Controversy At Religious Theme Park

In the shadows of Disneyworld, a new theme park opened Monday.

It features no pirates and no mice, but as CBS News Correspondent Bobbi Harley reports, it is attracting protesters as well as tourists.

Orlando's latest offer on the theme park front is called the Holy Land Experience. It has no rides—only facades of ancient biblical places, a restaurant that serves Goliath burgers and a gift shop that sells Jewish and Christian religious artifacts.

The owner, a Jewish born Baptist minister, says it will help him spread the word of God.

It costs $17.50 to walk through the gate -- a bargain compared to the other attractions in Orlando -- and the owners say it's barely enough to keep the place running.

But others question exactly what that money is funding.

Members of the Jewish Defense League protested outside the park Monday.

JDL spokesman Irv Rubin insists the profits made at the Holy Land Experience will go to the park's owner -- Zion's Hope -- a group that strives to convert Jewish people to Christianity.

"There are two ways you can murder a Jew-- physically like Auschwitz, and spiritually, the way of Marvin Rosenthal," said Rubin.

Marvin Rosenthal is the founder of Zion's Hope and the Holy Land Experience, and he disagrees with Rubin's assessment.

"Are we targeting Jewish people with any kind of exclusivity? The answer is absolutely 'no.' Nor do we believe that we are in the conversion business," said Rosenthal.

But for the first visitors to the park Monday—followers of Rosenthal for years—the exact opposite is true.

"There are people coming to Christ through this ministry," said Dee Lockliear, who added that Jews are the primary target. "Yes, that's mainly what he's trying to do is try to reach the Jewish people."

What the Jewish community fears most is that the Holy Land Experience—in the shadow of entertainment parks and their millions of tourists—may be an all too easy ride for economic, perhaps even spiritual, success.