The Ark Encounter, Right Wing Radical "Religion" And Tax Scams

 

Every year at about this time or a bit earlier, in spring, summer, and early fall, on Facebook travel based groups, especially those which are focused on Kentucky, Southern Ohio, and Southern Indiana, there are numerous questions from people from all over the USA and even the world about how to find, buy tickets for, and access other services around the location of The Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky.  I always respond to those questions, and smilingly accept the fake outrage of the questioners, and advice the questioners about the unresolved tax shams which have been perpetrated by The Ark Encounter and its ownership against the state of Kentucky and Grant County.  Over the years since the idea of The Ark Encounter became reality in Northern Kentucky, the state and local governments bent over backward to award the management several million dollars worth of tax waivers, reductions, and outright gifts of tax abeyance.  There is an extensive and extensively documented history of The Ark Encounter and its ownership having failed to live up to, or even attempt to live up to, the promises they made the state and county in order to gain those millions of dollars of sweetheart tax deals.  Their avoidance of their responsibilities and promises has been nothing short of criminal.  

On July 21, 2017, the Louisville Courier Journal ran a story under this headline, "Ark Park Violates Agreement, gets over $18million in state tax breaks suspended". The story clearly describes the underhanded actions of the owners which caused the state of Kentucky to lose that $18Million.  One may assume that the newspaper editorship feels strongly about the misdeeds they have documented so thoroughly based on the fact that they leave this article up for free access when they almost always insist on subscriptions from viewers in order to read their stories.  

Four days later, on July 25, 2017, the national magazine "Forbes" also ran a major story about the tax affair which contains a very succinct and accurate description of how the scam worked: 

"...Ark Encounter LLC transferred the property where the Ark is parked for now to Crosswater Canyon Inc for a nominal sum.  Since the  tourism cabinet had made its deal with Ark Encounter LLC, it suspended the tax incentive.  So Crosswater transferred the property back to Ark Encounter LLC." Forbes, July 25, 2017)

Nearly three years later on February 24, 2020, across the river in Ohio. "The Cincinnati Enquirer" ran a story under the beautifully constructed headline "Opinion: Ham fleeced a town that gave him his Ark Encounter". David MacMillan, the author of that story has this to say about his credentials for questioning the scam, "As a former Kentucky creationist turned science advocate, I’m honored to be one of the voices in the film (We Believe In Dinosaurs) critical of the Ark Encounter. I’ve written at length about my past with Answers in Genesis and about the struggle of leaving science denial."  Obviously, Mr. MacMillan knows his subject matter well, having once believed their lies.   

On July 16, 2017, (yes, it was a busy week for journalists covering the story) the Kentucky School Boards Association opinion of the deal was covered by Linda Blackford who wrote about the $10  (ten dollars) property transfer by Ham and associates which stiffed the state and county of their millions.  This is obviously a story which will not, and should not ever die. Like thousands of other Kentucky citizens, I hate a tax cheat and that is exactly what The Ark Encounter and its management are and are likely to forever be.  Literally no one I know in Kentucky is naive enough to believe that The Ark Enconter's management and staff are ever likely to be struck by a sudden, unforeseen desire to actually practice the "Christianity" they espouse without any prior proof and repent, pay the money back, and move on to become good citizens.  

Recently, I literally blundered into the book whose cover is portrayed at the top of  this page, "Saving Darwin" by Karl W. Giberson, who is a former professor of physics at Nazarene College and Director of the Forum on Faith and Science at Gordon College. Currently, Dr. Giberson is a faculty member at Stonehill College where he serves as the Scholar-in-Residence in science and religion.  He is the author of roughly a dozen books most of which discuss the subject matter of the intersection of science and religion.  The author of the foreword to "Saving Darwin" which prompted this blog post is Dr. Francis S. Collins, M. D., Ph.D, the former Director of The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and has this to say in that foreword: 

"...a "creation museum" has opened just outside Cincinnati, depicting humans frolicking with dinosaurs, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that they were separated in history by sixty million years. What's going on here?  How can  the most advanced technological country in the world also be home to such antiscientific thinking?" (Saving Darwin, pp. v)

I had purchased this book without any prior knowledge of the interior arguments it presents but I was so pleasantly surprised to find the above writing by such a distinguished scientist as Dr. Francis S. Collins that I knew I had to write about the book, and this quotation specifically, in this blog. During his tenure at NIH, Dr. Francis S. Collins was the Director of the Human Genome Project.  Let me say clearly that I am not a scientist and I have never met Dr. Francis S. Collins or Dr. Karl W. Giberson.  But I do have a Master of Education Degree in Human Development from Lindsey Wilson College and I have spent many days at the National Institutes of Health with my wife in the early and mid-1990's  during a five year period at the height of the Human Genome Project while she was a research subject due to having a rare genetic anomaly.  I have met numerous individuals at NIH who were deeply involved in the Human Genome Project. I am not just a naive Kentuckian who is simply outraged by the actions of the management of The Ark Encounter. I am a reasonably well educated person with more than ordinary knowledge of some of work which Dr. Francis led at NIH.  I consider it a very serendipitous event that I strayed into this book and this quote from Dr. Francis.  

