2007-06-21 04:39:02 -
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - An Australian evangelical group has filed a suit against the founder of the U.S.-based Creation Museum, Ken Ham, alleging he stole subscribers away from its magazines.
The lawsuit, filed in the Queensland state Supreme Court on May 31, alleges that Ham and his evangelical group, Answers in Genesis, violated a 1993
agreement to distribute two magazines produced by the Australian-based Creation Ministries International.
The court papers allege Ham used a database containing the names and addresses of 39,000 subscribers to the two Australian-produced magazines _ «Creation Magazine» and «The Journal of Creation» _ to distribute his own magazine, «Answers,» in December 2005.
The Creation Museum, in Petersburg, Kentucky, tells a Biblical version of the Earth's history, asserting that the planet is just a few thousand years old and rejects scientific theories of evolution.
Ham and his company «automatically switched subscribers to the magazines to 'Answers' without the agreement or the consent of the ... plaintiff,» the complaint alleges.
Further, Ham «failed to give United States-based and Australian-based subscribers to the magazines a true choice or election between continuing their subscriptions to either or both of the magazines or switching to a comparable publication,» the Australian group said.
Creation Ministries International is seeking unspecified damages and full legal costs. It also seeking an injunction to stop Ham, who was born in Australia and moved to the United States in 1987, from using the distribution list to promote his own magazine.
The Queensland state Supreme Court has not said whether it will hear the claim. No court date has been set.
Answers in Genesis, based in Petersburg, Kentucky, declined to comment on the suit, but issued a statement that said the accusations «are baseless and without merit.
«Their decision to litigate this dispute ... is at best troubling, and is contrary to the biblical standard for Christians in handling disputes with other Christians,» the statement said.
Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky contributed to this report.
