Kentucky Common Sense?

How much would you like to bet that a job posting I wrote about in August, "Kennie Ham is still making a fool out of Kentucky!" has been changed somewhat.  I haven't peeked yet, but here is the part I quoted just two months ago:

"Our work at Ark Encounter is not just a job, it is also a ministry. Our employees work together as a team to serve each other to produce the best solutions for our design requirements. Our purpose through the Ark Encounter is to serve and glorify the Lord with our God-given talents with the goal of edifying believers and evangelizing the lost."

Now this was for a job advertised in the AIG website.  The job was for a CAD Technical Designer for Ark Encounter.  Now when I wrote about it I was questioning the use of State funds and tax incentives in support of a Ministry.  I was only one tiny voice in the dark, and there were others, many others, saying similar things.

Recently news outlets are reporting that the Ark Encounter ministry's tax incentives might be held up because of their violations of state hiring practices.  It is being reported in a bunch of news sources, including the Lexington Herald-Leader "State tax incentives for Ark Encounter in limbo following hiring dispute", WKRC-TV, Cincinnati "Ark Encounter tax incentives questioned", and even Yahoo News "Kentucky warns Noah's Ark theme park over hiring practices".  The bottom line is that little kennie ham specified a:

• Slavation Testimony
• Creation belief statement
• Confirmation of your agreement with the AiG Statement of Faith 

In response to a letter on this topic Ark Encounter attorney James Parsons said

"the posting was for Answers in Genesis, not Ark Encounter, and that the park officials would honor the requirements for state tax incentives."(I am quoting this article, I do not have a source directly from Parsons himself)

Now in my opinion that's a lie.  Here is a screen capture of the original job posting:

(Image source http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/danthropology/files/2014/08/ark_job11.png)

(Image source http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/danthropology/files/2014/08/ark_job2.png)

Hmmm, see why I called it a lie?  Page 1 clearly shows Ark Encounter Ministry and page 2 shows the requirement for the Salvation Testimony, Creation Belief Statement, and Confirmation of agreeing with the AIG Statement of Faith.  Now, I have to wonder if the job is still posted and what does it currently say.  My guess  is that all job postings for Ark Encounter will probably have been removed form the AIG site.  In the near future we will probably see an Ark Encounter jobs site be online.  But right this second I am going to wander over to AIG and see what I can see.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/10/07/3468324_state-puts-tax-incentives-for.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Hmmm guess what?  Yup!  The jobs posted on AIG no longer mention anything about the Ark Encounter Ministry, although the jobs still require the Salvation Testimony, Creation Belief Statement, and Confirmation of agreeing with the AIG Statement of Faith.  In fact one job, for a Solutions Developer,  specifies under education and experience:

"A proven firmness in one’s walk with Christ, evident through a personal life that is above reproach, with an “ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands” (1 Thessalonians 4:11); that is, the heart of a servant that works diligently and seeks to defer praise to God."(http://newton.newtonsoftware.com/career/JobIntroduction.action?id=8acf1691478a8796014793d5c7e61361)

Now what does that have to do with some of the other requirements of "Strong experience with the following languages: HTML5 (including CSS and JavaScript), TSQL, and C#." and "Must have experience with Adaptive/Responsive Design, MVC, WCF and RESTful services, and N-Tier architecture development." I have no idea, but there it is.  If you want to work at AIG or the Creation 'Museum' you have to be in alignment with kennie's idea of a religion.

So while the official requirement of the same set of beliefs for the Ark Encounter Ministry might have disappeared from the website, in my opinion, kennie and his followers will find a way to make sure those employees also toe the philosophical line.Remember he didn't remove the requirement from the job posting for Ark Encounter, he removed the entire posting and any other Ark Encounter postings.  Sounds like he's circling the wagons until he can figure out a new approach.

One last note, from now on I am planning to call Ark Encounters 'the Ark Encounter Ministry'.  After all, that's what little kennie called it in the original job posting!