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A DEVASTATED family ripped apart by the death of their beloved son in the Idaho murder tragedy was forced to quickly move on from unimaginable heartbreak in less than five months for the sake of their surviving children.
Ethan Chapin, 20, was a triplet and one of Bryan Kohberger’s four victims in the sickening University of Idaho knife attack in November 2022.
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Brave mom, Stacy, opened up her heart to The U.S. Sun at Crimecon last month about the nightmare of dealing with her beloved, fun-loving son being murdered with the world at his feet.
She stressed that even though sick Kohberger will rot behind bars for the rest of his life after eventually pleading guilty to the savage killings of Ethan, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle, her family aren’t interested in the reasons why.
But Stacy, who has thrown herself into vitally important advocacy work in the wake of her son’s shocking death, has revealed there was no time for her and husband Jim to wallow in misery.
With Ethan’s brother and sister, Maizie and Hunter, who were on campus on that fateful evening, recently completing their own studies, the couple made the decision to somehow come to terms with the tragedy and move on for the sake of the remaining triplets’ future.
She says a heart-heart with Jim over a cup of morning coffee helped them realize that the best way forward was to “just get up and live life.”
They will never forget their beloved son, who they joked was minoring in Bud Light Lime and Taco Bell.
But with his brother and sister needing their parents more than ever to deal with the aftermath of Ethan’s senseless killing, Stacy and Jim vowed to honor his memory by ensuring Maizie and Hunter have their unconditional attention and support.
“We just decided that you can lose yourself in grief, “ Stacy told The U.S. Sun.
“We had to do that for Ethan’s siblings. They didn’t deserve parents who had potentially gone in the tank or lost themselves.
“We made a decision on a day in March of 2023 that we couldn’t change the outcome, and we had to still live our life and be great parents to Maizie and Hunter, giving them the best life they deserved.”
The Chapin’s were the only family to abstain from attending Kohberger’s sentencing hearing earlier this summer.
They didn’t want to subject themselves to any more pain.
Once the deranged Washington State graduate admitted to his heinous crimes, that at least removed the prospect of Ethan’s brother and sister having to take the stand and retrace the moments leading up to the sickening murders in a potential retrial.
Kohberger has never revealed why he cut short the lives of the four students.
Stacy admits she won’t waste any time wondering why.
The agony remains and will never leave her. Seeing her children recover from the nightmare and thrive, however, fills her and husband with hope.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say there are still tough moments,” Stacy continued.
“But even now, every day feels like we’re a little bit closer to our new normal, whatever that looks like. Our kids are doing great.
“They’ve also persevered in a way that amazes me as a mom. They were there that day. They all went to college together; they spent every second together.
“The fact that they went back to school and graduated and are now looking at their careers. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Kohberger avoided the death penalty upon pleading guilty on July 23 and was hit with four consecutive life sentences.
On July 23, 2025, Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Bryan Kohberger to the following:
The sentencings will run consecutively to one another.
While the Chapins stayed away from court, Ethan was on their mind. Stacy posted an emotional message on social media declaring her late son would “forever” be in their hearts.
His name will also shine on through Ethan’s Smile Foundation, which was established by the family to honor his memory.
It aims to showcase “his love of life, people and new adventures” by providing scholarships for fellow students to “follow their dreams.”
“Ethan’s love for life was boundless. With a booming laugh and infectious smile, he spread joy to all who were fortunate enough to know him. Ethan was our storyteller, hard worker, and friend-maker,” Stacy and Jim declared on the foundation website.
“In the wake of his absence, the foundation was born—a tribute to Ethan’s unwavering passion for life. Our mission is simple yet profound: to carry forward the legacy of Ethan by providing scholarships that enable others to follow their dreams.
“In every corner we venture, in every heart we touch, we strive to keep the spirit of Ethan alive, reminding ourselves and others of the adventures and kindness that life has to offer.”
