How to Ruin What Should Have Been a Great News Report on the Ark Project

Our local area Channel 12 sent a reporter out to the Ark Encounter property this past Friday to do an update on the Ark project. The reporter did a good job, and there are some great shots of the Ark property. It was an accurate positive report—until the anchor back in the studio made a comment (perhaps written by someone else at the TV station) that in a way spoiled the report viewers had just watched. It’s a shame that a negative and false slant was added to a straight report. Sadly, this seems to be the state of much of the news reporting these days.

I encourage you to watch this TV story as it does have some great shots of the Ark property, and also an interview with Mike Zovath, AiG’s VP (and one of the three AiG founders) in charge of the building of this project. But, at the end, you will hear the newscaster state the following:

Construction on the ark project hasn't started until now because of permitting issues and a lack of donations.

A so-called “lack of donations” had nothing to do with why the project hadn’t started until now. This is a myth that has permeated the Internet—driven primarily by skeptics who have an agenda to undermine the Ark project because of its Christian message. Now we are still raising funds for the walk through exhibits (and half of that has already been raised), but the funding of the building of the Ark was done primarily through a bond offering—and those funds are in hand. You see, even if we had obtained all the funds two years ago, we couldn’t have started the project until now because of permits! The final federal permit needed took over a year to obtain!

And then the newscaster’s comments about so called “tax breaks” (presumably referring to the performance-based sales tax refund offered for all facilities bringing in considerable tourist dollars to the state) leads people to the typical misunderstanding of this tourism incentive that permeates the Internet and media.

Find out more about the Ark Encounter project and how to obtain a life-time boarding pass, which gives life-time admission to both the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum.

Watch the Channel 12 news report.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken