Tulsa Zoo Exhibit Adds Creation Display Near Image of Ganesh

June 8, 2005

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/168/story_16811_1.html

On June 8, 2005 The Associated Press reported, "the Tulsa Zoo will add a display featuring the biblical account of creation following complaints to a city board about other displays with religious significance, including a Hindu elephant statue.

The Tulsa Park and Recreation Board voted 3-1 on Tuesday in favor of a display depicting God's creation of the world in six days and his rest on the seventh, as told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The vote came after more than two hours of public comment.

Zoo employees, religious leaders and others spoke in opposition, saying religion should not be part of the taxpayer-funded scientific institution.

But those who favored the creationist exhibit, including Mayor Bill LaFortune, argued that the zoo already displayed religious items, including the statue of the Hindu god, Ganesh, outside the elephant exhibit and a marble globe inscribed with an American Indian saying: 'The earth is our mother. The sky is our father.'"