Link of the Day: The Holy Land Experience

[anotheranon]

From my sister, who seems to have an odd talent for finding stuff like this: Jesus jumping Christ on a pogo stick, this is tacky!

In Orlando Florida, of course, and don't forget to check out the menu items, so cleverly named but looking like something off of the Applebee's kids menu....

I'm not even Christian and I find this offensive. Just so cheap and shallow, how can this place possibly show anything good or pure or heartfelt about anyone's faith?

Man, it's just depressing.

Comments

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

it's a hoax site? right? please? pretty please with sugar on top, even...

[kysmetkitty.livejournal.com]

Nope. I live in Orlando and get to drive by that place on occasion.

There was a lot of controversy when it was being built and even more when they applied for tax-exempt status. I never heard the outcome but someone was telling me the other day that they are indeed tax-exempt. That doesn't make any sense. It's not a church, mosque, synagogue, or temple....it's a theme park!

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

baffling!

it looks "plastigt", as we say in Swedish, a on-the-fly translation would be "looks as if made of plastic". I have a friend, who happens to be a devoted Christian (and still is somehow putting up with me) who travelled to Jerusalem in Israel. she said it was so small it was like a religious Disneyland. there is the Holy Grave and there is Golgata and there is...everything was within walking distance and there was a huge commers selling holy water and crosses and what-not. apparently the similarity to a theme park as struck Orlando salesmen too.

next? Disney - the religion?

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Can you confirm the tax-exempt thing? I looked on their site and there's no statement regarding their tax status, but this has me quite curious. They're charging $30/head for a day pass ($20 for children) and if they're not paying taxes on that I'm going to blow my top!

[kysmetkitty.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I'm not sure how I would confirm that...any ideas? If they are tax-exempt, I think that's just ridiculous.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

I did some googling and found some news stories (mostly dating from late 2001); the place was granted partial tax-exemption (for the actual "place of worship" sections) by Orange County, took the County to court in a suit for for full exemption and lost. Nothing more recent came up stating that anything had changed, so presumably they're still at partial status.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I should have known you'd come through for me on that :)

I'm glad the court turned down their suit for full exemption. It's news like that that gives me a smidge more faith in the U.S. gov't than I might have otherwise!

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

All it needs is a Buddy Christ logo to complete the image. It's 'Medieval Times' for the churchy set! WOnder how long it took them to dream up the names on the menu? Jaffa hotdogs? Is that biblical,'cause I'm flashing on 'Stargate: SG1' here (Jaffa Kree! Relish, kree!)

I usually think unintentional humor is best, but jeeze! What brand of crack were these people smoking?

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Answer is simple. Nicked from patgreene: The folks who built this thing weren't Christians, they were Leviticans (http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/archives/000662.html)!

I jest but this article makes some good points about the differences between moderate Christians (who most likely turn up their noses at the Holy Land Experience) and fundamentalists (who probably think that HLE is the coolest thing ever).

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

This is very VERY scary.