Stacy has also begun to foster a strong relationship with cutting-edge forensics company Othram, who helped accelerate the process of proving Kohberger’s guilt.
The Texas based specialists were able to extract DNA from the tan leather knife sheaf which was found in the room of Goncalves following the killings.
Investigators believe she was the first victim, with Kohberger leaving it behind after her friends came back to check on her wellbeing.
“Myself and Jim are a team,” Stacy concluded. “To have closure means the world to us.”
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Don’t expect country music stars Zach Bryan and Gavin Adcock to share a bill anytime soon. The two, who have been sparring verbally for weeks, got into a face-to-face altercation at a music festival in Oklahoma on Saturday.
The confrontation happened at the Born & Raised Festival in Pryor, Okla., just before Adcock stepped on stage to perform.
A video, shared by Adcock on Instagram, shows Adcock and Bryan staring each other down and yelling through a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
“Hey, you want to fight like a man?” Bryan says in the video clip, calling for someone to open the gate separating the two men. Other clips show Bryan climbing over the barbed-wire top of the fence and Adcock standing back as security personnel come between them.
Text superimposed on Adcock’s Instagram video alleged that Bryan made “death threats” during the spat, along with the comment: “Eat a snickers bro.” He added another insult while signing someone’s cowboy hat later that day.
Adcock, who has 725,000 Instagram followers, released an album called “Own Worst Enemy” in August. He sparked controversy in June when he criticized Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album on stage, brandishing a bottle while saying “that s— ain’t country music, and it ain’t never been country music and it ain’t never gonna be country music.” (Earlier this year, Beyoncé won Grammys for album of the year and country album for “Cowboy Carter.”)
Bryan, 29, who was in the Navy before reaching fame as country/American singer and songwriter, has 4.9 million Instagram followers. Bryan released his last album, “Zach Bryan,” in 2023. A New York Times profile labeled him “music’s most reluctant new star.”
Adcock and Bryan’s beef dates to July, when Adcock slammed Bryan for being thin-skinned and not doing a meet-and-greet appearance with fans after a show. Later, Adcock added more harsh words in an interview on Rolling Stone’s “Nashville Now.”
“I think Zach Bryan puts on a big mask in his day-to-day life and sometimes he can’t help but rip it off and show his true colors,” Adcock said. “I don’t know if Zach Bryan’s really that great of a person.”
Representatives for Adcock and Bryan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
E.C. Robinson turned 80 earlier this month. He was head coach at Locke High when Darian Hagen and Sirr Parker were standout City Section football players in the 1980s and 1990s. Then he went to coach at University.
Now one of his sons, Bryan, is head coach at University, with another son, Jason, the offensive coordinator, and he’s serving as a proud “consultant.”
Together, they’re trying to resurrect a University program that was down to less than 25 players three years ago. The roster has increased to more than 70, with the return of a junior varsity team, and the Robinsons are committed to “restoring pride” in the program.
University coach Bryan Robinson (left) and brother Jason Robinson, an assistant, with their father, 80-year-old EC Robinson, a former Locke and University coach.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
It’s a true Los Angeles story, with Bryan calling it “about homecoming, mentorship and generational impact.”
Like his father, Bryan became a teacher. He has been making frequent visits to Emerson Middle School, the feeder school for University, trying to convince students to come out for football.
When he was playing some 20 years ago, most of his classmates started in youth football. These days he must teach from scratch, showing kids how to put on shoulder pads, block and tackle.
“It’s not a lot of guys who’ve played,” he said. “It’s fun but also challenging. I get to instill all our football knowledge while they are raw.”
Bruce Davis, a former UCLA All-American linebacker who went on to win the Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers, is also on the coaching staff.
“My brother, coach Davis and I are big on development,” Bryan said. “We’re not just herding them out there. We’re really spending time fine-tuning these athletes, really developing them so they can compete on a higher level.
