As Lauri Lebo reported last week Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has signed-on to give tax incentives to Answers in Genesis’ new theme park on the grounds that it would create jobs. The theme park, which will include replicas of Noah’s Ark and the Tower of Babel, has been dubbed the “Ark Park.”
The project is being proposed by a for-profit group of investors and the non-profit Answers in Genesis (AiG) (known for its Creation Museum) who will run the completed project.
But it seems that the joint effort by the fundamentalist ministry (that describes itself as an “apologetics ministry”) and the state of Kentucky has hit a bit of a snag. The Governor has asserted that the project will have to comply with the state’s non-discrimination laws in filling all those jobs [watch an interview with the Governor below].
The Courier-Journal is reporting that the park’s development group* is “wrestling” with whether to require the statement of faith that is currently required of AiG employees and at the same time asserting that they have no intention of discriminating in their hiring “especially in view of the large number of people who will have to be hired.”
But it’s hard to imagine that a fundamentalist Christian apologetics ministry would hire unbelievers to work in their ministry theme park; indeed, their motto is Creation Museum: Prepare to Believe and they promise volunteers an opportunity to “impact our culture for Christ, as we proclaim the absolute truth and authority of the Bible.” Their current volunteer application requires a “Christian” reference, a church reference and a Christian testimony. The form indicates that submissions without a testimony of salvation and a statement regarding creation will not be considered, so even the vast numbers of Christian believers who don’t understand their tradition in the narrow way of AiG are not deemed suitable.
But potential discrimination in hiring goes beyond religious discrimination. As President and CEO, Answers in Genesis–USA & the Creation Museum, Ken Ham writes and lectures throughout the country on “the relevance and authority of the book of Genesis and how compromise on Genesis has opened a dangerous door regarding how the culture and church view biblical authority.” The website promotes Ham as a speaker who can bring these insights about the authority of the bible to bear on ‘“hot button” topics of our day (e.g., the breakdown of the society and the family unit, “gay” marriage, school violence, creation/evolution in public schools, abortion, homosexual behavior, lawlessness, etc.)”
AiG does not just promote a peculiar religious view about human origins, it promotes a consistent, coherent, integrated world and life view in which the bible speaks to all areas of life. There is no neutrality in this system and AiG cannot consistently promote its own worldview and hire nonbelievers, Muslims, gays and lesbians, divorced people, unsubmissive women (this list gets pretty long)…
Certainly Ham is entitled to his political views, but should this project proceed, the taxpayers of Kentucky will be subsidizing an exclusivist missionary program in an effort to create jobs, for which many of those taxpayers won’t be deemed suitable.
The governor addresses the issue of the state’s involvement in the building of the Noah’s Ark Theme Park. The video can also be viewed on the Courier-Journal site.
*It was not AiG “wrestling” with whether to require the statement of faith, the statement was made by the head of the LLC developing the project, of which AiG is a member.
