Two leading creationism advocates, including Boone County's Answers in Genesis, have decided to settle their differences like Christians.
Rather than fight in court, last month the board of Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International met in Hawaii and reached a tentative agreement to settle the lawsuit they're parties to.
"We feel very, very satisfied about it," CMI Managing Director Carl Wieland said. "We were pleased to end it this way, and glad to have had the chance to have face-to-face communication."
The two organizations hope to have a final, written agreement by mid-October, Wieland said....
CMI sued Answers May 31 in the Supreme Court of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, accusing Answers of un-Biblical conduct.
The chief complaint involved two magazines that CMI published and Answers distributed.
The lawsuit alleged that Answers misled subscribers into thinking that CMI was no longer publishing the magazines, and instead signed them up for Answers in Genesis' own, new magazine, "Answers."
CMI said that it lost 39,000 subscribers that produced annual gross revenue of $252,000.
When the suit was filed, Answers called the allegations baseless and without merit. In its defense, Answers said it had offered to settle the dispute through binding arbitration.
Before initiating legal action, CMI commissioned a former chief state magistrate in Australia, Clarrie Briese, also a nonvoting member of CMI, to investigate the dispute.
In a report he prepared for CMI, he found that the dispute started in August 2004, when CMI staffers offered some proposals to reorganize Answers.
They sought to correct what they saw as poor morale and too great a dependency on Ham.
That provoked retaliation from Ham, Briese reported.
He found that in October 2005, Ham persuaded CMI's board of directors to sign over virtual control of CMI to Answers.
Amen. Sounds as if one was forthright about too much emphasis on an individual instead of the Lord's ministry and then he was offended(happens often with Christians). Seems like both sides humbled themselves. Maybe the remember the admonition to settle before offering to the Lord or read I Cor. 13 or the many Proverbs that would help. I am very grateful that they seem to be repenting and I plan on visiting this museum in Kentucky next year with great anticipation. One problem the church at large seems to be experiencing today though is there is no real contentment and much presumption on God's will in relation to buildings and the consequential debt and money-making schemes.
Dr. Terry Mortenson | 1/16/2009
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