Contributors
Randy and Mary Gavin
Phillip Hall
We are home-school parents of five children and nine grandchildren. We grow hay and raise livestock on a farm on the shores of Seneca Lake in upstate New York. The Lord chose to save us out of the lies of Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, almost twenty years ago.
We became involved in the Allosaur situation on a Vision Forum Faith and Freedom Tour, November 2003. The DeRosa family from Raising the Allosaur fame, traveled to New York on their way home from the tour and spoke at an event sponsored by area churches at our suggestion. Our family and our pastor’s family were introduced to portions of the Allosaur deception at this time by Pete DeRosa. Our family was invited to Florida to be part of the Creation Expeditions staff for a Vision Forum Manatee Swim and Peace River Fossil Float in February 2004.
Our family had purchased the VF film Raising the Allosaur and watched it once before we met the DeRosas on that Faith and Freedom Tour. In the short time we knew the DeRosas, our family was drawn into the drama that was already in progress. The DeRosas volunteered information concerning their interaction with the first parties involved with the Allosaur story. The names meant nothing to us at the time, as we had never heard of Angela Hudson, Joe Taylor or the Forbes family. However, DeRosas did tell us things about people we did know of. We also knew a mediation took place on April 12, 2004 because the DeRosa family not only told us about it, but called us on the phone prior, during, and after that mediation. Several weeks later, through a series of events, the deceptive nature of the DeRosa family became exposed. We prayed for direction. Certainly the easiest route would have been to walk away and forget about it, but in good conscience we could not. We felt our testimony might make a difference in the legal case that had just happened. We turned to Vision Forum to warn them and for help. By the grace of God we were given help, but it did not come from Vision Forum. Answers In Genesis and Creation Studies Institute offered us an audience and we began to learn the truth about the raising of the allosaur.
Our pastor became involved because of the events that transpired against our family and towards our church. We collected tapes from our church and several other of the DeRosas public speaking events around the country and sent them to the first parties involved with the Allosaur debacle. The DeRosas were being dishonest in their presentations. We and our church pursued the DeRosas that they might repent, only to be met with more lies and false accusations. We have found little if any accountability among these folks.
Our family spent eight weeks in early 2005 traveling from one end of the country to the other, filming interviews with many of the first parties involved with the allosaur. Documents and letters became available to us. This has been both shocking and heartbreaking for our family personally, but something we have felt duty bound to expose.
We would like to thank Doug Phillips for the ideals that he has promoted to our family through Vision Forum. Doug Phillips has chosen varied men from the pages of history up to our own present time, to spotlight for various virtues.
Our pastor, having become aware of the DeRosas poor character through an entirely different avenue than us, wrote a letter to Doug Phillips, August of 2004, thanking Doug for the example he has been to him and asking the question:
Are you going to warn others in the home school community about the DeRosas, as widely as you promoted them?
That is still our question today. Words are of very little value if they aren’t backed up by action. Honor, women and children first, truth, defending the helpless, standing with the broken hearted, exposing deeds done in darkness, the list could go on and on, but they are only words. There needs to be revolutionary action on Doug’s part. There is a reason Doug won’t speak out and as you read the story and read the documentation you will know why too. We feel even at this moment it is not too late for Doug to choose honor and repentance. We for one would forgive and welcome him. We know others who were materially hurt by him that would welcome his repentance and truthfullness.
None of us has the right to speak out against the sins of our political adversaries, religious cults and all the other sins of the world, if we don’t examine those sins that transpire right in and against our own Christian communities. Just as we are admonished to be faithful Bereans concerning the word of God, we are also admonished to hold our leaders to account. If Christian ministries are willing to take our money they should be willing to give us an account.
I was a member of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Excavation Team since the late nineties and was part of the May 2002 Allosaur dig conducted on the Forbes Ranch. I had a fair amount of field experience by that time as Joe had been training me for several years on digs in Texas, Colorado and North Dakota. I had also spent time at the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum where Joe had instructed me in fossil preparation and restoration.
I first became associated with Mt. Blanco after meeting Joe Taylor on a Creation Evidence Museum dig in Colorado not far from the Forbes Ranch. It was apparent from the start that Joe was a professional and that he was someone who was worth listening to. Joe took me under his wing and taught me everything he could in those short two weeks. After the dig I volunteered at the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum and did my best to soak up all the knowledge I could.
From that point on if Joe was going on a dig, I did my best to be there.
All of my time and effort was freely given, I felt that the training and mentoring that Joe was doing for me was priceless and I still do today. The times I’ve spent with Joe, in the middle of nowhere, “digging up what God had buried”, are some of the the most precious memories I have.
I do not know Doug Phillips personally as I’ve only met him once - on the ill-fated May 2002 dig. He was a very charming individual and I was glad to meet him based on what the Derosas had told me about him. Interestingly enough a member of Doug’s entourage and I had a connection - we were both related to the pro-life movement and knew a lot of the same people. (My family has a history of being very active in the pro-life movement).
I did however know the Derosa family; I had met them the year before on Creation Evidence Museum’s annual dig in the area. It was the Derosas first dinosaur dig and they had come at Joe’s invitation to learn how to work in the local matrix and the other finer points of dinosaur excavation. (Matrix is a term that describes the material that a fossil is buried in.) Their experience was with marine fossils found in the rivers of Florida, which for the most part are buried in mud or sand.
I liked the Derosas! They seemed to be great people and I found a friend in both Peter and Mark Derosa. It was my understanding that after the Allosaur dig and the dig we were headed to in Montana that we’d all converge back at Mt. Blanco and start work on the Allosaur. I was so sure of this that I even looked into moving to Crosbyton Texas to be near the Museum.
How wrong I was! I am still shocked when I think about the resulting actions of the people who were my friends and who took such great care of me when I fell ill in Montana. We were kindred spirits, or so I thought.