Creation Museum gets million-dollar donation
STEPHEN HUBA

    A Cincinnati family has anonymously donated $1 million toward a
creationist museum being built by the Florence, Ky.-based ministry Answers
in Genesis.

    The donation is the largest gift yet to the $14 million Creation
Museum and Family Discovery Center, expected to open in 2002.

      Answers in Genesis hopes to fund construction of the
50,000-square-foot museum entirely from donations and without a mortgage.
A capital campaign was launched in November.

    So far, about 7,000 people have donated toward the museum, bringing
the campaign total to more than $3 million, said ministry spokesman Mark
Looy.

    Ministry officials said in November they needed to raise $3.75 million
by the end of 2000 to have any hope of breaking ground in March.

    Looy said the museum timetable remains on schedule.

    The $1 million donation was a surprise, he said. "It did come from out
of the blue," Looy said. "We know this particular family had been on our
mailing list for a while. We knew that he had demonstrated an interest in
the ministry from the fact that he had already been donating to us."

    The family was only described in a news release as having "a passion
for proclaiming biblical truths."

    Looy said the family wanted to be anonymous because of the biblical
injunction in Matthew 6 to give in secret.

    Answers in Genesis president and founder Ken Ham said the donor hoped
that the large gift would prompt other people to give.

    A construction firm in Michigan has said that it will donate its
services to grade the land, Looy said.

    The Creation Museum and Family Discovery Center will feature exhibits
supporting the ministry's view that the creation account in Genesis is
scientifically and historically accurate.

    Known as "young-earth creationism," the teaching holds that the earth
is only about 10,000 years old.

    "We believe biblical history, from Genesis right to Revelation, can be
trusted," Ham said at a November news conference. "Noah's flood really did
occur. God really did create as the Bible says."

    Answers in Genesis bought the 47-acre property last May after fighting
a long rezoning battle. In addition to the museum, the site will hold the
ministry's new headquarters and warehouse - a total of 95,000 square feet.

(Contact Stephen Huba of the Cincinnati Post at http://www.cincypost.com)

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