There’s more than one mess at Tulsa’s zoo

June 9, 2005

This story, brought to my attention by reader TJ and C&L, is just painful.

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 Tuesday in favor of a display depicting the account in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

The vote came after more than two hours of public comment from a standing-room-only crowd.

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

Apparently, by the zoo’s elephant exhibit, there’s a display including a statue of the Hindu god, Ganesh. Local religious right activists insisted this promoted Hinduism and therefore insist that their version of Christianity should be displayed as well. What the activists failed to realize is that the Ganesh statue simply reflected the elephant’s image among other cultures. The same exhibit, for example, shows the Republican Party’s elephant symbol — but for some reason that didn’t prompt Tulsa’s local Dems to demand “equal time.”

And, with evangelicals getting their creation story into a zoo display, the city’s attorneys are arguing that other cultures’ views of creation should also be added to the zoo’s exhibits. As a local minister noted, this means including “hundreds of creation stories.”

Tulsa Zoo exhibit curator Kathleen Buck-Miser estimated it would take about six months to research and organize the creationist exhibit. She expressed qualms about the zoo delving into theological debate.

“I’m afraid we are going in the wrong direction,” she said.

That’s an understatement.

I’m really surprised that Ganesh didn’t cause an uproar. The religious right is intent on taking back America. That means that any depiction of another god or anything involved in another religion will be dealt with politically. Eventually, Hindus will need to wear the “H”, Jews will wear the “J”, Muslims will need to wear the “M”, and Catholics will have to wear the “C” (because they’re not really Christians, according to the religious right, you know). Not sure what Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses will have to wear.

  • Muslims can wear ‘I’ for Islam and Mormons get the ‘M’. Jehovah Witnesses get the ‘W’.

    Of course, I insist that protestants have to wear a ‘P’.

  • Does the Tulsa Zoo have room for the full-scale Noah’s Ark that it will require to fully tell the story of all the animals…

  • The whole point of “Taking Back America” is to protect our children. So it follows that each person that is not involved in an acceptable religion should have to where that letter in order for the children to be forewarned to stay away.

    I wonder who volunteered to have his rib removed. There was darkness for two or three of the days. How are they going to do that?

  • I meant “wear” not “where”.

    But there is a progression of what is going on. First there was the “politically correct” movement. Now it is progressing to be the “religiously correct” movement. It isn’t good enough for parents to teach their children the do’s and don’ts at home along with how they want to teach their kids about religion and sex. They want the whole nation to have the correct atmosphere. They have to co-opt the schools and all versions of the media and government institutions. One problem is that it sets up a few who decide what is the right religious stance for everyone. If anyone has looked at the church today they can see that there are quite a few denominations that have split and split some more, because the people can’t seem to agree on what the correct religious stance is. Then there is the problem of the GOP. The religious right has determined that the GOP is the best group to influence. They are so intent on abortion and gay rights that they’ve forgotten the rest of the Bible. What about helping the poor and the elderly. So they chose the GOP, but the right wing of the GOP is attempting to destroy many of the programs that support the poor or even the middle class. I think what the right wing has done to give tax breaks to the rich and force the middle and lower classes to bear the brunt of the cost is anti-Christian. “For as much as you have done it to the least of these my brethren.” And don’t tell me that the religious institutions are just going to jump in to help people if Bush has his way and destroys Social Security!

  • Can I wear “G” for “Gonzo”?

    God bless you, Hunter S. Thompson, wherever you are!!

  • As Apu said to Homer on The Simpson’s, “Don’t throw peanuts at my God!”

    Noah’s Ark seems a bit out of line. Because it is only a statue of the god Ganesh, shouldn’t the wackos..er um…I mean evangelicals, only get to put up a statue of Jesus? “Blessed are the pachyderms…” He could be breaking bread in the shape of an Elephant Ear.

  • Swarm! Swarm!

    Quick! Somebody pass a stem cell bill while they’re not looking!

  • Well since I was born a Hindu, I think I could say something useful. Hindus historically and even in current times don’t prosyletize their religion, meaning they don’t actively convert people. Basically you are a Hindu if you’re born a Hindu. There is no conversion ceremony or really any type of ceremony to welcome you to adulthood like many other religions do. Doesn’t stop anyone from joining, but actually promoting Hinduism is kind of a silly notion in or itself since there is no active conversion.

    Technically, Hinduism isn’t even a religion because it does not really center around a god. Hindu gods and goddesses are revered and worshipped but they are part of India’s myths. Hinduism are guidelines essentially for the way to conduct your life.

    By the way, Ganesha is the god of good fortune. You’ll see it on top of every dashboard of just about every Hindu cab driver in India and in every store.

  • You wonder why “Tulsa’s local Dems” didn’t complain about the G.O.P. elephant? I don’t believe Tulsa has any Dems left. I fled that city in 1978 and gather from friends who stayed behind that it’s been totally swallowed up by the Bible thumpers in the years since. An Oklahoma liberal of 2005 would be considered an extreme right-winger in the Northeast. The word “Oklahoma” technically means Land of the Red Man but based on my observations during (rare & infrequent) trips back it now means “Land of the Scary Bumper-Sticker.”

  • Folks! Why all the fuss? It say’s right in the constitution, “Thou shalt have no other god before me”.

    Doesn’t it?

  • Hey, don’t give up on Oklahoma yet, that’s where Bartcop lives.

    Seriously, though, as I watch this theocracy develop I yearn for a California secession movement to finally take hold. We’ve got everything but enough water: oil, 60% of all the fruit and nuts and veggies the nation eats, military bases up the wazoo (to protect us from our belligerent neighbor to the east), high tech industries, Hollywood. It’s the 5th largest economy in the world (or thereabouts, I’ve read 7th elsewhere), so it’s hardly unviable. It would be great. We could welcome liberals from all over the nation and the rednecks would mostly flee. But that darn water problem! Maybe we could just offer the states that funnel it to us now hefty discounts on their food. But I doubt the Repugs would be as levelheaded as Vaclav Havel was when Czechoslovakia wanted to break up. They’d probably cut off our water and invade. Better do this in the wintertime when we’ve got plenty of rain and snow.

    How long before we actually get desperate enough to pursue this? Or maybe we’d expand on this a bit and go here“>this route. It would incorporate most of the blue states. But that’s got some problems, like New Hampshire (what’s up with those folks?). And being from Minnesota I’d have to think that Canada might look askance at letting them in, they’re pretty borderline. Eastern Oregon and eastern Washington should probably be part of Jesusland too, I would think. It’ll take some tweaking, but it could work. Better than what’s happening now, anyway.

    • Comments are closed.