University quarterback Jeremy Pacheco (left) and defensive back Tareq Abdul.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
The team won its opening game against Lincoln 21-19, with junior Tareq Abdul making two interceptions and sophomore linebacker D’Elliott Jones contributing 12 tackles. Quarterback Jeremy Pacheco returned from a knee injury in 2024 to throw a touchdown pass.
This past week, University improved to 2-0 with a 19-8 win over Fremont. Abdul had another interception, returning it for a touchdown.
EC Robinson said the game has changed since the 1980s, when the focus was on running the football. Now passing is prominent, even in youth football.
He largely stays in the background, observing and offering advice when needed.
“I did a lot when they first got the job a couple years ago,” he said. “I wanted to make sure they were doing the right things with the kids. Paperwork is a big issue, making sure the kids are cleared. During the game, I monitor when you call a timeout. I’m trying to make sure they learn practice structure.”
It’s pretty fun when your father is serving as a mentor and is close by to answer questions about a game he has taught for decades.
As Bryan said, “We’re not just building a team — we’re restoring pride in a program with deep roots in Los Angeles football history.”
The Cameroon international, who recorded career-best figures in the EPL last season, joins the club on a long-term deal.
Manchester United has signed forward Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford until 2030, with the option to extend for a further year, United said.
United paid 65 million pounds ($88m) to Brentford, with another 6 million pounds ($8m) potentially due in add-ons for the 25-year-old Cameroon international, according to a club source.
Mbeumo hit new heights in the 2024-25 league season, finishing with a career-high 20 goals to help Brentford to a solid 10th-place finish in the Premier League. Only Mohamed Salah (29), Alexander Isak (23) and Erling Haaland (22) scored more league goals.
“As soon as I knew there was a chance to join Manchester United, I had to take the opportunity to sign for the club of my dreams, the team whose shirt I wore growing up,” Mbeumo said on Monday.
“My mentality is to always be better than I was yesterday. I know that I have the spirit of character to reach another level here, learning from [manager] Ruben Amorim and playing alongside world-class players.”
The versatile Mbeumo thrived on the right wing and also impressed as a centre-forward, proving indispensable for Brentford by starting every league game last season.
He joined the London club from Ligue 2 side Troyes in 2019 and made 242 appearances, scoring 70 goals and providing 51 assists.
“Bryan’s goals and assists record in the Premier League is exceptional. His remarkable consistency has put him amongst the most productive players in England for the last three seasons,” said United’s director of football, Jason Wilcox.
“We are delighted to have secured another one of our primary targets ahead of the preseason tour. The experience in the US will be the perfect opportunity for Bryan to work with Ruben and his new teammates as we prepare for an exciting season ahead.”
Mbeumo becomes United’s fourth signing of the summer after the arrivals of Matheus Cunha, Diego Leon and youngster Enzo Kana-Biyik.
United are playing three preseason matches in the United States: July 26 vs West Ham United in New Jersey, July 30 vs Bournemouth in Chicago and August 3 vs Everton in Atlanta.
The wait is over. pic.twitter.com/hPQhyobOrB
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 21, 2025
Whatever the decision on United’s striker dilemma, there can be little argument the addition of Mbeumo – alongside Cunha – strengthens their firepower.
Only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Newcastle’s Alexander Isak and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland scored more than his 20 Premier League goals last season.
It was, though, the first time he has reached double figures for a top-flight club, and his expected goals (xG) statistic of 12.3 – which he outperformed by 7.7 goals – is something that would be difficult to repeat.
In the past five Premier League seasons, just 14 players have overperformed their xG by five goals or more.
Sutton said: “He has done well at Brentford but playing for Manchester United is very different. With respect to Brentford, there is no great expectation there. At United, he will be expected to perform straight away.
“He has experience, he is a good finisher and his versatility is a big positive – he can play as a central striker as well as on the wing, cutting inside off the right on to his left foot.
“But he has had one very good season where his numbers were very good, so the question is whether he can repeat that.”
The Cameroon international is not being bought just for his goals, though.
