The state of Kentucky is about to invest millions in Christian evangelism -- sailing in on a replica of Noah's ark at the Ark Encounter theme park proposed by the folks behind the nearby Creation Museum.

The CM, backed by Answers in Genesis, starts 'In the beginning..." and the Ark Encounter, breaking ground in August, will pick up the story at Noah's Flood and continue through the rest of the Old Testament.

Late last month, led by Gov. Steve Beshear (who called it a jobs measure), Baptist Press says,

The state's Tourism Development Finance Authority unanimously approved tax incentives that will allow Ark Encounter LLC to recover up to 25 percent of its construction costs through sales tax rebates if it meets attendance and sales projections.

Ark Encounter executives stressed to the state that it would follow a scenario from it's consultant in which...

the park is "operated, programmed and advertised as a mainstream interpretation of Biblical events" and "does not promote a creationist view of Biblical events that may turn off a portion of the potential market."

That's according to Jonathan Meador, a writer for LEO, the alternative weekly Louisville Eccentric Observer, who frequently savages the CM, in a column titled Dinos and Cents (the CM claims dinos and humans roamed together in its young Earth biblical historical account of creation).

For your own reading on how Christian this project may be, check the Ark Encounter's website which says.

The ministry of Answers in Genesis can't think of a more effective way today to share the gospel with so many millions of people than an Ark. The Ark of Noah is a picture of salvation, which allows us to also share with future visitors that Christ is our modern-day Ark of salvation. People who might never visit a church to hear the gospel will get that message at the Ark Encounter.

Believers stand on the Bible's Great Commission that enjoins them to spread the word. But it's a bad idea for taxpayers, says The New York Times editorial today:

Granting tax incentives to the explicitly Christian enterprise clearly clashes with the First Amendment's prohibition on government establishment of religion. Public money is not supposed to pay to advance religion. Kentucky's citizens should certainly ask themselves if this is really the best use of taxpayer dollars.

DO YOU THINK: The Ark Encounter is just as valid a tourism-and-taxes enterprise as a water park?