{"id":129,"date":"2010-12-06T17:02:47","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T17:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/gov-beshears-excellent-idea.html"},"modified":"2010-12-06T17:02:47","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T17:02:47","slug":"gov-beshears-excellent-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/gov-beshears-excellent-idea.html","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Beshear’s excellent idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"revelation.jpg\"Sure,
\nthe usual First Amendment purists think there’s something wrong with
\nKentucky Gov. Steven Beshear’s plan to help solve his state’s
\nunemployment woes by giving big tax breaks to support the construction
\nof a Noah’s Ark Theme Park. Personally, I think he’s on to something.
\nSomething big. <\/p>\n

In these hard times, when imminent divided
\ngovernment in Washington promises economic bailout gridlock, it’s time
\nto put the Bible to work all over this jobless country. Herewith, then, a
\nfew modest proposals:<\/p>\n

* Jonah Water Park and Whale Watch. New Bedford, MA. Side trips to Boston.<\/p>\n

* Israel in Egypt Adventureland. Memphis, TN. See the Pyramid! Paddle down the Nile! Drown the enemy in the Arkansas swamps!<\/p>\n

* Exodus Trek, Zion, UT. Forty-day hiking trail, food and theophany gratis.<\/p>\n

* Ruth’s Folly Farm, Ames, IA. Play follow-the-leader, pick corn, find a husband.<\/p>\n

* Song of Songs Recreation Area, Niagara Falls, NY. Couples only.<\/p>\n

* Herod’s Mountain Hideaway and Resort, Aspen, CO. Repel the Romans from the lap of luxury.<\/p>\n

* Leviticus Retirement Community, Tupelo, MS. Life as it was meant to be lived, according to the rules.<\/p>\n

* Sodom and Gomorrah City, 30 minutes east of Las Vegas, NV. Not so much.<\/p>\n

* Revelation Midway on the Mall, Washington, D.C. Dragons, horsemen, trumpets, you name it. Rapture optional.<\/p>\n

Let the tax abatements begin! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sure, the usual First Amendment purists think there’s something wrong with Kentucky Gov. Steven Beshear’s plan to help solve his state’s unemployment woes by giving big tax breaks to support the construction of a Noah’s Ark Theme Park. Personally, I think he’s on to something. Something big. In these hard times, when imminent divided government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nGov. 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After teaching at Harvard in the Department of History and Literature for three years, he became editor of the Boston Review. In 1987 he joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked variously as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist. In 1996 he became the founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and in 1998 founding editor of Religion in the News, a magazine published by the Center that examines how the news media handle religious subject matter. In 2005, he was named director of the Trinity College Program on Public Values, comprising both the Greenberg Center and a new Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture directed by Barry Kosmin. In 2007, he became Professor of Religion in Public Life at the College. Professor Silk is the author of Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II and Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. He is co-editor of Religion by Region, an eight-volume series on religion and public life in the United States, and co-author of The American Establishment, Making Capitalism Work, and One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. In 2007 he inaugurated Spiritual Politics, a blog on religion and American political culture.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/author\/msilk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}