Creation Museum's Latest Headlines

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

After making headlines a month ago for joining (or leading) a new partnership to build a replica of Noah's Ark in northern Kentucky, the Creation Museum made headlines again this week but not the kind of headlines a museum needs. While they negotiate state support for their ambitious $150 million project, The Ark Encounter, they are also now facing accusations of discrimination.

From USA Today to the Louisville Courier-Journal there have been dozens of news stories about the successful museum turning away a gay couple from a museum sponsored event. They've also been accused of accepting the $70 ticket fee and declining to reimburse the couple. Alpha Omega Arts values and respects religious groups that stand on their religious principles, but nonprofit museums, like the Creation Museum are not chartered as church ministries.

Instead, the Creation Museum is a nonprofit corporation owned by the people of Kentucky, and AOA can't imagine another Kentucky cultural institution getting caught in a similar trap. Would the Ali Center take a gay couple's money and then turn them away without a refund? Would the Carnegie Arts Center in northern Kentucky where the Creation Museum is also located have turned them away from one of the center's sponsored events? What about the Humana Theater Festival or the Kentucky Historical Society? The answer to each of these is "no."

At a time when the Creation Museum and its partners in Ark Encounter are seeking government support, and are under public scrutiny for potentially violating state and federal laws, have they really helped their cause?