{"id":3256,"date":"2006-04-09T23:50:33","date_gmt":"2006-04-09T23:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/04\/tierra-santa.html"},"modified":"2006-04-09T23:50:33","modified_gmt":"2006-04-09T23:50:33","slug":"tierra-santa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/04\/tierra-santa.html","title":{"rendered":"Tierra Santa"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unusual attraction in Buenos Aires:<\/a><\/p>\n

Not quite Disney World:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Jesus Christ appeared ever so slowly from the bowels of the plastic mountain in a blast of the Hallelujah Chorus. He emerged vertically, little by little, not so much like a phoenix from the ashes as, well, like Jesus rising from the dead. <\/p>\n

With outstretched arms, he ascended to look down with compassion on his assembled followers. He wore a loose blue robe, revealing a throbbing red sacred heart in the centre of his chest. Being perhaps 60ft in height, he was truly a giant among men, though half of the throng were women and a fair number of those were nuns. <\/p>\n

Any who still had their wits about them raised their cameras and began clicking away. The rest of the crowd, in all its diversity, looked on in dumbstruck wonderment. They had never seen anything like it, and neither had I. But this shouldn\u2019t have been surprising, because Tierra Santa bills itself as the first religious theme park in the world<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inclusive, too:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Though some non-believers may enjoy a stroll and a scoff, many visitors who take in the faux Holy City of three monotheistic faiths — Christianity, Islam and Judaism — are often moved. "It is a very spiritual place, and a place for the soul," the park director added. <\/p>\n

The Wailing Wall scene is dotted with papers containing wishes. An Israeli ambassador who visited donated a bit of the real wall, according to Ferro. <\/p>\n

And he was not the only one to give his blessing: the Roman Catholic Church did as well. The archbishop of Buenos Aires called the park "a place of cultural and spiritual enrichment." <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unusual attraction in Buenos Aires: Not quite Disney World: Jesus Christ appeared ever so slowly from the bowels of the plastic mountain in a blast of the Hallelujah Chorus. He emerged vertically, little by little, not so much like a phoenix from the ashes as, well, like Jesus rising from the dead. With outstretched…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTierra Santa - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/04\/tierra-santa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tierra Santa - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An unusual attraction in Buenos Aires: Not quite Disney World: Jesus Christ appeared ever so slowly from the bowels of the plastic mountain in a blast of the Hallelujah Chorus. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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