{"id":49494,"date":"2015-02-04T21:58:41","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T04:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/04\/pay-us-tax-money-so-we-can-discriminate-or-well-sue.html"},"modified":"2015-02-04T21:58:41","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T04:58:41","slug":"pay-us-tax-money-so-we-can-discriminate-or-well-sue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/04\/pay-us-tax-money-so-we-can-discriminate-or-well-sue.html","title":{"rendered":""Pay us tax money so we can discriminate, or we'll sue.""},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, given how awful their grasp of science is, it would make sense their grasp of constitutional law would be equally dodgy. In this case, it's Ken Ham's organization "Answers in Genesis, which is a biblical-literalist, Young Earth religious organization.<\/p>\n

A few years back, they convinced the Kentucky state government to offer them a bunch of tax rebates in order to build a Noah's Ark theme park, to the tune of about $18 million. Though the religious nature of AiG was obvious, the cover was that this would be a big tourist attraction, so a tax rebate to draw in tourist dollars was seen as a good thing.<\/p>\n

Problem was, AiG made it clear that this was, in fact, a religious mission, and would be staffed by people who met their particular religious tests. Which is fine, and certainly their right — but not as paid for by taxpayer dollars. So in December, Kentucky, faced with AiG's assurance that it would<\/i> discriminate on a religious basis in its hiring for this amusement park, withdrew the tax rebates. <\/p>\n

So now AiG is suing Kentucky on the grounds that they are being persecuted as a religious organization. Which they are, of course, not; the state has no obligation to give tax rebates to a missionary project — in fact, it has an obligation not<\/i> to. AiG is, in fact, facing an adverse result, based on the very constitutional protection it claims as a basis for its law suit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nCreationist group sues Kentucky over $18 million in tax rebates for Noah’s Ark theme park<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, given how awful their grasp of science is, it would make sense their grasp of constitutional law would be equally dodgy. In this case, it's Ken Ham's organization "Answers in Genesis, which is a biblical-literalist, Young Earth religious organization. A few years back, they convinced the Kentucky state government to offer them a bunch … Continue reading “"Pay us tax money so we can discriminate, or we'll sue."”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48868,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/11\/tax-incentives-of-the-lost-ark.html","url_meta":{"origin":49494,"position":0},"title":"Tax Incentives of the Lost Ark","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Dec-14 10:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"Kentucky has reluctantly withdrawn $18 million in tax incentives from Ken Ham's planned Noah's Ark project. According to the state tourism secretary, \"Based on various postings on the Answers in Genesis (AIG) and Ark Encounter websites, reports from Ark Encounter investor meetings and our correspondence, it is readily apparent that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135584,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/08\/tax-dollars-work.html","url_meta":{"origin":49494,"position":1},"title":"Your tax dollars at work","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Dec-17 7:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"What do school vouchers mean in this age of Betsy DeVos? Vouchers for private education are not new to this Administration, but as Trump's Secretary of Education, De Vos has been pushing those programs like crazy. Public schools, after all, are full of government and unions and even (crazy though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/betsy-de-vos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135269,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/02\/coming-soon-pulpit-near-vote-guy.html","url_meta":{"origin":49494,"position":2},"title":"Coming soon to a pulpit near you: “Vote for This Guy”","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Nov-17 11:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While it didn't make a big splash in the initial analysis of the House tax reform bill, one provision in there is interesting and disappointing in both small and large ways. The GOP bill will repeal the Johnson Amendment which, back in the 1950s, basically said that a church (or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"Trump and Bible","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Trump-and-Bible.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28740,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/02\/mike-kelly-is-a-dolt-religious-freedom-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":49494,"position":3},"title":"Mike Kelly is a Dolt (Religious Freedom Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Aug-12 1:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, this is hard, Mike (R-Penn.), because most of your blather below is fact-free posturing. \u00a0But let's look at your fabulous press release of yesterday. Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2013Representative Mike Kelly led a GOP Freshman Class press conference today marking day one of the controversial HHS mandate, which will require all non-exempt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/iwo-jima.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/iwo-jima.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/iwo-jima.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51666,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/03\/can-a-gay-mafia-impose-a-gay-fascism-tax.html","url_meta":{"origin":49494,"position":4},"title":"Can a "gay mafia" impose a "gay fascism tax"?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Jul-15 5:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sounds like someone needs to agree on metaphors.Meanwhile, the Oregon cake bakers who violated public accommodation law in Oregon -- the same law that says you can't refuse service to women, you can't refuse to let a Jew into your public country club, and you can't decline to rent a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31933,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/scotus-declines-to-block-the-contraception-mandate-for-the-moment.html","url_meta":{"origin":49494,"position":5},"title":"SCOTUS declines to block the contraception mandate (for the moment)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Dec-12 11:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Criminy sakes, people. \u00a0I have deep moral objections to a number of things that my tax dollars get spent on. Does that mean I get to wave my hanky and get the religious vapors and decline to pay my income tax? No, folks, it does not. \u00a0It means I render\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}