

Sadly such was rarely the case it seems. Most often the school produced devout atheists or Freemasons, but rarely a Christian. Old boys lauded at the school include Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald, (a half holiday was celebrated whenever a new world speed record was established by either of them in their Bluebird cars), and also the famous film star Boris Karloff, the original portrayer of Dracula. Recently Uppingham has been elevated to the "top ten" of English private schools in company with Eton, Harrow, Winchester, and others according to one of it's recent newsletters to old boys. These top ten schools now account for something like 70% of the "movers and shakers" of today's England as calculated by numbers of board members of leading institutions and businesses in that country.

Why are we telling you all this?

Well we think that it is important for you to grasp how Britain still retains a "christian" veneer, but is slipping into a system that embraces all "religions" including evolution causing her very foundations to be eroded away to nothing. Students are unable to defend their Christian beliefs in the face of humanist evolutionist teachings and their faith becomes shipwrecked or nullified. Uppingham is a nurturing environment for new leaders of the nation, and now includes girls amongst its students. Alistair Welch received a beautifully prepared booklet requesting financial support for his old school some two years ago, as did most old boys, which set him thinking.

He admits freely to us that he had pursued a life of sinful atheism for over forty years until his conversion in Australia some ten years ago, and he felt challenged to think back as to why. He tells us that at School, sermons were preached with great gusto from the pulpit by eloquent Chaplains and Masters only too happy to explain to the boys that they were woeful sinners, and yet the Bible was seldom mentioned as being true history. This was particularly so in terms of the Genesis creation account and the Noahic flood. The science masters cheerfully taught evolution as truth thus relegating the sermons about Christ's Gospel to a level less than "scientific". It wasn't until Alistair came across the Answers in Genesis ministry in Australia in the early nineties that the lights were totally switched on, and he could see, amongst many things, the great error in his schooling.

Responding to his own convictions Alistair therefore decided to persuade the Headmaster of Uppingham, Dr. Winkley, to invite Ken Ham to attend the school and give one of his talks about Biblical truth. Dr. Winkley's first response was that "...no serious person, in my view, believes that Genesis is a literal account of creation" and was dismissive of the whole idea of having Ken Ham speak. This made our converted friend wonder how a school could employ a full time Chaplain and run a Church if the Headmaster didn't think the Bible was literally true. So he decided to enlist the help of Dr. Monty White, Chief Executive of Answers in Genesis England, with honours degrees in Chemistry and other impressive qualifications.

Dr. White wrote to Dr. Winkley, enclosing a résumé of his own qualifications and a book called In Six Days, which has a compendium of articles from 50 scientists from all over the world as to why they believe that the Biblical creation account is true. The Headmaster responded that he had always had a problem with how DNA emerged from the primordial soup, and how Richard Dawkins (the English atheistic evolutionist) had made some striking observations on the eye and echolocation in bats contained in his book The Blind Watch Maker.

Isn't it interesting that in 1 Peter 3:15 we are told to be "ready always to give an answer...." and now Dr. White's readiness to supply Dr. Winkley with logical answers opened the door for the Gospel to be powerfully preached at this English school. It also impacted Alistair that had the Gospel been preached with its full power when he attended the school his whole life might have followed a different course. He told us that when his life finally collapsed around him in Australia he flung himself on the floor imploring God, if He was listening, to help. It was the words of the fiery Welsh Chaplain the Reverend Ifor Jones from the Uppingham school pulpit that reverberated in his brain "Jesus rose from the dead", that converted him instantly to seek a renewed life in Christ, proving again that the Word of The Lord "....shall not return unto me void . . ." Isaiah 55:11.

After Ken Ham spoke from that same Uppingham pulpit in March this year Dr Winkley wrote a letter to Alistair Welch thanking him for the introduction. We congratulate this forward thinking Headmaster for grasping the importance of at least educating his pupils that there is another point of view to that of evolution.

We also thank Alistair for his courage and persistence with the Head Master of his old school and we publish this story to encourage all our subscribers to be bold in professing their faith. We do not need to be ashamed of our beliefs, which are to be preached to every living soul on earth. Whatever the size of the problem God's Word is bigger.

We suggest that you look at the following links for more information about AiG. Their website is in the top 1% of the most visited websites in the world.

http://www.AnswersInGenesis.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: CWM
Sent: Thursday, 30 May 2002 7:09
Subject: Re: Ken Ham

Dear Reader:

Ken Ham is one of the best Gospel preachers I know. He formed "ANSWERS IN GENESIS" (AiG) and recently obtained notoriety as a result of "preaching" Creationism in a Public School in Britain, with the effect of being mentioned in Parliament by Tony Blair. A friend of CWM, who is a former Public School boy from UK, it would appear had some link in getting Ken Ham on this circuit. He was from a prestigious school in UPPINGHAM and managed to get Ken Ham there as a speaker. We think this contributed to Ken Ham speaking at another Public School at Gateshead near Newcastle, UK, where the publicity occurred. I could get the person to send you all the correspondence if you think it's worth looking at for possible publication on the CWM Web Site.

Ken hails from Australia but is now based in USA where, among other things, he is in the throes of raising money to build a "Creation Science" Museum. I think the foundation has already been laid. It is a mammoth task and is one of the things which causes the "evolutionists to sit up and take notice.

I'm copying this to the Director of AiG in Brisbane in the hope that he may have more news on the Tony Blair involvement in UK.

PLP of CWM

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From: Carl < address on file >
Sent: Thursday, 30 May 2002 9:46 AM
To: Gary Bates
Subject: RE: Ken Ham

Dear Reader

Thanks for this.
My understanding is that the Uppingham visit arranged by Alistair Welch was a 'tackon' visit, and had no direct connection to the Gateshead school row. I will copy this to our staff member Gary Bates, who is keeping a handle on the whole UK/Tony Blair thing, to see if there is any more information to pass on to you as you request. He will also be able to confirm or refute my understanding above as/if required.

Kind regards, Carl Wieland.

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From: "Gary" < address on file >
To: CWM
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 12:39 PM
Subject: RE: Ken Ham

Dear Philip,

Gary Bates here. I have attached a PDF file *1 that you are free to pass on as you wish re: Ken's [ Ham] UK visit. It is actually one of our newsletters but it is very comprehensive, detailing the whole Gateshead/Tony Blair saga.

If you do not have an Acrobat PDF reader *2, it can also be accessed at http://www.answersingenesis.org/news/taliban.asp (hold control and click to take you straight there).
This newsletter has been a great witnessing tool as it has woken up many to the growing intolerance of Christianity in society.

Regards
Gary

*1 [ download HERE... -ed ]
*2 [ download ex Adobe HERE... ]

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