The Ark and the Insurers

Nusret Colpan Turkish Artist

The Lord told Noah
There's gonna be a floody, floody
The Lord told Noah
There's gonna be a floody, floody
Get those children out of the muddy, muddy, children of the Lord

Rise and Shine (Arky, Arky)

 

I've written before about how often the biblical story of the Ark in the book of Genesis is used as a symbol or metaphor for refuge and protection from life's storms. Sometimes they are related to the environment and the efforts to preserve precious habitats and species. Other "arks" are the protective places and spaces for vulnerable people. The L'Arche movement of Jean Vanier comes to mind.

Then there are the conservative Christians who build arks because they take this important covenant story literally, often in support of a notion of biblical inerrancy and a six-day creation. Many of these folk also deny climate change (emergency) and feel that God wouldn't allow the Earth to be compromised or destroyed because of the Genesis Covenant. They seem to miss that God says He/She won't smite the planet again, not that we won't self-destruct.  



Truth can be stranger that fiction, though. The Kentucky owners of Ark Encounter, a 510-foot long supposed reconstruction of the biblical vessel are suing insurer damage, maybe water damage. The good ship Noah itself is just fine, but the access road has suffered a million dollars worth of damage, and the insurers don't want to pay up. Actually, there is some dispute about the source of the destruction being rain events. There was a landslide though, and these are often water-table related. We also know that intense rainfalls are more common these days because of...well, you know.  

Landslide? Flood? Aren't these described by insurers as Acts of God? Just wondering.