Lewisville’s Vista Ridge Mall officially has new owners with big plans to turn it around. Those plans include a name change to Music City Mall at Vista Ridge and installing a monument honoring the Ten Commandments.
The owner is John Bushman, a retired U.S. Marine, and businessman from Odessa, who has said he hopes people find “peace and love” in the Ten Commandments. A second granite tablet bearing two of what Bushman has called “the greatest commandments” — to love the Lord and thy neighbor — is on the second floor.
Bushman purchased the floundering, 1.05 million-square-foot Vista Ridge Mall for $17.3 million through an online auction in September.
Several of Bushman’s other businesses, including hotels and casual dining restaurants in Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico, have similar Ten Commandment displays. He told reporters he wants the Music City Mall to be “a community space.”
“We’re not trying to make a statement or create a controversy,” Richard Morton, general manager of the Music City Mall at Vista Ridge, told Texas reporters on Dec. 29, as the block was unveiled. Instead, he said, the monument reflects the mall owner’s “belief system, and he is not afraid to share it.”
Bushman says he can revitalize the Lewisville mall just as he did the one in Odessa, which was originally called Permian Mall, by booking live, local music daily. A grand stage is being built on the mall’s second level for that purpose.
“We always have and will continue to advertise all the time for any aspiring big league artists to come display their wares, whether it’s singing, banjo playing or ventriloquists, or whatever their particular skill or talent is,” Bushman says.
According to Opposing Views, many readers praised Bushman for his efforts to remind people of the Ten Commandments.
“What a beautiful thing he is doing,” one reader commented on Facebook. “I sincerely hope & pray that you will be blessed in this endeavor and it will be a grand and wonderful success. The Lord says ‘he who honors Me, I will honor him’. That is my sincere prayer for you.”
Some felt the installation excluded those who didn’t hold Christian beliefs, but others said the man had the right to do whatever he wanted on private property, the outlet added.
“What about the nonreligious crowd?” one reader commented. “Well what about them? If they don’t believe in anything then the sight of the 10 Commandments should have no effect on them at all. If the sight of it offends them nothing is forcing them to stay. If he wants too out those in the mall, well it’s his mall and that’s his right. If you don’t like it you have the right to stay out.”
“Who cares about people feeling offended!” another reader added. “Just dont shop there it his business and he can do what he wants. You whiners who insist everything be fair to everyone better ask their parents why they didn’t tell that life’s not fair whiner yep guess what the world doesn’t revolve around you and doesn’t care about being fair to you.”
Sources: OpposingViews, Dallas News
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