No one on earth should ever ignore the wisdom in that quote or brush it off as an attack by an unqualified detractor of The Ark Encounter.  Every year since The Ark Encounter began to cheat the taxpayers of Kentucky, I have watched their actions with increasing loss of whatever minimal respect I might have ever had for them.  I have steadily tried to educate their gullible and misled patrons about their tax cheating and the fallacies which are inherent in everything they do and say.  I will continue to do that so long as those taxes go on unreturned and so long as their lies about human origins are being spread. I will write further on this blog about this story as I finish reading the book.  I will also suggest, as I always have, that their naive patrons go instead, or at least go also, to The Big Bone Lick State Historic Site in Union, Kentucky, which is a state park of long standing located just a thirty minute drive from The Ark Encounter.  Big Bone Lick was a major research site due to the site having been the scene at which numerous dinosaur fossils were discovered.  The state website describes Big Bone Lick in this manner: 

"Big Bone Lick is the perfect place to get hands-on lessons in history, science, and environmental education. Engage your class, youth group, home school group, or scout troop through a field trip to the park. Your group will experience fun programs and exploration in an outdoor setting. Park Interpreters can also bring programs to your classroom, school, or organization to enrich any curriculum. Programs can be presented to adults as well. Field trips and outreach programs may have a small fee. For more information and scheduling, please contact the park at (859) 384-3522."  (Kentucky State Parks)

If you must go to The Ark Encounter, please be open minded and give yourself an opportunity to learn the truth about science and evolution at Big Bone Lick in Union, Kentucky.  

Thanksgiving With Family At A State Park Lodge

Today, my wife Candice and I had Thanksgiving Dinner with ten other members of our extended family at the Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge which has recently been refurbished after a major fire.  There were twelve of us at the dinner which had at least a couple of hundred diners during the time we were there.  Apparently, nobody wants to cook a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner anymore.  We represented three generations of our maternal grandparents' descendants.  There were four of us first cousins there from the seven which were raised by our mothers, sisters Mellie Hicks Hicks and Ellen Hicks Terry. Two of that original seven are now dead.  There were three spouses or significant others of that group, one daughter of my cousin Jack Terry, one daughter of my cousin Greg Terry, and several of Jack's grandchildren.  This was the first time many of us in the family had met Greg's daughter, Shay, who suddenly appeared in his life not long ago after finally learning who he biological father is.  Neither of them had known of the identity or existence of the other until very recently.  That, in and of itself, made it an interesting meal. 

The buffet was served in a large dining room, one of two, which must have seated at least a hundred people.  The staff worked constantly and kept drinks refilled, dirty plates bused, and minor requests for information answered.  I am certain they never received, in that kind of setting, anywhere near what they deserved in tips. The standard 18% for large groups would be in order in that setting.  I tried my best to be reasonable with my tip and so did at least one other in our party.  The setting, twelve people spread along the length of a long table, did not do a lot to benefit conversations.  The tables were a bit too close together and the overall layout of the room made traffic to and from the buffet a bit congested.  Salads, vegetables, and meats were on a steam table along the left side of the room with both sides open for self service.  Desserts were on two tables along the perpendicular  wall on two tables with only one side open for self service.  A staff member was on the right side of the room slicing and serving ham and roast beef from another table with heat lamps.  This setup caused too much traffic across the room, back and forth, and sideways.  

The food was generally acceptable but not outstanding by any measure.  When I got to the turkey to serve for my wife Candice, I found a wet mess of shredded turkey in the bottom of a hotel pan.  There were a couple or three dishes on that steam table which kept eliciting questions among strangers to the tune of "do you know what that is".  The salad makings were a bit too few to make a good salad for the person with vegetarian leanings.  The coleslaw was good and made along a traditional Eastern Kentucky recipe.  The green beans came straight out of an institutional can.  The pies, pecan, peanut butter, and pumpkin, were straight out of a box.  The baked Alaska was good and made on the spot.  The roast beef was far overcooked for my taste without a wink of pink in sight.  The ham was minimally acceptable.  Overall, this was a large restaurant buffet designed to minimally please diners who did not have high expectations without minimizing the potential profit from the occasion.  Nearly every time I have eaten at Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge, which is a frequent choice of some of my relatives who live close to it, I have left once again convinced that most of the other state park lodges in which I have eaten do the job better, especially Natural Bridge State Park Lodge.  I nearly always prefer Natural Bridge to other parks and the setting is usually far more picturesque.  

After the dinner, we hung out for a short time in the lodge lobby talking and split up until this coming Saturday when we will get together for a second dinner at the home of a cousin in Prestonsburg which is a much better idea.  I had told a friend in an e-mail today that I would rather eat bologna sandwiches in a genuine family setting with family than a high class buffet in a restaurant setting anytime.  This dinner convinced me I was correct in that statement.  A home cooked meal with shucked beans, hog jaw, ground hog, squirrels, pinto beans, corn bread, cushaw, and hominy would be far better anytime. 

