The dream of a Bible theme park died in Florida last week, after 20 years of innovation and renovation -- not to mention cash infusions, cost cuts, and rate hikes -- failed to make the Holy Land Experience financially sustainable.
The 14-acre park in was once conceived as Christian competition for Walt Disney World. Evangelical visionaries imagined a family entertainment experience that could pull at least a portion of Orlando’s annual visitors from the mouse’s magic kingdom to the kingdom of God.
But it never quite worked. The reenactments of resurrection, scale miniature model of first-century Jerusalem, animatronic John Wycliffe, and the Trin-i-tee mini golf course were never enough. While the “living biblical museum” attracted attention, controversy, and not a few visitors willing to pay the $17, then $29, and ultimately $50 ticket prices, the Holy Land Experience couldn’t find a firm financial footing.
For the last few years of its existence, it had annual operating deficits of about $5 million, with no one willing to step up to cover that as a ministry cost. [...]
Source: This Christianity Today Article
This is not surprising, since charging people $50 per person for essentially the same experience they could have in any megachurch makes very little sense. As far as I know, there is no admission fee to enter the Grand Mosque in Mecca or to visit the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Yet some Christians seem to believe that they can sell G^D's word for profit.
"Den of Thieves", indeed!