The Holy Land Experience, the 15-acre park theme park that opened earlier this year in south Orlando, will have to pay property taxes just like any other tourist attraction. The Orange County Property Appraiser's Office has denied a request from the operators of the Christian theme park, who said they deserved exemption as a religious and educational institution.

Holy Land Experience executive director Marv Rosenthal pledged to fight the decision in state court. "We think it's very inappropriate that a museum that teaches about science is tax exempt but a museum that teaches about God isn't," he said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The Appraiser's Office ruled that Holy Land Experience was an attraction and business, not a school or a church or a museum.

Holy Land Experience could face annual tax bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars unless the decision is overturned.

Critics accuse Holy Land Experience of being a front to convert Jews. Rosenthal, a Baptist minister who was born Jewish, calls himself a Hebrew Christian and believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

[07/07/2001]