From the time of childhood to the death of Opryland, I’ve always lived within easy driving distance of an amusement park. Now someone wants to build one near my in-laws in Rutherford County, TN. The theme of this park will be the Bible.
Maybe I’m overreacting (now that I think about it, that should probably be the title of this blog, because it’s usually the case) but this is a horrible idea. Why do we, as Christians, feel the need to have a Christian equivalent to every secular form of entertainment? When will someone start a Christian casino? We have Christian books, Christian music, Christian greeting cards, Christian t-shirts, Christian ring tones, and the list goes on and on.
Is Six Flags over St. Louis somehow anti-Christian? Does all of our entertainment have to be Christian based? Is everything that’s not explicitly Christian then anti-Christian?
I should add that the planners are saying that it will not offer Biblical interpretation, it will an entertainment park with a Bible theme. (Christian Post article) At the same time, people in the area are promoting its possibilities.
Here’s one person who is in favor of the new theme park:
But this park may help some peoples souls. This park could be the one thing that changes peoples hearts back to loving God the way we need to. If we save once [sic] young soul we have profited more than all the gold.
It’s possible that someone could learn more about Christ through one of these theme parks. But if this amount of work and money was spent on things specifically intended to nurture God’s kingdom, how many more would learn?
In a recent blog post about Bible story murals, “Prodigal Jon” calls for a mural with the story of Elisha and the bears:
From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
Sounds like a good ride for the kids.