MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) -- One of the founders of the investment company proposing a Bible-themed park in Rutherford County was a photographer for Penthouse magazine.

Nashville newspaper The Tennessean reports Web sites that sell back issues of the magazine show Amnon Bar-Tur shot cover and centerfold photos of nude models for the publication during the 1970s.

Bar-Tur is the father of Armon Bar-Tur, the main spokesman for New York-based SafeHarbor Holding LLC, which wants to build the 282-acre Bible Park USA in the Blackman community.

The news was first posted Monday on a blog on the Web site of Nashville's WKRN television station.

After the developers released a statement acknowledging that the elder Bar-Tur had been a photographer for Penthouse but calling the report distorted and irrelevant.

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