Raising the Truth

The righteous is guide to his neighbor, But the way of the wicked leads them astray. Proverbs 12:26

By late 2001, Doug was introducing the title ‘Homeschooled Christian Paleontologists’ to his clientele coast to coast. Following a heavy season of marketing, these words were becoming familiar upon the ears and eyes and thus upon the lips of home school families. Doug had somehow at the beginning of his .com/.org business gotten a huge list of home school families’ e-mail and mailing addresses. Phillips announced during numerous speaking engagements that he had left the employ of Home School Legal Defense to start his own business so he could spend more time with his family.

 In those days most Home School families subscribed to HSLDA. Doug began his business with a huge list from which to sell books, tours, events, toys, dolls, and taped speeches to the Home School Community around the Nation. In 2002 the Pete DeRosa Family became the flesh and blood of Doug’s promotions to those who received his catalog or were on his email list.

Doug Phillips used his Vision Forum Ministry and commercial arm to promote the DeRosa boys as ‘veteran archaeologists and paleontologists,’ he added that they had 10 years of experience and hundreds of digs under their belts’. He compared them to Indiana Jones, calling them prodigies. The DeRosa boys, Peter and Mark were respectively 18 and 17 years of age at that time. If what Doug said was true about the DeRosa boys having 10 years of experience and hundreds of digs under their belts by ages 17 and 18, then “hundreds” would mean at least 200 digs done in ten years time. That would work out to 20 digs per year or about one every two and a half weeks all year long. If he meant that their combined work was ten years or that is, five total for each boy, then that would be 40 digs per year or about one every week and a half.¹

Mike Triebold of Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Museum located in Woodland, Colorado has been digging for at least 19 years. While he might find 20 bone outcrops a day for a week or so, none of these would constitute a “dig.” But if he and a crew of say five men spent a minimum of say two weeks on a dig and then went to another, he could possibly do as many as 10 or so actual different dig sites in one year’s dig season. However, this is with a crew of diggers fully equipped and supported. And there are usually breaks during the digs for weather problems, resupplying or R&R etc. Plus, the average real dig on a mostly complete dinosaur can take the whole 3 month dig season. Some “digs” take several dig sessions spanning a year or so. But, no matter how many times one might return to a specific site, it is still “one dig”. Mike, being typical of a real digger, could possibly say that he, as a grown man and a crew of adult men might have done 200 digs in a 20 year career. This is not probable. This would not leave much time to have a family, let alone restore the found bones or operate his museum.

If Vision Forum is referring to how many times the DeRosas sifted river sand for fossil, sharks teeth, and etc., those would not be considered actual digs. They may have helped Tom DeRosa on two actual mammoth sites and they may have accompanied Frank Garcia once or twice on fossil searches. But these are not hundreds of digs. This along with their two digs as apprentices of Joe Taylor appears to be the sum total of the DeRosa Families field experience up to the time they met Doug Phillips at the ICR conference October 6th, 2001.

((2002 Vision Forum Catalog)) click here to see a clearer image.

This Vision Forum ad describing Doug’s first meeting the DeRosa family at a conference in Florida, states that, “thirty minutes later, a deal was cinched and plans were made for a full blown fossil expedition with fifty people, mega tools, and a quest for an elusive dinosaur called the Allosaur.”

The above ad falsely portrays the idea that the Vision Forum Tour was looking for the Allosaur, but in fact twelve feet had already been excavated in September of 2001 and was already in its eighth month of storage at Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum. Is the above ad referring to the deal Doug made with Tom DeRosa at the Oct. 6th 2001 ICR conference in Tampa when Doug accepted Tom’s Dragons Den business proposal?

