- published: 22 Mar 2013
- views: 14538649
Matthew Joseph West (born April 25, 1977) is a Contemporary Christian musician from Nashville, Tennessee. He has released four studio albums and is known for his No. 1 hits "More", "You Are Everything", and "The Motions". He was nominated for five Dove Awards in 2005, two of which were for his major label debut album Happy.
First starting out as an independent musician in the late 1990s, he released three independent albums before signing with Universal South Records. With the release of his Dove Award-winning debut album Happy (2003) came the success of his first radio single "More", which stayed at No. 1 on Christian AC charts for nine weeks and received two Dove Award nominations. His second record History (2005) was followed by a 2006 re-release of the originally independent album Sellout. In 2007 he faced vocal issues which threatened his career with two months of prescribed vocal rest. His third studio album Something to Say (2008) also enjoyed chart success with No. 1 hits "You Are Everything" and "The Motions".
Kent E. Hovind (born January 15, 1953) is an American young earth creationist. Hovind has spoken on creation science and has aimed to convince listeners to reject theories of evolution, geophysics, and cosmology in favor of the Genesis creation narrative from the Bible. Hovind's views are contradicted by scientific evidence and some of his ideas have also been criticized by young earth creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis.
Hovind established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in 1989, and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January 2007, Hovind has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of 58 federal counts, including 12 tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and 45 counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado.
On February 9, 1969, at the age of 16, Hovind became a born again Christian. In 1971, he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (1974, 1988, 1991) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Hovind, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments.