GOP's speaker once filed lawsuit seeking public cash for Ken Ham's creationist Ark museum

Newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has a long history of advocating on behalf of right-wing causes, including total bans on abortion, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and filing lawsuits aimed at keeping former President Donald Trump in office despite losing the 2020 election.

Daily Dot has flagged another aspect of Johnson's resume that appears to go beyond standard Republican policy positions, however: His advocacy on behalf of an organization that pushes for the teaching of creationism.

Last decade, Johnson filed a lawsuit against the state of Kentucky aimed at helping creationist Ken Ham secure public subsidies to construct his Ark Encounter museum – a gigantic replica of the biblical Noah's Ark that even features models of dinosaurs, despite the fact that dinosaurs had become extinct 65 million years before the Bible was even written.

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In an editorial published in favor of subsidizing the ark, Johnson argued that Kentucky would certainly benefit from the massive amount of tourist revenue that the creationist-themed museum would purportedly deliver to state coffers.

"Kentucky officials are smart to enthusiastically embrace the Ark Encounter, and the millions of tourists the park will welcome to the area from every viewpoint, race, color, religion and creed," he wrote in the editorial.

He also praised Answers in Genesis, Ham's organization that teaches Noah carried pet tyrannosaurs with him on the boat for forty straight days, as aiming "to encourage critical thought and respectful public debate."