Public Challenge to Yahoo to Retract

Update on the Yahoo Attack on the Creation Museum:

We want to thank our supporters for contacting Yahoo.com to express their displeasure over a libelous comment about the Creation Museum. On Thursday, Yahoo posted an article that alleged our museum refuses admission to gays. On Friday morning, our publicist contacted Yahoo to get the lie pulled from the website. Hoping to deal with the matter in private, we waited for Yahoo to do the right thing. Yahoo did not budge, although it made a slight wording change in the article—but the piece still claimed that we had refused admission to gays, which is absolutely false.

So today we had no option but to go public about the inflammatory and completely wrong accusation. Late today, the Yahoo item about the museum was pulled, but without any explanation that we could find (as I post this comment here). Apparently many of our ministry friends contacted Yahoo today—when we asked them to send a firm but polite complaint and request a retraction—and the museum item was taken down.

Let me say it again: we have never refused admission to gays. We welcome any person regardless of their beliefs so that they can be exposed to our Bible-upholding truths, especially the gospel.

The only thing we can find from Yahoo today about this matter was a sarcastic tweet from the author of the museum piece: “Thanks to all for your loving tweets of inclusion today. So nice to know that you and the museum are so fiercely gay-welcoming!”

Even with that sarcasm, yes—we are gay-welcoming! And I hope that the people who wrote Yahoo on our behalf took our admonition to be polite as they registered their complaints.

While it is a shame that Yahoo has not posted a retraction to acknowledge its error (you would think that a reputable journalist or editor would admit the mistake), I take some satisfaction in knowing that our supporters came to our assistance and it appears that their efforts got the horrible item taken down.

Here is the item we posted earlier on Monday about the Yahoo matter:

Public Challenge to Yahoo to Retract

We have attempted to work behind the scenes, through our publicist, to get the popular site Yahoo.com to correct a libelous comment about our Creation Museum. They allege that the museum has refused admission to gay people. Our private effort to correct this claim was not successful,* and so we will now go public about an accusation that is highly inflammatory and completely false.

So I now publicly call on Yahoo to withdraw its blatantly false accusation that we have refused museum admission to gay people. And I call on our supporters to contact Yahoo to politely but firmly demand a retraction.

We have never refused admission to gays. On the contrary, we welcome them so that they—and anyone regardless of their lifestyle, sinful actions, and beliefs—can be exposed to our biblical messages, including the gospel message. For years on our website, we have declared the following about anyone who intends to visit: “As Answers in Genesis (AiG) representatives have stated many times in response to media interviews and other inquiries, the Creation Museum welcomes all visitors—regardless of their beliefs.”

How did this latest urban myth about the museum get started? We can only assume that Yahoo picked up an old item about an incident a few years ago. In 2011, we had learned through a web posting that two “straight” men were boasting that they would be visiting a special event at the museum and were intending to act “flamboyantly gay.” We knew who they were, and museum staff stopped these gay-pretenders from crashing and flamboyantly disrupting a museum event.

Think about the silliness of any claim that we would deny entry to gays. How are we even going to figure out who the gay visitors are when they purchase a ticket? Of course, we don’t ask anyone at the ticket counter what their lifestyle preferences and backgrounds might be! Coupled with our public statement that we welcome anyone to the museum, any claim that we stop gays from entering is preposterous on the face of it.

Now, when the set-up occurred, why didn’t the major media make a big deal of two straight men pretending to be gays and acting in a stereotypical “flamboyant” manner? (A guest essayist did post a piece on Yahoo about the set up.)

We get criticized for many things, including our stance in support of biblical marriage (i.e., a union of one man and one woman). But this Yahoo accusation is outrageous and totally bogus. Such a major, well-trafficked media outlet like Yahoo should be ashamed for its false internet posting, as well as for its anti-Christian comment that our museum is a “mockery” for its “biblical take on the universe.”

For those who would like to urge Yahoo to retract this false statement, you can contact the author of this article on Twitter at https://twitter.com/danalyzed, or give a suggestion at https://yahoo.uservoice.com/forums/242178.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Footnote

*After dealing with our publicist, Yahoo merely changed the wording to “has refused” entry to gay people rather than “refuses.” But the museum did not refuse entry to gays. The two men in the incident were not gay—moreover, the museum will not refuse entry to gays. Anyone is welcome to visit the museum, regardless of their beliefs and lifestyle.