Mbeumo prefers to play on the right behind a striker – with Cunha expected to feature on the left – but also has the versatility to play centrally, offering another solution to the striker problem.
He topped the list for touches per 90 minutes for players who scored more than 15 goals last season – showing his involvement in play – and ranks as one of the best ball carriers in the league, consistently with an effective end product.
He was 17th on the list of top assisters – with seven – but in expected assists he led the way in the Premier League with 9.3 xA.
Alongside Cunha’s creativity, that can only be good news for whoever is chosen to play the central striker role.
“Consistency in those forward positions is what United are striving for, because they have not had it with, say, Alejandro Garnacho or Antony,” said Sutton.
“They are maybe thinking an older, more experienced player, who is more reliable, is what they need. That’s Mbeumo – he fits into Ruben Amorim’s system and he fits the bill as proven Premier League quality too.
“Amorim wants a harmonious camp as well as a consistent performer, not someone who is a 3/10 one week and a 9/10 the next.
“That’s what Manchester United have really been lacking and the numbers Mbeumo provided could be really important. That is the part of the jigsaw they have got to really solve if they want to be challenging at the top end of the table.”
He has done well at Brentford, but playing for Manchester United is very different. With respect to Brentford, there is no great expectation there. At United, he will be expected to perform straightaway.
He has experience, he is a good finisher, and his versatility is a big positive – he can play as a central striker as well as on the wing, cutting inside off the right on to his left foot.
But he has had one very good season where his numbers were very good, so the question is whether he can repeat that.
Consistency in those forward positions is what United are striving for, because they have not had it with, say, Alejandro Garnacho or Antony.
They are maybe thinking an older, more experienced player, who is more reliable, is what they need. That’s Mbeumo – he fits into Ruben Amorim’s system, and he fits the bill as proven Premier League quality too.
United’s attack is clearly an area they need to improve. People talk about how the way they play at the back, with the back three Amorim wants, and it is a difficult system to play at times when you are trying to press high because all your players have to work hard and be really switched on.
That’s why he has gone for Mbeumo, because I think he is someone he feels he can trust in all areas, in possession and out of it, with the work-rate and energy he needs – and goals too.
Former NFL linebacker and special teams player Bryan Braman, who rose from undrafted free agent to Super Bowl champion, died Thursday morning after a battle with cancer. He was 38.
“You look at his journey and beating the odds to make it to the NFL after going undrafted,” Braman’s agent Sean Stellato told KPRC-TV in Houston. “Not only making it, but producing and becoming a world champion, he had a real hard journey. … To die at age 38, the game of football and his family are hurting today. He was a staple for what football and underdogs are about.”
Stellato told the station that he had learned from one of Braman’s closest friends that the former Long Beach City College player “took his last breath while surrounded by friends and family.”
Braman graduated from Shadle Park High School in Spokane, Wash., and redshirted for a year at Idaho before playing at LBCC in 2007 and 2008. He transferred to West Texas A&M in 2009.
After going undrafted in 2011, Braman signed with the Houston Texans and remained for three seasons, playing in 46 games, mostly on special teams. In the final game of his rookie season, Braman earned the admiration of Texans fans when he tracked down and tackled Tennessee’s Marc Mariani after losing his helmet earlier in the play. The following season, Braman was a Pro Bowl alternate on special teams.
“We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Bryan Braman,” the Texans wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Braman family during this difficult time.
Braman went on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles from 2014-2016, then signed with them again late in the 2017 season for a playoff run that culminated in a 41-33 victory against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
“During his four seasons in Philadelphia, Bryan was a loyal teammate, a supporter of the community, and a valuable member of our Super Bowl LII-winning team,” the Eagles said in a statement. “More importantly, he was a devoted father who passionately loved his family and everyone around him.”
According to a GoFundMe page set up for Braman in February, he was battling “a very rare form of cancer.” Several of Braman’s former teammates contributed to the fund, including retired Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, who donated $10,000.
