Jesus Theme Park Features Crucifixion Show - Great Family Values Fun!

What could be more fun for a family than watching Jesus being crucified right in front of you? Well it’s just the kind of bloody fun that America’s religious right wants. The Holy Land Experience a previously marginal “theme park” has been bought by Trinity Broadcasting and is now being injected with a flow of loyal viewers and instant marketing and much needed cash.

At $35 per head, it is also more than a theme park, it’s a tax exempt religious organization. Interesting new scam for the fundamentalists, build a theme park and call it a church. The park has managed to maintain its tax exempt status with the IRS after a long battle.

The most popular attraction? Crucifixion of course! An actor portraying Jesus is whipped through the streets of the park and finally nailed (albeit special effects) to a cross. He is then left to “die” above the cement model of the empty tomb.

Sounds like a day full of fun to me. This kind of P.T. Barnum religious experience is part of what brought down the Jim and Tammy Bakker empire. I have to wonder if it might not be treading on dangerous ground for Trinity. Who knows, maybe they can add a baptismal flume and communion wafer nachos at a later date?

UPDATE: Another park opens in Nashville (2008)