Faith Through Fright, Shows Aim to Save by Depicting Hell -WP

[Rose Siding]

LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Visitors are led around the grounds of an abandoned brick orphanage, where bodies spill out of the wreckage of a grisly car crash, a young woman is laid to rest and a lashed and bloody Jesus Christ hangs on a cross.

Outside, they are invited into white tents, where students like Steve Cashman, 21, explain the meaning of it all.
..........
By tonight, 20,000 people from across the Eastern Seaboard will have made a pilgrimage here this month. Nearly all will have been scared senseless. And many say they will have been saved.

Put on by students at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, the show known as Scaremare is part haunted house and part sermon. In its 33rd year, it is also the more tempered ancestor of a growing Halloween-time tradition for evangelical Christian churches: elaborate performances -- some graphically depicting the consequences of abortion and homosexuality, others death by terrorist attack or cancer -- that aim to literally scare the hell out of non-believers.

This evangelistic tool has flourished in hundreds of Pentecostal and Baptist churches across the Bible Belt, but it has also sprung up in California, Michigan, Canada and even Japan. Here, in school buses and church vans, visitors have come for the past three weekends and waited in line for as long as for a brief, terrifying tour and an even briefer message about salvation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10501-2004Oct29.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Amazing. In-freaking-credible.

What a twisted, perverted view of Christianity.

[wackywill]

6. I'm not a Christian

but my understanding of the Bible is that one MUST accept Jesus Christ as your savior or your soul will spend eternity in hell. I've asked several Christians about this and everyone has agreed with that statement. I then ask about the BILLIONS of non-believers and ask the following. Isn't one, not one, of these non-believers good enough to get to heaven without accepting JC? The answer has always been no, God says the only way to heaven is through his son. My reply remains the same....your intolerant god is definitely not good enough for me, and I suggest you give that some thought because I think YOU are better than that also.

So I would disagree, I think this is a normal view for a lot, but not all Christians. But I suspect you are a much better person than most of them.

[AlienGirl]

12. I have to wonder though

...if what Jesus meant about getting to the father through him was believing in his divinity, or *acting as he did*? From what I've read Jesus wasn't so big on beliefs, more on actions.

Tucker

[Skittles]

14. people arguing over who has the better imaginary friend

I get so sick of it

[The Icon Painter]

20. Voltaire

You, my intelligent friend, are a Voltairean. You prefer no concept of g-d to one that is unworthy of him. Good for you. If more people had your courage and clear-sightedness, this country and this world would be far better off.

edited for a really silly spelling mistake the checker didn't catch.

[Cerridwen]

2. How very medieval...in the extreme. - n/t

[saigon68]

18. WHO WOULD JESUS TORTURE?

Who would Jesus kill?

[MichiganVote]

3. Sicker than hell, that's what these people are

[onager]

5. But can your heart stand...Hollywood Hell House?

...with Bill Maher playing Satan, and Jesus appearing just in time to take the saved to Heaven for free punch and donut holes?

These gals use the same script as the Fundie "Hell Houses." But one of them is a co-producer of "Six Feet Under."

Check it out!

NOTE: scroll down to "It's Hell."

[PartyPooper]

4. What would Jesus say?

:eyes:

[DeadHead67]

7. I REALLY DON'T recall Jesus doing anything like this. . . .

. . .to turn people toward THE LIGHT. Somehow, I think my idea of the 'Kingdom of Heaven' is a bit different than theirs.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. The Sundance Channel occasionally runs a documentary called

Hell House. It's funny to see the fundamentalist kids clamoring to act out all the "sins" they're supposed to avoid in real life.

By the way, anyone who says that only people who believe in Jesus are saved is being unBiblical. Even fierce old Paul in Romans 2:12-16 has "righteous pagans" saved by the "law that is written on their hearts."

[Arianrhod]

9. There's nothing unusual about this.

In 1790, one year after the ratification of the Constitution separating the powers of church and state, the Protestants in the country began The Great Awakening--an attempt to undermine the First Amendment by means of grassroots disobedience. Jonathan Edwards started it off with a sermon entitled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". People were literally rolling and screaming in the aisles from fright.