On Thursday, Watt also paid tribute to his late teammate on X.
“Rest in Peace brother,” Watt wrote in a post that also featured a photo of Braman in his Texans uniform. “Gone far too soon.”
Although they have been strongly linked with Chelsea forward Nicolas Jackson and Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in recent days, it has always been the priority at Old Trafford to get the Mbeumo deal done in time for Amorim to work with him in the Chicago, where United will largely be based for their 13-day trip.
The 25-year-old scored 20 Premier League goals last season and a number of clubs were interested in him, including Tottenham, now managed by former Brentford boss Thomas Frank.
However, Mbeumo’s preference was to join United.
Brentford’s other main goal threat, striker Yoane Wissa, is the subject of interest from Newcastle.
Last season Amorim repeatedly spoke about United’s failure to convert their chances.
Their 44 Premier League goals was their worst return in a domestic campaign since they were relegated in 1973-74.
United have signed forward Matheus Cunha and defender Diego Leon in the summer transfer window.
The doctoral student has admitted to breaking into the rental home and killing four University of Idaho students.
A former criminology doctoral student has pleaded guilty to murdering four roommates in an Idaho college town in 2022.
Bryan Kohberger, 30, admitted to the killings under a plea agreement that takes the death penalty off the table. The case drew national attention in the United States for its brutality and the shock it caused in a community where murders are relatively rare.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Kohberger answered a series of questions from Judge Steven Hippler.
“Did you, on November 13, 2022, enter the residence at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, with the intent to commit the felony crime of murder?” the judge asked.
“Yes,” Kohberger replied.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” the judge then inquired.
“Yes,” Kohberger said.
Kohberger had previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and burglary charges. On Wednesday, however, he confirmed to the court that he had broken into a rental home where four University of Idaho students were staying.
Passing through a sliding door in the kitchen, Kohberger then killed the four friends, who appear to have no prior connection to him. Prosecutors did not disclose a motive for the slayings.
The plea agreement, as outlined by Hippler, called for Kohberger to be sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison and to waive his rights to appeal or seek reconsideration of the sentence.
Formal sentencing is tentatively set for July 23.
The killings initially baffled law enforcement and unnerved the rural college town of Moscow, which hadn’t seen a murder in five years.
The victims were identified as Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen.
Mogen and Goncalves hailed from Idaho, while Kernodle was from the southern state of Arizona. Her boyfriend, Chapin, was from Washington state. All four of the victims were either 20 or 21 at the time of their deaths.
Autopsies showed each was stabbed multiple times, including some defensive injuries.
The murders occurred during the early morning hours in an off-campus house the three women shared.
Kernodle and Chapin had attended a party the night before, while best friends Mogen and Goncalves had visited a local bar and food truck. All four are believed to have returned to the house before 2am local time (9:00 GMT). Their bodies were found hours later that morning.
Two other women in the house at the time survived unharmed.
According to prosecutors, a surviving roommate told investigators she heard someone crying in one of the victims’ bedrooms on the night of the murders and opened her door to see a man, clad in black, walk past her and out of the house.
Authorities said they linked Kohberger to the murders using DNA evidence, cellphone data and video footage. He was arrested weeks after the killings in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting family, and was returned to Idaho to face charges.
In a statement through a lawyer, Goncalves’s family criticised the plea agreement as mishandled: a “secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families”.
On Wednesday, prior to the hearing, Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee, was asked whether he believed the four life sentences provided justice in the case.
He replied, “No, of course not. It’s daycare. Prison is daycare.”
But a statement read by a lawyer representing Mogen’s family members said they “support the plea agreement 100 percent”, adding that the outcome brought them closure.
Manchester United have had an improved bid worth up to £62.5m for Bryan Mbeumo rejected by Brentford.
United have bid £55m plus £7.5m in add-ons for the 25-year-old.
They had a bid of £45m plus up to £10m in add-ons for the Cameroon forward turned down earlier this month.
