Atheist Ad Mocking Ken Ham's Ark Encounter as 'Genocide, Incest' Park Rejected by Billboard Companies
Billboard companies have told an atheist group they won't run its ad next to the entrance to the Ark Encounter theme park being built in Williamstown, Kentucky, that reads "Genocide & Incest Park ... celebrating 2,000 years of myths."
"We tried with everyone we could think of, and these were [billboard] companies that originally were in agreement to do business with us," Jim Helton, the president of the atheist group Tri-State Freethinkers, which created an Indiegogo fundraising page in March to pay for anti-BIble billboards, tells ABC News.
"We're just looking for someone to take our money," adds Helton, whose Union, Kentucky-based group plans to put up billboards near the entrance of the Ark Encounter, a life-size Noah's Ark exhibit spearheaded by Young Earth Creationist Ken Ham, president and CEO of Answers in Genesis, that's slated to open July 7.
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The ad has been turned down by billboard companies Lamar and Event Advertising and Promotions LLC.
"We default to accepting most all copy, but if there's something we deem not appropriate then we don't run it," Tom Fahey, manager of the Cincinnati office of Lamar, explains, according to Kentucky.com. "It seemed more inflammatory in nature than anything else."
Helton argued, however, "The beliefs propagated by Ham and his group are fundamentally anti-science. They're teaching children that science and evolution aren't true. They are teaching kids that dinosaurs were vegetarian until original sin."
Ham last week tweeted in response to the atheist group's efforts, saying, "The @TSFJim secularists aren't out for free exercise of religion but to impose their anti-God religion on the culture."
In its promotional video soliciting donations, Helton is seen thowing a Bible while proclaiming that the book of Genesis is "immoral and highly inappropriate for children."
A mock-up of the proposed billboard shows a depiction of Noah's Ark ark with the statement: "Genocide & Incest Park … celebrating 2,000 years of myths."
The group further claims the Ark Encounter theme park "celebrates a biblical parable of genocide and incest. While they have a legal right to celebrate their mythology, we find it immoral and highly inappropriate as family entertainment."
The Ark Encounter has been in the works for years and will include over 100 biblically-themed attractions.
The Christian Post reported earlier this year that the project won a major court victory when a federal judge determined that state officials were wrong to deny it participation in a sales tax incentive simply because it's a Christian business. The judge determined that the project should be allowed to benefit from the tax incentive despite having a religious purpose.