Home school families as well as the public in general were led to believe that the DeRosas were the professional team that led the excavation work and that a group of boys and girls in company with their dads were responsible for the excavating of this Allosaur. “We were blessed to be under the supervision of Pete DeRosa and his entire staff from Creation Expeditions.” Phillips said to his national audience of homeschoolers. “These guys are a top notch team with hundreds of digs behind them and more than a decade of experience working on some of the most interesting fossil sites in the world. I think everyone was impressed by their professionalism, their knowledge, and their passion for excellence.” This adulation and revere poured forth from Vision Forum’s catalogs and blogs in commercial and ministry advertisements aimed at their national audience. Doug was indeed very busy traveling around the country telling churches and conferences of his discovery of real veteran Christian Paleontologists /Archaeologists. The truth was very different. Pete and his family were veterans only in sifting for sharks teeth, along with other Pleistocene fossils, making food and facilitating the physical facilities for groups on the Peace River in Florida under the direction of and for CSI’s Tom DeRosa. They were in fact very precocious novices in sifting sand for fossils. We have not to date discovered any connection that the DeRosas might have with archaeology that would warrant Doug’s claim for them in that field.²³⁴⁵ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27686
http://web.archive.org/web/20020806200942/www.visionforum.com/aboutvf/welcome/
newsletter/0205/

Nevertheless Doug’s marketing strategy was paying off and he added fedoras, hand picks and fossils as well as dinosaur toys etc to his line of catalog items. Some evidence suggests that the whole DeRosa based line of products saved Doug’s financial bacon, especially the “documentary”; the DeRosas certainly felt it did.⁶⁷

The DeRosas were basking in Doug’s large clientele, enjoying the national home school exposure being given to them. Within a very short time the DeRosas would be speaking to conferences and churches across the nation. They would soon be selling their wares, which included Master Book’s product line and of course the “Raising the Allosaur video”.

In the Pete DeRosas’, Doug had people willing to have credentials attributed to them that were not true. Pete and his family were willing to let those false credentials stand and even add to them whether on Doug’s national platform or in the more intimate setting of speaking to a church group.

During the summer of 2002 the DeRosa family lived in San Antonio, Texas attending Doug’s church and working with Joel and Graham Fisher, on the film “Raising the Allosaur”. The Fisher boys’ father was also employed by Vision Forum at this time. Doug was visiting a multitude of states, speaking at conferences, hosting seminars, and leading workshops that promoted his ministry/business. And because of their business connection, Doug had even become the DeRosas Pastor, reportedly for purposes of accountability.⁸

Joe Taylor and his Mt Blanco Fossil Dig Team were not recognized, nor would they be recognized in any promotional literature. The only possible exception would be Joe’s image, Dave Halls white tents, generators and various pieces of other equipment which were owned by Dave, Don Yeager, Dave Babbitt and various volunteer members of Joe’s Dig team which appeared in a photo on Doug’s website and in the film. CSI and AiG were not recognized for their efforts the previous fall. Both ministries had provided financial backing and physical labor to remove twelve feet of the Allosaur spine in September of 2001. Doug Phillips promotions for his so-called first documentary film did not downplay Mt Blanco, CSI, or AiG, they just didn’t mention them.

The truth was that the DeRosas had not excavated one Dinosaur bone except under the supervision of Joe Taylor of Mt Blanco Fossil Museum and only on his sites, of which the Forbes ranch was one. That did not stop Doug from claiming the DeRosas as being Veteran or World Class. One could perhaps speculate that Doug Phillips was being deceived by the DeRosas and making bad decisions based upon that deception. Further investigation and examination is necessary.

 The DeRosas filed on July 18th of 2002 a certificate of Incorporation as “Creation Expeditions, Inc.” in the state of Delaware. A participant in the Vision Forum May 2002 tour, Mark Meadows had connections at “The National Christian Foundation” and with his help Pete was able to incorporate and get the sponsorship of the NCF to become a 501(C)3 non profit ministry. The purpose of the DeRosa’s new non-profit according to the Certificate of Incorporation was: “To operate exclusively for charitable, educational, religious and scientific purposes …..for the benefit of, to perform the functions of; or to carry out the purposes of the National Christian Charitable Foundation, Inc..” Attorney and co-founder Terry Parker of NCF also took a seat on Pete DeRosa’s Board of Directors, although it was merely a formality according to Mr. Parker.