United are looking to add goals to their side having already signed forward Matheus Cunha from Wolves for £62.5m.
Sources have suggested Brentford would want at least the same fee as Wolves have received for Cunha up front before they agree to the sale of a player who still has a year left on his contract.
Mbeumo scored a career-best 20 goals for Brentford last season and contributed nine assists.
United may face competition from elsewhere, with new Tottenham manager Thomas Frank keen to be reunited with Mbeumo, while there has also been interest from other Champions League clubs.
An international colleague of United goalkeeper Andre Onana, Mbeumo is likely to miss four weeks of the 2025-26 campaign because of Cameroon’s participation in the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Cameroon play Gabon in their opening group game on 24 December.
Mbeumo joined Brentford from French club Troyes in 2019, when the Bees were still in the Championship.
He has scored 70 goals in 242 appearances in all competitions, helping the west London club earn promotion to the top flight in 2021.
Manchester United have submitted an improved bid of more than £60m for Brentford striker Bryan Mbeumo.
This month United had a bid rejected for the 25-year-old of £45m plus up to £10m in add-ons.
Talks over the Cameroon forward, who would become the club’s second signing of the summer, are due to continue this week.
Following the £62.5m capture of Matheus Cunha from Wolves, United are keen to further strengthen Ruben Amorim’s squad before they return for pre-season training on 7 July.
New Tottenham manager Thomas Frank was keen to be reunited with Mbeumo, while there has also been interest in the forward from other Champions League clubs.
Sources have suggested Brentford would want at least the same fee as Wolves have received for Cunha before they agree to the sale of a player who still has a year left on his contract.
As with Cunha, Mbeumo’s Premier League experience is viewed as a major positive as Amorim needs players who can hit the ground running as United look to make a more positive start to the season than their three sluggish efforts under Erik ten Hag.
Mbeumo scored a career-best 20 goals for Brentford last season, while he also contributed nine assists to the Bees’ cause.
An international colleague of United goalkeeper Andre Onana, Mbeumo is likely to miss four weeks of the 2025-26 campaign because of Cameroon’s participation in the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Cameroon play Gabon in their opening group game on 24 December.
The renewed move for Mbeumo comes as the future of Alejandro Garnacho is once again the subject of intense debate after he posted an image of himself wearing an Aston Villa shirt with the name ‘Rashford’ on his social media channels.
Fellow United outcast Marcus Rashford responded to the post with a ‘my brother’ message to the Argentina forward, who has been valued at £60m after being told by Amorim to find another club this summer.
Amorim was adamant in Hong Kong that United could work around Fernandes staying at Old Trafford from a financial point of view.
However, the situation is not straightforward.
With no European football of any sort next season, finances will be tight. Amorim has already said he can operate with a smaller squad given there are fewer matches, so sales are inevitable.
Broadly speaking, there are three categories.
Players Amorim just does not want – so the likes of Sancho, Antony, Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.
Players who have struggled and it would make sense to sell – Hojlund and Zirkzee fit into this group, as does Casemiro.
Then, the bulk are players who have something to offer and United would be open to keeping but would let go if the right bid came in.
Yet the major issue around all of this is how long would it take to do a deal and how much would it cost?
Take Sancho for example.
It has been established Chelsea would have signed him on reduced terms, which he was not prepared to accept.
If a Premier League club that has just qualified for the Champions League are baulking at Sancho’s wages, it is fair to assume most other clubs will reach the same conclusion.
If Sancho refuses to drop his demands and Amorim wants him out, United will have to negotiate some kind of compromise.
This puts them back in the uncomfortable position of paying a player to play for a rival. It is the kind of situation minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe finds so irritating and wants to end.
Yet, when you take a realistic approach to Sancho, Antony and Rashford in particular, it is hard to see how that situation is avoided. The same could also be said of many United players who remained at the club last season.
The matches may have finished but for United technical director Jason Wilcox and chief negotiator Matt Hargreaves, the hard work is just beginning.
