Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come is a Holy Land Experience located in Orlando, Florida where the same attraction of Disney land is. The attraction is located in Orlando for easier access for people who want to experience sites such as Jerusalem. The Holy Land Experience compares to texts that are related to the Bible and other Gospel stories. The place is a literal reaction of historical events like the crucifixion of Jesus and shows how the Romans acted. The author talked about how every time he went to take a picture the actor would strike a pose even if he took a quick flash. However, this experience tries to persuade Jews to convert to Christianity. In class we talked about how the place forces one idea of the pilgrimage rather than letting one learn and believe what they want to believe. The Holy Land Experience is a narrow understanding of the life of Jesus. The Holy Land Experience is becoming a less popular attraction and is suffering in means of generating a profit.

Malcolm X and his journey to Mecca

Reading about Malcolm X and his journey to his religious holy site re-opened my eyes to racism in America; although this story was written in the ‘60’s it makes me think of how racism still exists in parts of the United States just like how last month in the South with the Jena 6. Malcolm X had always been thought less of by white people back in America, and what surprised me the most in reading this story is how once he landed in Germany and throughout the rest of his trip everyone treated him with great respect since he was a Muslim from America and how they all treated him like a brother.
For Malcolm it seemed that his life was completely different outside of the United States in how all the people acted towards each other. He talked many times about it just being a rainbow of colors with all the different ethnicities there. I am from Sioux City, IA, which is not a small town, but my school and neighborhood is mostly white. This summer I went to Paris, London, and a small town in Germany. I noticed in Paris and London how there was many, many different races, but it seemed like they didn’t judge each other as much as some of the American’s do back in the U.S.
I liked how when Malcolm was in Jedda how everyone was “all together, brothers! All honoring the same God Allah, all in turn giving equal honor to each other,” as said on page 6 in the last paragraph. X talked about how all the men had to wear the same outfits and you couldn’t tell if someone was poor, rich, famous, or anything about their occupation. He was surprised when he found himself sitting next to the brother-in-law of the son of the ruler of Arabia.
I think that this journey that the Muslims must take if they are able to, to go see Mecca would be an amazing experience. I am Lutheran so I will never be able to go there, but I think it would definitely be a life changing experience that one would never forget!