 Pete’s board of Directors that actually did meet and participate in the business of the ministry has stated that they are not an accountability board, but rather a resource board. Doug Phillips spoke publicly about Pete becoming a non-profit at the May Vision Forum tour. The Forbes were upset that Pete was considering becoming a non profit because they already had a commercial contract with Pete.

In August 2002, while Doug and Pete were making the film “Raising the Allosaur” and getting the bones from Mt Blanco’s Lab, Mark Meadows was purchasing Lot #63 east of Dinosaur, Colorado which is a few thousand feet away from the Allosaur site. Lot sizes of approximately 35 acres like this one have sold for around $8,500. Lot #63 is part of the dinosaur rich Morrison formation that runs along that corridor of land which includes the Allosaur site.⁹¹⁰

The National Christian Foundation was founded in 1982 by Larry Burkett, Ron Blue and Terry Parker, to give money to ministries and causes rather than to the federal government in the form of taxes. NCF marked 2005 by accepting $361 million in contributions from thousands of donors and making $195 million in grants to charities. NCF has granted more than $1 billion to over 15,000 churches and ministries worldwide. National Christian Foundation is annually among the top ten U.S. foundations in grant distributions and among the top five public foundations in several categories. Pete DeRosa stated that he would have grants available to Creation Expeditions for new trucks each year and to establish a dinosaur museum with the NCF sponsorship.¹¹(NCF website)

 Joe assuming the best, was making efforts to help promote the impressive mammoth jaw that Mark DeRosa claimed he discovered the previous November. During the Carl Baugh dig, on May 27th 2002, Dick White and Joe Guthrie filmed an interview with Peter DeRosa to air on Dr. Carl Baugh’s TBN TV show. Dr. Baugh had contracted to buy the Mammoth Jaw for $10,000. In the interview Peter explained “his family found the jaw and it is THE BIGGEST ONE”, Peter also shared that they “found it last November of 2001″. Joe already had a track record of encouraging young creationists. He was planning a Mammoth Forum Seminar for December 18th, 2002. At the May dig for Dr. Baugh, Joe had encouraged the DeRosa boys to write a paper on their mammoth information. On July 28th Joe emailed a proposed prepublication of the event that he felt would generate public interest in the mammoth jaw. He sent it to Dan Burns and the DeRosas asking for their opinion. The event was scheduled for December 18th and 19th at Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum. Joe inquired, “Have you done research on Mammoths and can you present a thirty-minute paper on your work.” Joe had the Mammoth jaw at his museum and had been asked to do further restoration and repairs on the jaw for Dr Baugh.¹².

Dr. Carl Baugh interviews Peter Derosa for his TBN TV show about the Mammoth Jaw discovery made in November 2001 on the Peace River. Dr. Baugh had contracted to buy the jaw for $10,000 until the ownership was contested.

The posters that Henry Johnson of Joe Taylor’s Mt Blanco Museum designed, utilizing a book cover, to promote Mark DeRosa and the Jaw he claimed to have discovered in November 2001. The DeRosas claimed this was the largest known Mammoth Jaw.

