"Christian Tourism"

Throughout this life, we can be confident that we walk with God and He is walking with us. We can seek to know Him, and He speaks to us through creation, through His people, by His Spirit, and in the many ways that He is manifested. In Isaiah 40, we find this passage that can remind us that He goes with us:
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,
31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

He does call us to know Him, to seek His face, to grow in His truth. We can develop a sense of spiritual awareness so that each day, our understanding is alive and our spirits and inspired by the knowledge of His presence.  Even creation speaks to the existence of God.  And, even through the spoken words and other creative expressions of our fellow human beings, we can be encouraged in the hope of Christ. We can certainly desire to minister to and encourage one another in our faith.

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Faith Radio is here to be a companion to you as you desire to abide in Christ.  We can be one of the many reminders of God's presence and we can be sensitive to where He shows up. Psalm 33 states:
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.

A photographer has posted a collection of pictures that can be viewed online - kind of like going to a museum without leaving your home. But, the subjects actually have to do with places that you can actually go - places that have a religious element.  A significant number of them, it seems, are Christian.

The New Yorker published a story on Jamie Lee Taete's online exhibit called, "Christian Tourism." Writer Casey Cep begins his article by referring to the Sight and Sound presentation of "Moses" that his aunt was going to be attending in Pennsylvania.  Cep writes:

A theatre ministry in Ronks, Pennsylvania, that started with only a slide projector, Sight & Sound now regularly stages what it calls Biblical productions—theatrical performances that run to two or three hours, with orchestral soundtracks and dozens of actors in elaborate costumes on Broadway-like sets, plus live animals.

Sight and Sound, which has been featured on The Meeting House, has two theaters, with the other being in Branson, Missouri.  It has also opened up a film wing and streaming channel.  Taete apparently saw a billboard for the Noah presentation from Sight and Sound and that became a springboard for the "exhibit," which seems to be a collection that presents a more cynical and jaded approach to church signs that seem to get posted here and there.   Cep writes: 

It was a billboard in Branson for “Noah” that caught the British photographer Jamie Lee Taete’s eye, with the patriarch’s name floating beside his gopher-wood vessel, both framing some relevant, if irreverent, information: “BACK FOR ONE SEASON ONLY!”

The article continues:

Taete’s “Christian Tourism” series is filled with images as playful and provocative as that advertisement for Sight & Sound. In one picture, taken backstage at the Great Passion Play in Arkansas, a laser-printed sign of the kind made by passive-aggressive office managers and printer-happy teen-agers everywhere marks a door: “Not an Exit Jesus Only.” In another, a hotel plaque, at a Hampton Inn & Suites in Arizona, directs passersby to a smorgasbord of possibilities: “Guest Rooms / Avis/Budget / Bible Museum / Fitness Center / Guest Laundry / Elevator.” These are the sorts of details that Taete’s skeptical eye noticed at more than a dozen modern sites of religious tourism, mostly in the United States but also in Hong Kong—where he found a Noah’s Ark almost as big as the “life-size” one at Ark Encounter, in Kentucky—and in the United Kingdom, where he visited another creation museum, in Portsmouth.

And, apparently, there was an element that stood out to the writer of this New Yorker piece; Cep writes:...even with my familiarity with the kind of religious touristing that some others might scorn, I was surprised by all the dinosaurs in Taete’s series."  He adds:

Someone once told me that there’s nothing in this world more secular than a dinosaur, but clearly the Cretaceous period and what came before it is of great concern to creationists, who rise to the challenge of defending their literalist readings of Genesis from the fossil record but also seem to understand that children like reptiles, the bigger the better.

Cue Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, which built and operates that "life-size" Ark Encounter, who is quite good at responding Biblically to news stories and cultural trends. Ham writes:

Yes, the “Cretaceous period and what came before it” is a subject we frequently write and speak about because we want people to understand how the Bible’s history applies to the world around us. This author doesn’t seem to understand that the battle is not over the evidence (like dinosaurs or fossils) but rather over differing interpretations of the evidence because of two different starting points: the eyewitness account of history from God’s Word or man’s opinions. The evidence isn’t the problem!

So are dinosaurs really “secular”? Well, nothing is secular—the world, and everything in it, ultimately belongs to the Lord. There is no neutral position, so secular really means “anti-God.” And the idea that a dinosaur can “belong” to the secularists (atheistic evolutionists, really) flows from the idea that the battle is over the evidence, not over differing interpretations of exactly the same evidence. So yes, we use dinosaurs (and lots of them!) to teach children (who, yes, really do “like reptiles, the bigger the better”) and adults the truth of God’s Word, beginning in Genesis.

He says he has referred to the dinosaurs as "missionary lizards...because we can use something that is typically presented through the lens of evolution and millions of years to help people understand the true history of the world and the gospel."

These Christian attractions, such as Sight and Sound, the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum, and Museum of the Bible, along with numerous others, are appealing because I would think that we want to be affirmed - and strengthened - in our faith.  In an age in which our senses are bombarded with forms of entertainment that do not conform to our Christian ideals, we can look for things to do that are consistent with our faith perspective. 

And, we can be inspired and attentive to expressions that bring us hope.  For instance, we can certainly see God's handiwork in the beauty of creation.  And, beauty shows up in so many ways.  In an age in which our lives seem so fast-paced, we can slow down and observe the evidence of God's presence and the work of His hands.

The New Yorker writer, Casey Cep, points out:

Previous generations of believers evangelized in whatever way they could, not just with epic films but frescoes, lyric poetry, and radio programs, so the modern move into roadside attractions and theme parks shouldn’t be so jarring. But it is, as Taete shows us over and over again in “Christian Tourism.” He captures some of the ways that these sites and the people who staff them can’t help but break character: a crucified Christ is overshadowed by a transmission tower and tangle of wires, a young actor in a helmet and tunic eats a slice of pizza, an oversized highway cross is dwarfed by a Phillips 66 gas-station marquee.

Of course, in a sense, Christianity, at least as some of us understand it, is always jarring when it makes itself truly known: generous when the world would be selfish, sincere when the culture prefers irony, loving even in the face of hostility. The cheap and easy way to look at “Christian Tourism” is with amusement and self-confident condescension; no doubt many will gaze at it with judgment and disdain. But there’s a different way, one I think the photographer himself experienced in at least a few of these tourist traps, which is to take seriously the fact that they are meaningful to the majority of people who visit them. Looking at the pictures—or, for that matter, the world—that way might be the most truly Christian kind of tourism, and you can do it without leaving home.

I remember how Ken Ham has related to me that Ark Encounter and Creation Museum are not "amusement parks," but "themed attractions."  And, based on Beth's and my experience this past summer, they do it very, very well. We are passersby in this world, "only passing through," as the old song says.   But, while we are here, we can allow God to speak to us and to reinforce the glory of His presence and truth of His Word, reminding us who He is and who we are in Him.