During Dr. Robert Royalty's presentation a few weeks ago, I remember him mentioning that the Holy Land Experience theme park was tax exempt. It caught my attention because I thought: how could a theme park possibly be tax exempt? It turns out that in 2006, the theme park was able to gain the status of being exempt by taxes because it offered weekly services, had biblical text throughout the park, and etc. This notion of something religious, such as the Holy Land Experience, being tax exempt reminded me specifically of a clip from John Oliver's show (linked above) on HBO. In this portion of the show, John Oliver satirically points out the issues surrounding televangelists. All donations made are tax exempt because such programs are listed as religious non-profit institutions or churches. Preachers are able to make ridiculous amounts of money while putting it all towards personal uses, such as buying multiple jets or living in a 6.3 million dollar home. John Oliver even goes to the extent of creating his own church during the episode (here is an update from "Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUndxpbufkg&index=2&list=PLzXW-MCU2tVc34KWi9FB2L2TuGadMNlQ0). NOTE: he did eventually shut down this church after receiving some rather interesting things in the mail, some of which may be disgusting so consider yourself warned (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT3NRkllI3E&list=PLzXW-MCU2tVc34KWi9FB2L2TuGadMNlQ0&index=3).
What I first thought while watching this was: how can people throw away money to something so stupid? This video also provides insight into the challenges of running a government in which church and state are separate entities. However, this is a Christian Traditions class, and I think what this video does is challenge our notions of religion. In class, we discussed the possibility of the Holy Land Experience being a place of worship, and I think it is also important not to judge people's beliefs in televangelists like I first did. John Oliver tells the story of a woman who neglected paying for her cancer treatment and instead sent money to a televangelist. But how is this any different from Christian Scientists, people who believe in faith healing? Although televangelists may be exploiting their followers for the tax-free gains, the preaching of the prosperity gospel and seed faith are very real facets of Christian religions.
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