Heritage USA
Heritage USA was a Christian-themed amusement park and resort developed by televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, during the 1980s. The project emerged from their vision to create a space that combined entertainment with religious values, catering to American Christians seeking alternatives to secular vacation experiences. The complex featured a theme park, hotels, a water park, and facilities for their television production company, all designed to evoke a small-town American atmosphere and promote biblical themes.
As a pioneering effort in the realm of Christian entertainment, Heritage USA attracted significant support through fundraising efforts, where donors were promised benefits like free hotel stays in exchange for their contributions. However, the venture faced substantial challenges, including a failure to deliver on these promises, leading to lawsuits from disappointed donors. By the end of the 1980s, Jim Bakker was convicted of fraud, resulting in the closure of Heritage USA. The rise and fall of this complex not only highlighted the ambitions of televangelism but also sparked broader discussions on the financial ethics within religious fundraising and entertainment.
Heritage USA
Complex housing recreational, commercial, and residential facilities, as well as the PTL television ministry offices and studios
Date In operation from 1978 to 1989
Place Outside Fort Mill, South Carolina
Heritage USA’s twenty-three hundred acres included a theme park, a water park, campgrounds, a shopping center, and homes. For many critics of televangelism and the abuses that attended it during the 1980’s, the complex epitomized the fraudulent excesses of evangelical Christian preachers who had been gradually shifting their attentions from traditional ministry to valueless consumerism.
Jim Bakker’s vision for Heritage USA represented the pinnacle of his dreams for a ministry he had been developing, together with his wife Tammy Faye Bakker, since the 1960’s. The two former Bible-college students were pioneers in the development of televised ministries with Christian networks. They began with Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), then helped create the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) with Paul and Jan Crouch, and finally started their own PTL (praise the lord, or people that love) network. Viewers of the Bakkers’ show on PTL became enthusiastic supporters of the likable and friendly couple, sending checks to help achieve the ministry’s fund-raising goals. When Bakker offered incentives connected with the theme park and resort he was constructing, supporters upped their donations and became “partners” in the potentially lucrative investment. In exchange for a donation of $1,000, for example, investors were to receive free nights at one of the park’s hotels and discounts at its shops.
The completed project, Heritage USA, included office and studio space for the Bakkers’ television production company; a campsite; hotels, motels, and time-share condos; a water park; and the popular theme park, complete with shops, activities, and biblically themed games. The park featured a Main Street area meant to evoke small-town American life, a place set apart from the increasingly secularized world in which visitors spent the rest of the year. The park also included the Upper Room building, where visitors could view models arranged to resemble famous portrayals of the Last Supper. However, the complex did not include a sufficient number of hotel rooms for the Bakkers to make good on their promise of free stays for every thousand-dollar donor. Angry donors filed lawsuits when the ministry reneged on its promises. By the end of the 1980’s, it had been discovered that Bakker was stealing money from his own ministry. He was convicted of fraud and imprisoned, and Heritage USA was closed.
Impact
Heritage USA was marketed to a large group of American Christians who sought alternatives to traditional vacation packages that would better align with the values they espoused. It represented an early realization of the potential for the growing industry of Christian entertainment. The demise of both the theme park and the larger entertainment complex contributed to ongoing criticism not only of televangelism but also of the greed that often accompanied it.
Bibliography
O’Guinn, Thomas C., and Russell W. Belk. “Heaven on Earth: Consumption at Heritage Village, USA.” Journal of Consumer Research 16 (1989): 227ff. Presents a compelling study of visitors to the theme park and looks at the interesting intersections of sacred and secular values.
Shepard, Charles E. Forgiven: The Rise and Fall of Jim Bakker and the PTL Ministry. Rev. ed. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991. Biographical study by the award-winning Charlotte Observer reporter whose reporting contributed to Bakker’s downfall.