Date:
Monday, July 6, 2009
Correspondence history between Pastor Kevin Lea and Dr. John Morris
of ICR pertaining to Pastor Kevin’s July 6, 2009 letter documenting
Dr. Austin’s plagiarism and poor science being featured
in AiG’s museum
> ----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Lea" <kevinXXX >
To: "John Morris" <jmorXXX >
Cc: "Walt Brown" <waltXXX >; <kevinXXX >
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 6:54 PM
Subject: Letter from Pastor Kevin Lea - Plagiarism in AiG Museum
July 6, 2009
Dear Dr. Morris,
I have attached a preliminary letter that I believe requires your very careful attention and response.
It documents Dr. Austin's plagiarism of Dr. Brown's work on the Grand Canyon and, more importantly,
how his actions have had such a detrimental effect on the creation science movement.
You may recall the several emails we exchanged and our forty-minute phone conversation about a year
ago. In that conversation, you told me that you deleted the packet that I sent to you without reading it, but
you asked me to resend it. I did, but I never received from you any response pertaining to my letter.
John, I encourage you to read the attached letter to determine if you still want to stand behind Dr. Austin.
It proves, using Austin's own words, the serious errors and deceptions that he authored while at ICR. The
attached letter also includes my latter correspondence with you about Austin's article in Act and Facts and
your reply (including Lawrence Ford's answer to my certified letter addressed to you). I want to give you
every opportunity to correct me if I have misunderstood the matter in any way.
If you or Austin can provide documentation showing where I have erred, I will make the necessary
corrections to the attached letter before posting. If you cannot (and others who are also being solicited for
rebuttal and comment cannot), then the attached letter with its Attachments will be posted at our website
as written. It will also be distributed to about 200 creationist organizations with a website presence.
You may note that some of the links are not yet active, but they will be by the time of actual posting in
early August.
I encourage you to more carefully research the facts. When you do, I think you will change your stated
position. If you communicate to me in a certified letter that your position has been changed based on
these facts, then I will modify the Internet posting accordingly.
If you don't carefully research the facts and change your position, then those who do carefully read the
documentation will wonder why ICR management refuses to acknowledge Austin's plagiarism, and the
severe consequences it has had on the creation movement, while he was employed with you. They will
also wonder why you allowed Austin to use your July 2008 Acts and Facts in an attempt to cover his
obvious bad science and plagiarism, after I provided you with the documents necessary to expose Austin's
unethical behavior.
You may not realize that on 5-6-2008 Dr. Brown sent Dr. Austin a copy of Endnote 34 in Brown's Grand
Canyon chapter. (See the attached.) This was a month before it was placed in his 8th Edition. Brown
offered to correct any errors Austin could identify- or remove the entire endnote if Austin publicly
corrected the record. Austin ignored his offer. Unfortunately, 30,000 copies of that are now in print, not to
mention on the Internet. Many people are reading it. ICR is mentioned many times.
I will be leaving for Africa tomorrow and will not return until July 25. Feel free to respond now if you
wish, some of my assistants are very familiar with the material and may be able to assist you and the
others that are receiving this preliminary letter. However, some matters may have to wait till I return.
Sincerely,
Pastor Kevin Lea
The above email was sent to a known good address for Dr. Morris. It did not
bounce. The email was backed up by a certified letter sent to Dr. Morris’s mailing
address. Dr. Morris has not responded to the email or the letter.