Protestantism is based on authoritarian leadership, intolerance, and fearmongering. Both Luther and Calvin were ascetic extremists who expected their congregations to follow their example. No, I take that back; "expected" is too mild a term. Luther demanded instant unquestioned obedience to his word, despised women, and struggled with Catholic Church authority his whole life.

Not to take away from the reasonable practices of modern moderate Christians, but guys like Falwell and Robertson are perfect examples of what the American Church has always been. "Scaremare" is the norm, not an aberration.

[rooboy]

10. Also known as "BushWorld" n/t

[bobbieinok]

11. it's done in Tulsa by Guts ministry....I think they charge

From what I've heard, Guts started as a ministry to bikers, druggies, etc.

When I was still watching TV, I saw a few services....the warehouse style church looked full of middle-class whites.....who maybe came to see the bikers....weird

[ibegurpard]

13. People are going to be scared into joining these fundamentalist cults

by a Halloween haunted house? That's so lame.

[Borgnine]

15. They throw this shit on here.

It's disgusting the lengths they'll go to frighten people into joining their cult.

I'd love to do a "Fundie House" to frighten people from believing this crap.

(No offense meant towards people who actually follow the teachings of Christ)

[Borgnine]

16. Fear is their greatest ally.

They can only get people to be "born again" through fear.

They can only get people to support their puppet President through fear.

All they have is fear. They're pathetic.

[JoFerret]

17. Training for PsyOps units

as in The Men who Stare at Goats (Ronson)

[PurityOfEssence]

19. Booga booga booga

When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer...

Superstition ain't the way.

[undergroundpanther]

21. Moral relativists

Moral relativists can actually say torture is good .It's called ends justify the means.So if torture and fear makes you convert to Christianity specifically fundamentalist Christianity,is it"good" or manipulating through terror?.
"Christians" have no morality,and have no moral authority once they accept ideas like hell or original sin as OK or justified.. Hell is immoral unjust and sick to people with empathy and love in their hearts for real living beings more than a self described jealous vengeful god..Torture is NEVER justified or good.I don't care who or what does it for what reason.
Once A Christian is scared enough to psychologically accept and rationalize the abusiveness of people they know are not evil in hell..Once they can justify hell as "good" and "just" for their non believer kids,siblings,parents, friends ,they have already become moral relativists and do not understand morals or ethics and should not be trusted to understand these matters of conduct and heart any more than a sociopath does.What if thier capricious Yahweh throws THEM in hell for all thier faith,do they BELIERVE they deserve eternal torment? Because The bible sez manyt will call Jesus,and not be chosen to go to heaven and you never know whom the "father favors.In fact you are never sure how much you study the bible if you are"saved" izzit faith or works? Or both in what ratios? Is it the little spell of "putting jesus in your heart"

How free is this"free gift" really?
It costs you your heart and humanuity people It costs you your moral discernment of right and wrong.It makes you lose your ethical understanding.It makes you a moral relativist.


What would these "good mild mannered Christians" do,would they shout against their jealous blood soaked god's will if they saw Jesus and the devils their god made,whom God knew what they would do,since the beginning,Evil that god put in control of the world,duping people,for his will,torturing raping and tormenting their child,wife,best friend,whom they knew had a good heart..How many of the faithful would accept "gods will" and call their suffering "good" as they witnessed thier tears and screams and cries for help? If these "cristians" can justify this than they have indeed lost their heart and their humanity to fear of their vengeful god Jesus..Real love does not torture you.If Hell is torment forever it is not an act of love,it is abusive..God is an abuser.Don't internalize his amorality of hell and become a bit of hell on Earth on two legs..

[progressivebydesign]

22. The whole born again movement is about money....

..money for the people running the churches and schools. One of the greatest frauds of our time.

[Nimrod]

23. Ah, the "Hell Houses"

Sort of a Jack Chick tract brought to life by the Ned Flanders Players. Completely vile.