Bible Amusement

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from Christian Press, April 16, 2007, with a headline:Bible Theme Park Proposed For Tennessee, the following are excerpts:A major New York real estate and land developer has proposed plans to build a Bible based theme park in Tennessee, which would depict stories from the ancient text.Officials from RutherfordCounty, the fastest growing county in the state, met with Safe Harbor Holding to speak about possible plans for Bible ParkUSA, this past Friday.Since the interested company is not religiously based, the theme park which would depict scenes and stories from the Bible would not include religious interpretation, explained Marsele Durham, a spokeswoman for SafeHarbor to the Tennessean.They see it as an entertainment park, she added, the amusement park would be much like a story park, and would include traditional rides that are found in amusement parks.It would emphasize the history of the Bible as well as its archeology, and plans to have a Williamsburg-type working village feel to it.Well, many locals are enthusiastic about the prospect, especially those who wish to see more biblical influence in the area, others have noted concerns. They see the park as a tax burden and the park’s purpose is only to make money, not spread Christian values.

Tom:

Dave, let’s start with the last thing. The park’s purpose is to only make money, not spread Christian values.

Dave:

Of course.

Tom:

Well, how can that be when they are having something that’s biblical, although we certainly wouldn’t want to have any religious interpretation of this biblical stuff.This is theater of the absurd, Dave.

Dave:

Yeah, it’s not biblical because these people don’t believe the Bible.

Tom:

But they believe in mammon, or to abuse the King James, filthy lucre.

Dave:

Look, Tom, if Christian movies can go so far astray trying to depict what’s in the Bible, what about these people who don’t even know the Bible, and they don’t want to depict what’s in the Bible, and furthermore, how can you do it with an entertainment park?Tom, theater of the absurd, it’s—I can’t think of a word that’s strong enough!

Tom:

Well, they are living up to the title.Now here’s the title, this is a “muse”ment park.Now Dave, I would encourage our listeners, our viewers, to look up the word “muse” in the scripture.What does “muse” mean?I think it’s in the Psalms or Proverbs or somewhere, it means, to think.What does a “muse” mean?It means, not to think.So here we have a “not to think” park, Dave, but it’s a feel good thing because you think you’re really picking up some of these biblical vibes there.

Dave:

A lot of amusement in the church, Tom, that’s exactly what it does, it’s in the place of Bible study, and you know, the Lord and thinking about Him and His Word.So, I don’t know, they must have some investors, they must have someone who thinks this idea is going to fly because if some association with Bible stories and so they would get Christians who want to get a light touch of Bible, or whatever, and have some fun.

Tom:

They’re putting it in the Bible Belt area of the country so it’s going to attract people that way.

Dave:

Tom, words fail me for what is going on in the church and in the world, it’s just—

Tom:

Well, I’ll give you two words, apostate Christianity.

Dave:

But this isn’t even Christianity, but it would take apostate Christianity to go there.

Tom:

That’s what I’m talking about.There is no doubt that the apostate church, the apostate church of the Antichrist is being developed.I think the structure has the foundation laid, the sides are up, there’s a roof over the top, I think we see more and more things contributing to that.Dave, you know, not to beat this thing down, but it is crazy:It says, “It would emphasize the history of the Bible as well as its archeology, and plans to have a Williamsburg-type working village feel to it.”So we get to walk through old things of antiquity.”What does that mean?You can’t give any history, you can’t give any biblical history along with it other than—you know, how much of the Bible could you draw out to make something like this thing impressive or interesting, I don’t know.

Dave:

Tom, Number One, these people do not know the Bible, they do not know the God of the Bible, they do not—

Tom:

But Dave, they will get evangelicals to help them, that’s what they do with movies.You know, they say, well yeah, we don’t know what we’re doing here but let’s get the imprimatur, or the stamp of thee evangelical church and they’ll take, you know, literally they will buy out theaters and they will have there people there.

Dave:

But Tom, you know how it works in the movie industry, and let me tell you how it works in this industry.We’re going to make money!Oh, give us some biblical suggestions.Well, I don’t like that, I don’t think that would fly, you know, what other suggestions have you got.Well, yeah, well that’s—Tom, it isn’t going to work because the Bible isn’t going to be in it, this has nothing to do with the Bible, and the bottom line is, how much money can we make, how attractive can we make it to these people.So, if you’ve got a light touch of Bible at all, Bible archeology, you’re going to present it in an amusement park, and the truth?The Word of God is truth.My Word is truth, Jesus said.And to pretend thatyou’re going to present anything related to that in an amusement park by ungodly people who will put this together, it is worse than a joke, Tom, it is an insult to God.

Tom:

But Dave, I think it’s going to make money, because one of my great concerns, and we’ve been talking about this for a while, we see it out there, biblically illiterate Christians.They have Bibles, they don’t read them, so we’ve got shallowness and this is the result.

Dave:

The next question, Tom, is, are there many Christians? That’s something serious for them to seriously think about.