Ken Ham Calls for Prayers for Creation Museum Visitor Who Compared it to 'Concentration Camp'
Ken Ham of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY has asked supporters to pray for an overly negative reviewer of his museum who compared the experience to visiting "a concentration camp" for the way children are supposedly lied to.
"Every now and then I post a comment by a critic of the Museum to remind you to pray for these people and to illustrate the hatred they have of this place (that) stands boldly on the authority of the Word of God, and so clearly presents the gospel," Ham wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday, and linked to the review of the Bible-inspired Museum that was posted on Google+ three days ago.
"I'm finding it hard to even explain how bad I felt," the reviewer wrote. "The only time I've ever felt this bad because of somewhere I visited was a concentration camp. I'm not comparing the crime, only how it affected me. The juxtaposition of lies, smiling children and a gift shop freaked me out."
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"Emptiness, sadness, a cruel parody of museums. Children running around, enthusiastic to learn, parents proudly reading lies to them. Children gathered around the animatronic Noah explaining how there was room on the ark for all the dinosaurs," the reviewer continued.
"I felt I was at a funeral for someone I loved and everyone else wanted dead."
Responding to those comments, Ham, who is also the president of Answers in Genesis, said that the "funeral" is for the theory of evolution.
"But--such people continue to come, and regardless of what they say, they heard the truth of God's Word clearly presented. I pray the Holy Spirit will work on their hardened hearts so they will be illuminated with the truth," Ham added.
Earlier in June, Ham responded to a controversy generated by the assistant manager of the Cincinnati Museum Center, who in an online comment had said that the Creation Museum is "not a museum" and asked people to stop referring to it as such.
"It is a theme park that misleads the public and it is a pockmark on our religion. The fact that someone profits by misrepresenting their faith to children and families is shameful," Kurt Percy had written in the comments section of a news article.
"When we wonder why America is falling behind in science education, it is because places like this are allowed to exist. I'm glad to see that their attendance is declining despite generous handouts from the state of Kentucky at the expense of their university funding," he continued.
The Creation Museum president responded by arguing that Percy "is showing his intolerance of the message of the Creation Museum. Instead of promoting freedom of speech and religion, Percy does not want a place like the Creation Museum to exist because he disagrees with the message."
A joint statement by the two museums later clarified that representatives had met and resolved the issue.
A 2012 Gallup poll found that nearly half, or 46 percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form. Another 32 percent said they think that humans went through evolution but with God guiding the process, while 15 percent suggested that God had no hand at all in the creation of humans.