It is how well they do, getting players in and out, that will determine how much progress Amorim can be expected to make.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. — As a colossal manifestation of the biblical Noah’s Ark rises incongruously from the countryside of northern Kentucky, Ken Ham gives the presentation he’s often repeated.
The ark stretches 1½ football fields long — “the biggest free-standing timber-frame structure in the world,” Ham says. It holds three massive decks with wooden cages, food storage urns, life-size animal models and other exhibits.
It’s all designed to try to persuade visitors that the biblical story was literally true — that an ancient Noah really could have built such a sophisticated ship. That Noah and a handful of family members really could have sustained thousands of animals for months, floating above a global flood that drowned everyone else in the wicked world.
“That’s what we wanted to do through many of the exhibits, to show the feasibility of the ark,” says Ham, the organizer behind the Ark Encounter theme park and related attractions.
And with that, he furthers his goal to assert that the entire Book of Genesis should be interpreted as written — that humans were created by God’s fiat on the sixth day of creation on an Earth that is only 6,000 years old.
All this defies the overwhelming consensus of modern scientists — that the Earth developed over billions of years in “deep time” and that humans and other living things evolved over millions of years from earlier species.
But Ham wants to succeed where he believes William Jennings Bryan failed.
Bryan — a populist secretary of State, congressman, three-time presidential hopeful and fundamentalist champion — helped the prosecution in the famous Scopes monkey trial, which took place 100 years ago this July in Dayton, Tenn.
Bryan’s side won in court — gaining the conviction of public schoolteacher John Scopes for violating state law against teaching human evolution. But Bryan was widely seen as suffering a humiliating defeat in public opinion, with his sputtering attempts to explain the Bible’s fanciful miracles and enigmas.
For Ham, Bryan’s problem was not that he defended the Bible. It’s that he didn’t defend it well enough, interpreting parts of it metaphorically rather than literally.
“It showed people around the world that Christians don’t really believe the Bible — they can’t answer questions to defend the Christian faith,” Ham says.
“We want you to know that we’ve got answers,” Ham adds, speaking in the accent of his native Australia.
Ham is founder and chief executive of Answers in Genesis, which opened the Ark Encounter in 2016. The Christian theme park includes a zoo, zip lines and other attractions surrounding the ark.
Nearly a decade earlier, Answers in Genesis opened a Creation Museum in nearby Petersburg, Ky., where exhibits similarly try to make the case for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden.
The group also produces books, podcasts, videos and homeschooling curricula.
“The main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true,” Ham says. “That’s why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.”
If Ham is the most prominent torchbearer for creationism today, he’s hardly alone.
Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked. A 2024 Gallup poll found that 37% of U.S. adults agreed that “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.”
That percentage is down a little, but not dramatically, from its mid-40s level between the 1980s and 2012. Rates are higher among religious and politically conservative respondents.
“Scopes lost, but the public sense was that the fundamentalists lost” and were dwindling away, says William Vance Trollinger Jr., a professor of history and religious studies at the University of Dayton in Ohio.
But the reach of Answers in Genesis demonstrates that “a significant subset of Americans hold to young-Earth creationism,” says Trollinger, co-author with his wife, English professor Susan Trollinger, of the 2016 book “Righting America at the Creation Museum.”
Leading science organizations say it’s crucial to teach evolution and old-Earth geology. Evolution is “one of the most securely established of scientific facts,” says the National Academy of Sciences. The Geological Society of America states: “Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula.”
The issue has been repeatedly legislated and litigated since the Scopes trial. Tennessee repealed its anti-evolution law in 1967. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion, and in 1987 it overturned a Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution. A federal court in 2005 similarly forbade a Pennsylvania school district to present “intelligent design,” a different approach to creationism that argues life is too complex to have evolved by chance.
Some lawmakers have recently revived the issue. The North Dakota Legislature this year debated a bill that would have allowed public school teaching on intelligent design. A new West Virginia law vaguely allows teachers to answer student questions about “scientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.”
