Ticket to Controversy

One of the most respected and popular attractions in the Midwestern U.S. is the Cincinnati Zoo, especially with its annual Christmas lights show. But that zoo lost some of its luster when it abruptly dissociated itself from a promotional deal with the Creation Museum, caving to out-of-state pressure.

The zoo originally agreed to launch a combo ticket package with the nearby Creation Museum, which offered its own light display and also a live nativity, saving visitors $9 to both places. When evolutionists and atheists outside the region caught wind of this, they helped coordinate a campaign to pressure and humiliate the zoo into change.

Within about 48 hours, the zoo had received such intense criticism that the plug was pulled on the short-term business relationship.

Soon several media outlets nationwide picked up an Associated Press story on the flap. The articles and various humanist blogs included hundreds of strikingly intolerant slams against Christianity (often profane and vulgar).

Ironically, the media attention boosted interest—and attendance—at the museum’s Christmas celebration.