The San Diego Museum Council voted – once again – to reject the membership application of The Creation and Earth History Museum, or the Creation Museum for short.
The Santee museum presents a biblical account of creation through its exhibits and education programs.
The museum was denied membership in 2013. The museum council's membership committee provided a list of improvements to make before reapplying. Those included changes related to care of animals and exhibitions. Creation Museum president Tom Cantor said they spent two years making those changes. "We jumped through all their hoops," Cantor said.
The membership committee did another on-site review and signed off on all the changes.
But when the Creation Museum's new application went to the council membership on Sept. 2 for a vote, Cantor said they were denied again.
"We didn’t get the majority of votes, which to me confirms the underlying cause which we suspected all along, which is prejudice against creation as an explanation for origins," Cantor said.
Forty local museums belong to the San Diego Museum Council, including the museums in Balboa Park. Council board president Kerri Fox said the Creation Museum now satisfies the requirements for membership, but didn’t get the 21 "yes" votes required.
"I can’t give specific reasons, I’m not in a position to speak on behalf of any individual museum as to how or why they voted or what their reasons were," Fox said. "I can just share that as a group the San Diego Museum Council did not vote to admit them."
Fox said it's no longer the group's policy to release the vote tally. There were 30 members present for the vote.
Membership on the Museum Council comes with marketing support and exposure, as well as training.
The Creation Museum was founded in 1992 and averages 35,000 visitors annually.