The Scopes trial set a template for today’s culture-war battles, with efforts to expand vouchers for attendees of private schools, including Christian ones teaching creationism; and to introduce Bible-infused lessons and Ten Commandments displays in public schools.
Such efforts alarm science educators such as Bill Nye, the television “Science Guy,” whose 2014 debate with Ham was billed as “Scopes II” and has generated millions of video views online.
“What you get out of religion, as I understand it, is this wonderful sense of community,” Nye says. “Community is very much part of the human experience. But the Earth is not 4,000 years old. To teach that idea to children with any backing — be it religious or these remarkable ideas that humans are not related to, for example, chimpanzees or bonobos — is breathtaking. It’s silly. And so we fight this fight.”
Nye notes that the evidence is overwhelming, ranging from fossil layers to the distribution of species. “There are trees older than Mr. Ham thinks the world is,” he adds.
One weekday in March, visitors milled about the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum, which draw an estimated 1.5 million visits per year (including duplicate visits).
“We are church-going, Bible-believing Christians,” says Louise van Niekerk of Ontario, Canada, who traveled with her family to the Creation Museum. She’s concerned that her four children are faced with a public school curriculum permeated with evolution.
The Creation Museum, Van Niekerk says, “is encouraging a robust alternate worldview from what they’re being taught.”
Many religious groups accommodate evolution, though.
Gallup’s survey found that among Americans who believe in evolution, more say it happened with God’s guidance (34%) than without it (24%). In the Roman Catholic Church, popes have shown openness to evolution while insisting that the human soul is a divine creation. Many liberal Protestants and even some evangelicals have accepted at least parts of evolutionary theory.
But among many evangelicals, creationist belief is strong.
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest evangelical body, has promoted creationist beliefs in its publications. The Assemblies of God asserts that Adam and Eve were historical people. Some evangelical schools, such as Bryan’s namesake college in Tennessee, affirm creationist beliefs in their doctrinal statements.
Just as Ham says the creation story is important to defend a larger truth about the Christian Gospel, critics say more is at stake than just the human origin story.
The Trollingers wrote that the Answers in Genesis enterprise is an “arsenal in the culture war.” They say it aligns with Christian nationalism, promoting conservative views in theology, family and gender roles, and casting doubt on other areas of scientific consensus, such as human-made climate change.
Nye, too, says the message fits into a more general and ominous anti-science movement. “Nobody is talking about climate change right now,” he laments.
Exhibits promote a “vengeful and violent” God, says Susan Trollinger, noting the cross on the ark’s large door, which analogizes that just as the wicked perished in the flood, those without Christ face eternal hellfire.
And there are more parallels to 1925.
Bryan had declaimed, “How can teachers tell students that they came from monkeys and not expect them to act like monkeys?” The Creation Museum, which depicts violence, drugs and other social ills as resulting from belief in evolution, is “Bryan’s social message on steroids,” wrote Edward Larson in a 2020 afterword to “Summer for the Gods,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Scopes trial.
The protests that initially greeted the museum and ark projects, from secularist groups who considered them embarrassments to Kentucky, have ebbed.
When the state initially denied a tourism tax rebate for the Ark Encounter because of its religious nature, a federal court overturned that ruling. Representing Ham’s group was a Louisiana lawyer named Mike Johnson — now speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
And Ham’s massive ministry charges forward. Expansion is next, with Answers in Genesis attractions planned for Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and Branson, Mo. — tourist hubs offering more opportunities to promote creationism to the masses.
Todd Bigelow, visiting the Ark Encounter from Mesa, Ariz., says he believes that the exhibit vividly evoked the safety that Noah and his family must have felt. It helped him appreciate “the opportunities God gives us to live the life we have, and hopefully make good choices and repent when we need to,” he says.
“I think,” Bigelow adds, “God and science can go hand in hand.”
Smith writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Dylan Lovan contributed to this report.