A couple of more points on the Ark Encounter

This is a continuation of my research regarding the Ark Encounter.

Can the Ark Encounter discriminate with their hiring?

[I AM NOT A LAWYER]

There seems to be some debate online about whether a for-profit can be a "religious organization" under Title VII.  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had this to say in an article entitled, Questions and Answers: Religious Discrimination in the Workplace.

Religious Organization Exception: Under Title VII, religious organizations are permitted to give employment preference to members of their own religion. The exception applies only to those institutions whose “purpose and character are primarily religious.” Factors to consider that would indicate whether an entity is religious include: whether its articles of incorporation state a religious purpose; whether its day-to-day operations are religious (e.g., are the services the entity performs, the product it produces, or the educational curriculum it provides directed toward propagation of the religion?); whether it is not-for-profit; and whether it affiliated with, or supported by, a church or other religious organization.

From what I can tell, one does not have to be a non-profit to be classified as a "religious organization", but it does help.  Being a "religious organization" is not a a one trait thing, but a conglomeration of traits that add up to make one exempt.

• whether its articles of incorporation state a religious purpose
• whether its day-to-day operations are religious (e.g., are the services the entity performs, the product it produces, or the educational curriculum it provides directed toward propagation of the religion?)
• whether it is not-for-profit
• whether it affiliated with, or supported by, a church or other religious organization.

One does not need all four to qualify.  The Ark Encounter seems to have at least three out of four, but I am not a lawyer.  A judge may rule that they do not meet the criteria.

Who are the jobs going to?

When the Ark Encounter first began, Ken Ham said:

The Ark Encounter is going to employ almost a thousand people, and the impact on the number of jobs associated with that is going to be in the thousands, and our particular research has shown it will be many thousands, and it will bring millions and millions of dollars into the community. In fact, the research that we did shows that the economic impact of the Ark Encounter project over 10 years will be something like $4 billion.

According to Answers in Genesis' (AiG) letter to the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet (TAHC), the Ark Encounter was originally owned by three entities and intended to not discriminate while hiring.  However two of the three entities abandoned the project leaving Crosswater Canyon Inc, which is run by AiG, as the sole owner.  With the other investors no longer in the picture, AiG decided that Ark Encounter was going to religiously discriminate with their hiring.  AiG claims that they informed the TAHC about this change months ago.

So far Ark Encounter has no employees, but it seems like the requirements will be similar to AiG.

• Salvation testimony
• Creation belief statement
• Confirmation of your agreement with the AiG Statement of Faith

When Ham promised a thousand jobs to a city that has less than 4000 and to a county that has less than 25,000, Kentucky's governor was on board.

Kentucky’s Democratic governor supports the tax incentives. He says he wasn’t elected to debate religion, he was elected to create jobs, especially in hard-hit communities like Williamstown near where the ark park will be located and where a majority of the unemployed have been out of jobs for over two years.

Over the last few years, Ham has changed his mind, all of the jobs will only be available to Christians who can agree with among other things, the following statements.

• The various original life forms (kinds), including mankind, were made by direct creative acts of God. The living descendants of any of the original kinds (apart from man) may represent more than one species today, reflecting the genetic potential within the original kind. Only limited biological changes (including mutational deterioration) have occurred naturally within each kind since creation.
• Scripture teaches a recent origin for man and the whole creation, spanning approximately 4,000 years from creation to Christ.
• The view, commonly used to evade the implications or the authority of biblical teaching, that knowledge and/or truth may be divided into secular and religious, is rejected.

Forget hiring Atheists, these jobs will be limited to a minority of Christians.  Catholics or even William Lane Craig need not apply to be lifeguards.  Maybe Grant County is mostly biblical creationists.  However if the county is not, this might not be as big of a boom to the county's economy.

Will the Ark be built entirely of wood?

AiG claims that the pre-flood civilization not only had iron seams, but they knew how to smelt iron.  The Ark was not built by Bronze Age tools, but by Iron Age tools.  Also, Tim Lovett seems to imply that the Ark might have been reinforced by iron.