Ark Encounter Not Worth the Hate

So the Ark Encounter is opening in Williamstown, Ky.  Surf the web and you will not miss the countless articles about the facility, many of them critical. Scour Facebook and Twitter and you'll find any number of memes and comments decrying the project and bemoaning the use of tax breaks for its construction.

Yet, I just don't see the hate for it.

First off, it is a theme park. If you don't like it, don't go. I promise you that if the facility fails to make money, it will close. Then you won't have to worry about it or see it and even have to comment on it. If you don't like, don't go. There are a lot of places I don't like, so I simply don't attend those establishments.

Second, for all the complaints about tax breaks for the facility and how taxpayers are funding it, have you been to Williamstown? I have. In fact, I worked there for nearly seven years for the Grant County News. In my eighth year, the News office, like many other businesses in the county, relocated from Williamstown to a more visible and central location within the county.

They weren't alone. Business after business relocated or simply closed up shop. As the county seat, Williamstown maintain the county government center. Those governmental institutions kept Williamstown relevant and insured a number of lawyer and governmental offices would remain open and paying rent. None of them, however, paid taxes as government and non-profit entities.

To put it frankly, Williamstown was dying. New businesses were not moving in. Existing businesses were moving out. People were leaving. Tax revenue was shrinking.

And let me be frank, Williamstown is not unusual. Small towns all over America are experiencing this kind of decline. More and more businesses move to more centrally located and populous areas. People are leaving to be near more urban centers. Tax revenue is shrinking.

So Williamstown took a chance at revitalizing their town. They took on the Ark Encounter. With that will come additional businesses - restaurants, hotels, shops, boutiques and tourism locations. Sleepy Williamstown - the town that was dying a slow death - is now national news as a destination location. They have a tourist attraction that no one else in America has.  That is worth every penny of tax breaks they gave.

No one decries tax breaks for Walmarts, movie theaters, and urban revitalization projects. But prop up a small, rural town with a tourist attraction aimed at Christians, and people from all over the country now have a reason to complain. People, by the way, who don't live in Williamstown and don't pay taxes there.

So before we throw stones, we should make sure the houses aren't made of glass.  Or perhaps Jesus's words are needed here. "He without sin should cast the first stone."