Joe‘s focus during the summer months was to search out buyers for the Allosaur. Having no glaring reason to assume that his defacto contract with the Forbes was not being honored, Joe had obtained buyers for the Allosaur. The plans were to sell the Allosaur in restored condition. This was the plan from the beginning of the partnership and would maximize the sale price. July 23rd Joe Taylor received a phone call from his friend, dinosaur dealer and museum owner, Mike Triebold with information about a client who was interested in purchasing the Allosaur. Triebold’s clients wanted to visit the Allosaur site and examine the strata. Dr. Carl Baugh was also interested in buying the Allosaur.¹³
As the web promotions continued to flow from Vision Forum, Taylor and his team became concerned not only by the slant the articles were taking but also by the faulty science being promoted. On July 29th Taylor e-mailed Bob Renaud at Vision Forum and respectfully tried to correct Phillips. Joe aware of the criticism one can receive for misinformation, warned Vision Forum that they might be denounced by others in the creation community if they continued to promote mistakes. Joe made a list of some of the items that he knew were wrong. Several issues Taylor brought up were; “to say that Allosaurus are believed to be a “close relative of T-rex” is an evolutionary position. They are Allosaurids, T-rexes are Tayrannosaurids. Als have three fingers. Rex has two. Their heads are constructed differently, cranial capacity notwithstanding. This find sending “…shockwaves through the scientific community…” may be a bit strong. Just for the record; it was the Mt. Blanco team who came with all the equipment the first time and excavated the 12 feet of spine etc. when we developed the site for AiG and CSI, before they abandoned it. It was also the same equipment that excavated the neck, and jaws attached to the skull this spring. Our team member Jordan Hall found the first bit of the lower jaw that took us to the skull.”¹⁴

That same day Bob Renaud responded to Taylor’s email. “Doug is rushing around from state to state and asked me to respond to your letter…Doug wanted me to respectfully disagree with points 1 through 4 in your note, given the fact that it is Doug’s belief that the Allosaurus is most likely the same “kind” as the T-Rex, and thus under biblical taxonomy it is correct to say that they are relatives because they represent variations within a kind.”

 ”Concerning the remaining points, Doug wanted me to assure you that it is never his desire to rob another brother of the glory due to him, but that it has always been our understanding based on his relationship with Pete and Creation Expeditions, that this dig from beginning to end has been a Creation Expeditions dig for which you were an important part of the support team. Consequently, the information was not meant to exclude Mt. Blanco, but to emphasize Creation Expedition team which oversaw the project and was yoked with Vision Forum during the week that the Allosaurus skull was discovered.”¹⁵

Did Doug forget that at the October 6th 2001 ICR conference in Tampa, Florida, Tom DeRosa had proposed the Dragon’s Den Dinosaur tour to Doug and Doug had accepted? Did Doug forget that he “struck a deal within thirty minutes” with Tom DeRosa concerning the Dragon’s Den tour? Was it even more difficult for Doug to remember that his Fall 2001 catalog ad cited that Pete and his family were from Creation Studies Institute not Creation Expeditions? Pete DeRosa stated in his January 10, 2002 email to Joe Taylor that “Just with Doug’s tour CSI will have the funding for all the spring work and have money for restoration.” The skull was not discovered during the Vision Forum Tour. It was discovered and excavated the following week by the Mt. Blanco team.¹⁶¹¹⁷

Doug Phillips statement that it was Creation Expeditions’ dig from beginning to end became an oft repeated phrase over the following months. That this statement is disconnected from reality is documented. It has resulted in harm to Taylor and his team and to the profit of Vision Forum and Creation Expeditions. Doug Phillips had the voice to say it loudly without anyone knowing that he was treading upon the heads of real people who had actually been raising the Allosaur.

1. VF catalog page-”The Adventure of a Lifetime”[↩]
2. May 20 Vision Forum press release[↩]
3. May 20 Creation Expeditions press release & May 21 World Net Daily press release[↩]
4. June 2 Lorri Wickenhauser press release[↩]
5. June 2002 True Authority Home School Expeditions uncovers rare Allosaur[↩]
6. Dunn&Bradstreet report[↩]
7. Gavin testimony 1[↩]
8. Gavin testimony 2[↩]
9. 7/18/02-certificate of Incorporation July 18, 2002[↩]
10. Public records from Moffat County CO. assessor’s office[↩]
11. Randy Gavin testimony[↩]
12. 7/28/02email from Taylor about fossil forum[↩]
13. Joe Taylor’s journal 7/23/02[↩]
14. 7/29/02 email Taylor to Vision Forum[↩]
15. 7/29/02 email Renaud to Taylor[↩]
16. Tom DeRosa 10-6-01 Dragons Den proposal[↩]
17. Doug Phillips Fall catalog ad 2001[↩]