Group opposes road improvements for Ark Encounter park

I hate to say it, but I don't think the group has any leg to stand on. For one, the state maintains state roads regardless of whether people are driving to church or anywhere else. And even then, if the park is a for-profit venture (and it is), then I'm not sure that it's a traditionally defined religious institution anyway. I mean, if you wanted to really stretch it, any haunted house attraction that proclaims to include devil worship would be in the same category. The only real legal definition we can go on is the non-profit status.

First, did I read that right, is that a reverend leading the fight against the road improvements?

Second, it seems like every few years there is news of plans for a new religion theamed park but then you never hear of them again. Do these types of parks ever actually get built and become a success?

One comes to mind (and it is still operating):

http://www.holylandexperience.com/

I don't consider Holy Land a theme park. It's probably more of an outdoor museum.

Seriously though, a Biblical theme park might be kind of cool if it was done right. Theme it, and make it whimsical. Make it accepting of all types of people, and make it fun and less serious and churchy. Just off the top of my head, you could theme a carousel to Noah's Ark and a flume themed to Moses parting the Red Sea. A dueling coaster themed to David and Goliath might be cool. Be subtle with the religious aspect, and don't cram the message down people's throats. The Holy Bible is a pretty large book, with a lot of interesting stories contained inside for ideas.

Holy Land kind of freaks me out a little. It seems kind of wrong to have a costumed character portraying Jesus walking around.

LostKause said:
Just off the top of my head, you could theme a carousel to Noah's Ark

They could also have a Noah's Ark themed to Noah's Ark, too. Think about it.

My mind has just been blown.

(Please do not follow with a dirty comment... lol)

Is the same group going to try to remove Noah's Ark from Kennywood? Geez!

1EyedJack said:
Is the same group going to try to remove Noah's Ark from Kennywood? Geez!

why would they, no tax dollars are involved with Kennywood. no need to start fretting about silliness that isn't going to happen. Despite all of talk radio and Fox News warnings to the contrary, there really isn't a war on religion in this country.

If you want to have some real fun, read the latest allegations about the group that now owns Holy Land Experience. it's grifting on a grand scale. I live just down the road from their (tacky as can be) broadcast center in SoCal, and (if the allegations are true, then) they are crooks beyond belief.

Doesn't TBN own Holy Land? If so, I'd believe it 100%. Now if I only knew where to look for these allegations of which you speak.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if TBN was into some shady stuff.

I have a theory. TBN owns the HAARP scientific study thingie in Alaska, which can control whether and earthquakes of which they can then predict and blame homosexuals and sinners for, which brings in more money from poor old lady's pension checks, which makes them rich.

I bet at least some of my theory is correct. lol

LostKause said:
Now if I only knew where to look for these allegations of which you speak.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=holy+land+allegations

Doesn't really turn up anything related to the park, though. :)

Holy Land Experience has expanded quite a bit in the past couple years. 5 years ago, you could drive along I-4 east of the amusements and NEVER know there was a park there. Now, they've added quite a bit of new construction and improvements to existing structures, and you'd have to be blind to miss HLE.

Of course, the improvements to I-4 serve MANY masters not related to HLE...and I wasn't here back when ALL those taxpayer dollars went to building Orlando - a city that would have less than 100K people altogether without Walt's "Florida Project". Bottom line - economic growth is good for everyone. Although I do think when a private business is THE beneficiary of, well, let's say road improvements, then the business benefitting from the project should at least be on the hook financially to some degree.

As I sift I sift through pages and pages of Google links for hours and hours, I found what I was looking for on the third page. Cool!

So to answer the question from the lmgtfy link, yes, that was pretty hard. :)

Sorry,

didn't see the request for the linkage:

http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/03/lawsuits_br...o_tri.html

And from there you can follow other links to the sordid details, Orange County (CA) register has tons of articles.

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/03/27/former-tustin-mayor-tar...it/151793/

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/02/24/kopers-lawyer-responds-...se/149742/

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/02/17/crouch-granddaughter-no...wn/149135/

etc

My favorite is the saga of the granddaughter who got the boot from the empire when started to steal more than her allotment.

Typical televangelist hucksterism