The Creation Museum in Kentucky has been stirring up controversy with its plan to create a 500′-long and 80′-high “replica” of Noah’s ark:
In early August a town meeting of sorts was held to discuss local concerns, specifically issues of state funding and tax incentives. One attendee recounts:
First to present was Mike Zovath for Ark Encounters. Zovath, a graduate of Bob Jones University, is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Infantry. He works for Answers in Genesis as a Senior Vice President and is one of the three founders of AIG. He was responsible for overseeing the construction and daily operations of the Creation Museum for the first 18 months after it opened. Mr. Zovath is now heading up the Ark Encounter project.
The first thing he discussed was the constitutionality issue with the park receiving tax incentives from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Apparently, according to Zovath, they went over this issue for a year with the state of Kentucky and received legal opinions from AIG’s law firm in Cincinnati. Zovath said, “The tax incentive the state is offering, the Tourism Commission, is not a constitutional issue. There just seems to be people out there who want to discriminate against a for-profit tourist attraction and deny them the same things they offer other tourist attractions just because this attraction happens to be putting out a particular message. In our case a Christian message. In reality, it’s discrimination against us if you don’t offer the Ark Encounter the same incentives you offer any other attraction.”
Read more about the “Listening Session” and those questions reportedly left unanswered.