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 | Curtis Road Church of God, in Champaign, IL: Their Hell
House consists of: a young man [who] dies of AIDS; a "botched"
abortion; "bodies [that] lie splattered with blood after a
school shooting"; "a high school student blows his
brains out after he's cut from the football team"; and "a
drunken driver lives to watch his family die." 1 |
| Bible Way Church in Eldon, MO: Abortion, homosexuality, a
teen drug party, and occult scene will be featured. Church officials
here claim that almost 40 percent of those who came to its first Hell
House in 1999-OCT "received Jesus Christ their Savior
before leaving." Their Bible
Way website, explains the Hell House as an essential tool
to combat the:"... spiritual battle raging everyday. That battle is for the eternal destiny of our soul, and if we choose to follow the world's path the results will be a very real, eternal hell. Sin and rejection of God's truth always brings destruction and devastion [sic]." |
| Proposal for an "Un-Hell House: As mentioned elsewhere on this web
site, the end of October is also the time when Wiccans
celebrate their end-of-year festival, Samhain. Wicca is based, in part, on the
beliefs, symbols and practices of the ancient Celtic period. Samhain is not the Celtic
God of the Dead, as is commonly believed. It is actually the end of summer
Sabbat (seasonal day of celebration). It was a time of great feasting. The veil
between this world and the next was believed to be at its thinnest at this time
of year. The ancient Celts performed divination and hoped that those who have
died would return to visit them. A group in Colorado was hoping to organize a "Samhain House" at Halloween time. Rather than scaring people with a sequence of horrible tableaus designed to create terror and revulsion, they would portray their Wiccan/Celtic ancestors in past settings. One actor in each scene would come forward and explain what was happening during that era. Everyone would then go to a feasting room where they would socialize until a meal was served. It does not seem to have progressed beyond the discussion stage. |
Year 2001 developments:
| Arvada, CO: The Abundant
Life Christian Center will sponsor its 7th annual Halloween
Hell House this year. It will feature four scenes which the group
feels are consequences of sinful behavior: abortion, a rave party, gay
marriage and teen suicide. Cost will be $7.00 per person. The church is considering a $12.00 admission to an "express line" and a $20.00 personal seasonal pass. Liberty for Women, a pro-choice organization, will be holding seven silent protests nearby, in opposition to the Hell House. They will show the names of abortion providers who have been killed by anti-abortion individuals and groups. Executive director Peggy Loonan commented: "It's graphic, yes, but we want to be in their faces." She feels that church members will be "stunned to have their tactics used against them." Associate pastor Keenan Roberts said: "We're just showing the truth. Nobody is going to change what we say or how we say it." |
| Scottsville, KY: Victory Hill Ministries will be holding
Hell House for the fourth
consecutive year. It will feature scenes illustrating homosexuality
and suicide, a terrorist attack, domestic violence, abortion, date
rape, and Heaven and Hell. In the
past, critics have referred to what they call the Hell House's
rhetoric of hate. However, Senior Pastor Nathan Oakes said the church
message is really one of love. "Sometimes it takes greater love to
tell the truth than to accept a lie. I'm willing to risk being hated
to tell people that God loves them." |
| Various locations: Commercial haunted house events -- without significant religious content -- continue this Halloween. However, many have toned down their content, because of the SEP-11 terrorist attacks. A haunted house in Florida has eliminated "a maniacal gun-toting character covered in blood, along with zombies in bloody business attire." The haunted house in Salem, MA, will no longer announce "My victims are ready" when they send customers into rooms with snarling demons. They will now refer to "fearless souls." |
More recent events:
|  A documentary movie
titled "Hell House" was released in 2001. It is performed annually at
Halloween time by youths from Trinity Church (Assemblies of God) in Cedar
Hill, TX, near Dallas. Over 10,000 visitors attend each year. Included in the
video are including auditions, construction, scripting, rehearsals, and
performances. IMDb website has links to 28 reviews.
2 Some are rather brutal:
| ||||||
| 2002: Charisma News Service reported on negative reaction
towards some of the several hundred churches who are running Hell Houses:
| ||||||
| 2006-OCT: Matt Bors reported on a visit to an Ohio judgment
house to the American Humanist Association. He wrote: "... instead of ghosts and goblins, Hell houses are filled with actors playing the roles of 'sinners' -- you know, like pregnant teens, homosexuals, aids victims, drug users, adulterers, humanists. The goal of Hell houses is to scare all us 'sinners' out there into changing our lives and getting good with God before our final judgment." He has a drawn an interesting cartoon of his trip. However, he did not seem
to be saved as a result of the experience.
6 | ||||||
| 2008-OCT-31: Russell D. Moore of the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY criticized "Judgment house
evangelism" in a Baptist Press article. 17 He offered seven reasons why
hell houses
don't win many people to Jesus:
| ||||||
| 2009-MAY: The Secular Parent condemned hell houses as: "probably one of the most sick and twisted things that religious organizations use to trick a child into following the tenets of Christ?and they?re gaining in popularity." The webmaster suggested that the portrayal of violence is perceived by children as a form of torture. 8 |
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- Bill Berkowitz, "Christian Right plans holy havoc for Halloween," AlterNet.com, 2000-OCT-16, at: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9937
- "External reviews for Hell House," IMDb, at: http://www.imdb.com/
- Nathan Rabin, "Hell House," The Onion A.V. Club, at: http://www.avclub.com/
- Maitland McDonagh, "Hell House: Review," TV Guide, at: http://movies.tvguide.com/
- Andy Butcher, "Halloween 'Hell Houses' come under fire. Christian 'shock evangelism' program criticized for insensitivity," Charisma News Service, 2002, at: http://www.beliefnet.com/
- Matt Bors, "Cathartic Comics: Undercover in Hell," American Humanist Association, 2006, at: http://www.americanhumanist.org/
- " 'Judgment house' evangelism," Baptist Press, 2008-OCT-31, at: http://www.bpnews.net/
- The Secular Parent, "Why Hell Houses Hurt All People of Faith," 2009-MAY-01, at: http://secularparenting.wordpress.com/
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Latest update: 2009-SEP-01
Author: B.A. Robinson
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