‘Atheists Go Ballistic,’ Says Ham, ‘They Can’t Stand the Light of Truth!’
Ken Ham is a young earth creationist and Christian fundamentalist who has successfully convinced the State of Kentucky and its taxpayers not once but twice to give millions for his religious ministry locations by calling them tourist attractions. His latest, a supposed replica of Noah’s ark, called Ark Encounter, came under tremendous local and national scrutiny when it was discovered taxpayers wold be supporting the ministry that mandates employees, even potential employees, to sign a pledge that they agree with the teachings of his ministry.
Ham even acknowledges the Ark’s purpose is religious. He told local Kentucky news station WKYT in February (video above) his Ark Encounter is “really unique because it’s done as a graphic novel approach to presenting the message of Christianity.” And the Ark’s website states: “the Ark Encounter is designed to be an outreach ministry.” All while being funded in part by Kentucky citizens’ tax dollars.
But Ham has insisted the Ark Encounter would be a wholly separate operation from his Creation Museum, and its parent corporation, a ministry called Answers in Genesis. (Clearly it is not. A link to “Support the Ark“ on the Ark’s website goes directly to a donation page on the Answers in Genesis ministry’s website.) Ham also sued for the right to discriminate based on religion.
Now that construction is completed and the Ark Encounter has had time to prove itself worthy to its investors and to the state, which slashed the taxes the Ark would have to pay in exchange for promises of bringing in a huge number of tourists, and thus tax dollars, Ham is blaming his detractors, not his project.
Raw Story notes Ham’s Ark Encounter cost $92 million, and he is blaming “the media for not uncritically repeating his alternative facts.”
“Recently, a number of articles in the mainstream media, on blogs, and on well-known secularist group websites have attempted to spread propaganda to brainwash the public into thinking our Ark Encounter attraction is a dismal failure,” Ham writes on the Answers in Genesis blog. “Sadly, they are influencing business investors and others in such a negative way that they may prevent Grant County, Kentucky, from achieving the economic recovery that its officials and residents have been seeking.”
That’s a very creative way to say, “We’re not making the money we promised we would.”
Ham, of course, suggests they are:
On the AiG blog, Ham continues, saying, “it seems very few reporters in the secular media actually want to report facts regarding what they cover as news.” What is the “secular media”? Newspapers like one of the state’s largest, the Lexington Herald-Leader.
On Twitter, Ham says atheists are going “ballistic”:
“Despite Ham’s claims,” Raw Story notes, “local leaders are adamant that the taxpayer subsidies are not trickling down to the taxpayers.”
“I think the Ark’s done well [laughter] and I’m glad for them on that,†Grant County Judge Executive Steve Wood told WKYT. “But it’s not done us good at all.â€
So, what about the pledge all potential employees must sign? Based on NCRM’s earlier reporting, it includes this statement:
“The only legitimate marriage sanctioned by God is the joining of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other, and has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. Any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography, or any attempt to change one’s gender, or disagreement with one’s biological gender, is sinful and offensive to God.”
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