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National Geographic: Ark expedition was probably about publicity, not archaeology
Daniel McGivern's $900,000 effort to investigate a Mount Ararat structure he's "90 percent sure" is Noah's Ark never happened, National Geographic News reports. But the news service says McGivern may have known that the Turkish government wouldn't allow them to climb the mountain due to security restrictions. "McGivern may have been more interested in generating publicity than mounting a serious search, critics now suggest," writes Stefan Lovgren. "By making an early announcement, he may have tried to persuade the Turkish government into granting him a permit. Few expeditions have actually obtained clearance to climb Mount Ararat, which is located in a military zone. The choice of expedition leader—a Turkish academic named Ahmet Ali Arslan, who claims to have climbed Mount Ararat 50 times in 40 years—also raised a red flag with those familiar with previous expeditions."

Sources told Christianity Today earlier this year that Arslan would be a boon to the expedition and would help the team get the necessary permits.

"The government of Turkey did not issue a research visa, which is sad, but it's their country," McGivern told the conservative news site WorldNetDaily for an August article. "We haven't totally given up, but it's pretty obvious they're not going to give us one."

But earlier this month, McGivern told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that he has given up and won't try to put another expedition together. "This was the year," he said. "I don't have Ark fever like many who go year after year. … A good businessman calculates what amount of money and time he will invest and has to know when to walk away. Of course, Noah's Ark is totally different, way beyond business for me. Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in it. It will confirm the faith of millions … and many will be brought to faith. It will change how scientists look at the world."

McGivern told the Star-Bulletin that he has spent $160,000 on the project since 1997.

Crisis board pressures Deal Hudson to resign as publisher
Deal Hudson again tried yesterday to beat the press to the punch. In August, he wrote a piece for National Review Online saying he was being politically targeted by the National Catholic Reporter, and was resigning as an adviser to the Bush campaign to save the President's re-election efforts from distraction. The Reporter article detailed Hudson's 1994 sexual misconduct with an 18-year-old student when he was a professor at Fordham University.

Yesterday, Hudson sent a letter to supporters saying he was stepping down as publisher of the conservative Catholic magazine Crisis for much the same reasons he'd left the Bush campaign. "This is really more of a personal decision," he said. "It's the right thing for me to do. As you can imagine, the past month has been very difficult for both me and my family. There's no doubt that the recent adverse publicity about me, and the criticism that followed, influenced my decision. As long as I remain publisher of Crisis, I'll be a source of controversy."

But The Washington Times says Hudson didn't jump: He was pushed. Julia Duin reports that five of the magazine's "most influential columnists" — Michael Novak, Ralph McInerny, Michael Uhlmann, Robert Royal, and Russell Hittinger — told the board that they would resign unless Hudson was fired. (Novak and McInerny are founding editors of the publication.)

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September (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48