Did you see the Associated Press story on the actor who played Adam in a 40-second film being shown at the Creation Museum?
I'll print a copy of the article at the end of today's blog. The guy, 27-year-old Eric Linden, owned a sexually-oriented web site (which he has since sold) and did some modeling for a clothing company "with an explicit mascot."
It's a bit of an embarrassment for the devout Christians who created the Creation Museum, which just opened on Memorial Day near Cincinnati. They immediately stopped using the video while they investigate the allegations.
They may have to find a new Adam... but it's really no big deal. The guy is an actor, not a staff member or museum official. He played the part of Adam for a video, following the script. Actors play all sorts of roles. Linden comments that if he played a murderer in a show, it doesn't mean he'd go out and kill somebody.
A similar brouhaha broke out in January, 2006, on a larger scale when I was one of the first reporters in the country to write that Chad Allen, the actor who played a lead role in the Christian film The End of the Spear, was an outspoken gay rights advocate.
The producers of The End of the Spear had already committed to Allen in the role of missionary Nate Saint before they discovered the actor was a prominent promoter of gay rights. They wound up keeping him, and Allen told me he had many long, soul-baring talks on the set with Steve Saint, the 55-year-old real life son of Nate Saint, one of five missionaries killed by the Auca/Waodoni Indians in Ecuador in 1956.
In the end, the filmmakers kept Allen and the controversy that erupted after its release probably only helped at the box office.
It doesn't matter if the person playing the role is an imperfect, flawed, sinner, whether militantly or apologetically so.
I played Jesus in several church productions over the years -- before my dark hair turned gray (well, salt & pepper) and I gained a few (well... who's counting) pounds.
Who knows much about the spiritual life of Jim Caviezel, star of The Passion of The Christ? I've read that he's a good Christian man but how much would that affect the impact of that powerful movie?
The Lord of the Rings, one of my favorite movies (actually a trilogy) of all time, starred a self-described gay atheist, Ian McKellen, as Gandalf. McKellen's lifestyle and belief system detract not one iota from Peter Jackson's masterpiece of a movie.
In my personal experiences as a churchgoer, not counting my job writing about religion, I have had one pastor who had an affair with his secretary, another pastor who was secretly gay, and a third who quit in the middle of a service saying the church board was making his life miserable.
Those men let me down, but their weaknesses didn't affect the truth of their sermons.
That an actor who plays Adam in a religious video once owned a website called "Bedroom Acrobat" means nothing to those who see the video. Whether the museum finds a new Adam or keeps the old one, the Creation Museum's integrity and its mission will not be affected.
(By the way, the photo of Adam and Eve that I took at the Creation Museum and posted in my June 1 blog was of statues, and unrelated to the Adam-on-film controversy. I wonder, however, who modeled for the statue and if he ever did anything wrong? Sorry, couldn't help being a bit facetious.)
Ironically, according to the Bible, Adam was the one who bit the forbidden fruit -- not necessarily an apple, by the way -- and caused all humanity to lose its special place in God's creation. And what did Adam do when God confronted him? He blamed it on Eve, of course ("The woman you put here with me -- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." -- Gen. 3:12, NIV).
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I just spent an hour on the phone with Brenda Lee, a former Jehovah's Witness who wrote a book titled "Out of the Cocoon." She is articulate in providing an inside look at the darker side of this religion. You can read more about her and her book here.
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Here's the AP story on Adam:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS -- The man picked as Adam by a museum based on the Bible’s version of Earth’s history led a different life outside the Garden of Eden, flaunting his sexual exploits online and modeling for a line of clothing with an explicit mascot.
Registration records show that Eric Linden, who portrays Adam taking his first breath in a film at the new Creation Museum, owns a graphic Web site called Bedroom Acrobat. He has been pictured there, smiling alongside a drag queen, in a T-shirt with the site’s suggestive logo.
Mr. Linden, a graphic designer, model, and actor who grew up in Columbus, also sells clothing for SFX International, whose initials appear on clothing to spell “SEX” from afar and serve as an abbreviation for its mascot, who promotes “free love,” “pleasure” and “Thrillz.”
The Creation Museum’s operators, informed of Mr. Linden’s online appearances, suspended airing of the 40-second video in which he appeared.
The clip is one of 55 featured on tours of the museum, near Cincinnati in Petersburg, Ky., which tells the Bible’s version of Earth’s history that the planet was created in a single week just a few thousand years ago.
“We are currently investigating the veracity of these serious claims of his participation in projects that don’t align with the biblical standards and moral code upon which the ministry was founded,” Answers for Genesis spokesman Mark Looy said in an e-mail statement.
Mr. Linden said he is no longer affiliated with the site.
“It’s a different story when you grow up a little bit,” said Mr. Linden, 27. “I’m a Web designer and I was trying to think to the future and capitalize on different domain names, just trying to be clever. I handed the domain name off to somebody, so I really don’t know what’s going on with it.”
Ownership records available through the NetworkSolutions database show Mr. Linden registered the site 18 months ago.
Mr. Linden, who now lives in Los Angeles, said his modeling work for the clothing line is just one of the many jobs that make up his career.
“They’re just like a kind of hip, trendy clothing line,” he said.
He said he learned of the opportunity to play Adam through a childhood friend, and has great respect for the founders of the Creation Museum.
“For the Creation Museum, I did what I did as an actor. It doesn’t necessarily mean I believe in evolution or ... in creation,” Mr. Linden said. “I’m hired to get a point across. On the flip side, if I was hired to play a murderer, that doesn’t mean I’d go out and kill somebody. It’s make-believe.”
Mr. Linden said he was selected for the role from a lineup of contenders because his looks were sufficiently generic.

Toledo, Ohio June 8, 2007