Jenny Wiley State Park Is Hosting A Hate Group

Today, I was appalled to read Internet news from WKYT-TV27 in Lexington, KY, and learn that Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, KY, will be hosting a meeting of the Traditionalist Workers Party, a hate group as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL.  I also confirmed the accuracy of the story by watching the evening news on WKYT-TV27  and by calling the park office to protest the fact that a state park would be hosting a meeting of a hate group.  When I contacted the park office in Prestonsburg, I was told that staff there could not comment on the issue and was given the name and telephone number of Gil Lawson, the information officer and official spokesperson for the KY State Parks in Frankfort, KY.  When I called Mr. Lawson, he would only read the official statement which the parks department had prepared and which is included in the Internet news story from WKYT-TV27.  Here are the contents of that statement: 

""The executed contract for this event was for a family reunion, and the parks department was not notified of the intent of this meeting until late last evening. As a public event, a different contract will be required. The new contract will include safety and other provisions, and the group will have to reapply under the correct process. As a public agency, the Kentucky State Parks cannot discriminate against individuals or groups under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, we will continue to monitor the situation and any threats to our guests, and we will take appropriate actions as necessary." Official Statement From The KY State Parks System Downloaded on February 8, 2017, at 8:40pm.

Upon hearing the statement on the telephone, my response to Mr. Lawson was that he was "talking out of both sides of his mouth".  We both graciously allowed the conversation to end on that note.  My logic for that assessment is based on these facts as stated in the statement.  The parks system is attempting to imply, but not clearly state, that they were mislead when negotiating the contract and they may well have been mislead.  At the same time, the parks system is stating they have no intentions to attempt to do the right thing by voiding the contract and refusing to host the event.  The parks system is also attempting to claim they have no legal means by which to refuse to host such a group.  The portion of the statement which says "we will continue to monitor the situation and any threats to our guests, and we will take appropriate actions as necessary".  By virtue of that sentence, they are admitting that possible threats to their guests do exist.  

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Traditionalist Workers Party as:

"...a white nationalist group that advocates for racially pure nations and communities and blames Jews for many of the world’s problems. Even as it claims to oppose racism, saying every race deserves its own lands and culture, the group is intimately allied with neo-Nazi and other hardline racist organizations that espouse unvarnished white supremacist views." Southern Poverty Law Center Downloaded on February 8, 2017, at 8:51pm.

For those of you who do not know the Southern Poverty Law Center, they were founded by Morris Dees, one of the most successful civil rights attorneys in the history of the country, and are located in Montgomery, AL.  They track, confront, and litigate against hate groups all over the country and do a phenomenal job of gaining, protecting, and preserving human rights all over America.  The bottom line is that if the SPLC tells you a group is a hate group you can bet your boots on their assessment.  The Traditionalist Workers Party is described in their own literature as being strongly anti-Semitic and homophobic although they attempt to couch those beliefs in language which can avoid the possibility of constituting hate crimes on its face.  At the same time, they attempt to disguise their supremacist views behind stated intentions of "fighting for faith, family, and folk".  However, it is interesting that on their official website they list their philosophical literature on a web page they have named "Propaganda".  According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary Eleventh Edition, the definition of "Propaganda" is: "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a cause or political view".  It is fascinating that such a group would use a word to describe their teaching which means "...biased or misleading...". 

In their statement about the goals of the event which is linked from the WKYT-TV27 web site, the Traditionalist Workers Party makes several statements that cause concern.  They state that: " Pike County is 98.35% European and went over 80% for Trump in the recent elections."  It is fascinating that an organization that SPLC has identified as a hate group is choosing to visit and hold a meeting in an area which supported Donald Trump who has always denied his support from and possible connections to such white supremacist hate groups.  They go on to say that Pike County is an area that is "in need of advocacy and organization".  They also gloat that " Given that the venue is a State Park, they cannot shut down the event".  That statement, and the likely fear of state park officials, is probably why the official statement from the KY State Parks is so unwilling to confront the fact that they have agreed to host an event from a hate group.  The TWP go further near the end of their statement by discussing possible "...possible Leftist attacks, we will not be driven from the streets, under any circumstances" which appears to state that they are prepared for violence during their street demonstration in Pikeville on April 29th, 2017.  

Every citizen, every elected official, every church, every legitimate social organization in the Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia area should immediately and unequivocally denounce this group, their proposed event, and their potentially violent agenda.  Every member of such churches, groups, and organizations should immediately contact Gil Lawson and the Kentucky State Parks to protest this event and to demand that it be cancelled.  Potential violence, which is openly discussed in that statement and that is alarming and potentially very dangerous.  Such plans, such groups, and such threats of violence must be confronted and must be stopped.