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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Robert Tait

House speaker once won taxpayer funds for Noah’s Ark park accused of bias

Mike Johnson speaks to the press on the mass shootings in Maine on 26 October 2023 in Washington DC.
Mike Johnson was hired by the creationist ministry Answers in Genesis in 2015. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock

Mike Johnson, the newly elected Republican speaker of the US House, won taxpayer funding for a Noah’s Ark amusement park while working as a lawyer, in a graphic illustration of his uncompromising rightwing Christian beliefs.

Working for Freedom Guard, a non-profit proclaiming a commitment to defending religious liberty, Johnson was hired by Answers in Genesis, a creationist ministry, in 2015, after the state of Kentucky rescinded an offer of tourism tax incentives for the project in Williamstown, citing discrimination against non-Christians.

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