As TPM reported in December, the group behind Kentucky’s Creation Museum is looking to expand into the theme park business. But the company’s president is now in some hot water over what his critics are calling “ungodly and mean-spirited remarks.”
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, has now been banned from a homeschooling convention in Cincinnati.
The trouble all started when Ham, who was scheduled to speak at the convention, criticized a fellow speaker’s views on the story of Adam and Eve. According to the Herald-Leader, Peter Enns, a senior fellow at the Biologos Foundation — a Christian group interested in the intersection of science and faith — has said the story of Adam and Eve may be misinterpreted, and suggests it could instead symbolize the creation of Israel.
In a recent blog post, Ham called Enns’ position and overall teaching curriculum the kind of “outright liberal theology that totally undermines the authority of the Word of God,” even going so far as to say it’s an attack on “Christ.”
Great Homeschool Conventions, the organization behind the upcoming convention, didn’t like Ham’s tone.
“We believe that what Ken has said and done is unChristian and sinful,” Great Homeschool Conventions’ Brennan Dean said in a statement. The group has also banned Ham from future conventions.
Meanwhile, Answers in Genesis defended Ham’s remarks. In a statement, the group wrote: “We certainly questioned a person’s stand on Scripture, but we did not question his integrity, intelligence, or salvation.”
In February, Ham’s Creation Museum refused a same-sex “couple” entrance to a date night at the museum.
The company’s “creationist theme park,” slated for a Spring 2014 opening, will feature a full-size Ark, walled city and a replica of the Tower of Babel.
Read more here.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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