Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world's largest Christian television system, has come to the rescue of the financially troubled Holy Land Experience, a Bible-based tourist attraction near Universal Orlando.
The arrangement was more a handover than a takeover, spokesmen for both organizations said. Holy Land needed financial support and a nationwide promotional platform to remedy sagging attendance. Trinity needed land to build television-production studios for the license it recently acquired for WTGL-TV Channel 52, as well as a back lot for some of its movie production and music videos.
The arrangement announced Tuesday represents something of a theological turnaround for Holy Land. Its founder, the Rev. Marvin Rosenthal, was a Baptist convert from Judaism. At the time Holy Land opened, he said the park would not employ Christians from the Pentecostal tradition, even as hot-dog vendors....