Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham‘s ministry, is a religious non-profit. That’s why the Creation Museum can require you to sign a “statement of faith” if you want to work there.
Ark Encounter, the Noah’s Ark theme park that’s eligible for millions of dollars in tax rebates, is a for-profit business. They cannot discriminate in hiring.
Sounds simple enough.
But my colleague Dan Arel points out that there’s a job listing at AiG’s website that makes no sense at all:
As you can see, it’s a job that requires you to be a Christian… but appears to be an Ark Encounter position.
When Dan asked Ken Ham about this directly, Ham was adamant that it was a position for Answers in Genesis:
Dan explains the potential conflict:
What it appears is happening here is that AiG is hiring employees for their non-profit and having them work on the Ark Encounter project, a for-profit business. By doing so, they are able to use religious discrimination in the hiring process and claim that the Ark Encounter itself is not hiring or discriminating. If this sounds shady to you, that’s because it is.
Dan reached out to Americans United for Separation of Church and State and they agreed that Ham is on some shaky grounds here, and a lawsuit could be forthcoming.
There have been so many missteps in the creation of this theme park that it’s hard to believe Ham is still trying to make it happen. But a video posted yesterday shows that excavation of the park site has finally begun:
