every been to a fundie haunted house?

[pstokely]

like one of these "Judgement Houses"

[ghostsofgiants]

1. The Radical Media Society at my school...

Is showing a documentary about that phenomenon next Friday.

Hell House
(George Ratliff, 2001, 85 minutes)

As an answer to Halloween and carnival haunted houses, the Trinity Assembly of God church in Texas stage an event known as a Hell House, where the object is to utilise horrific imagery to persuade the visitors to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Basically a collection of short, lurid plays, the event employs the members of the church and the local religious school as actors, and rails against what it perceives as the evils of the world, from rape and child abuse to homosexuality and Magic: The Gathering. Through director George Ratliff's dryly satirical lens, we see the organization and planning of the event - including auditions, construction, scripting, rehearsals - culminating in the night of spiritual terror itself. "Like a Jack Chick tract come to life."

[jmowreader]

2. Yes. They're lots of fun.

You get to see what their conception of hell is.

This is quite different from my conception of hell...you know, attending their church.

[undeterred]

3. I think their idea of Heaven might be equally scary.

:evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin:

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Seriously! When I was about ten I went to Bible school and the teachers

tols us that animals weren't going to heaven. I was so distraught!!

Obviously now I know better but what a horrible thing to say to a little kid about her pets. :cry:

Hell houses are stupid. You couldn't pay me to go in one.

[RevCheesehead]

5. Yup. Forced to go with youth group a few years ago.

Sr. Pastor insisted the kids needed to see it, even if they didn't want to go - "to generate discussion."

The short-fall: One of the girls in the group had recently attempted suicide. She freaked out in the first 10 minutes, and left - along with the Sr. Pastor.

Her brother stayed, but was visibly shaking throughout. He stood next to me, and I could feel him shaking in fear.

All focus of the "Nightmare" was on sin and evil, and atonement. There was NO mention of Grace, and NO reference to the resurrection of Jesus (unless you count the white-draped cross at the exit).

As you left the house, we were accosted by a bunch of fundie "counselors" who were there to force-feed the terrified kids. One of them was going after one of my kids, and I asked her politely to leave her alone. She became rude, but backed off when I told her I was her pastor, and would care for her.

One of the asshole counselors asked me what I thought of it. I said "you don't want to know." But they pushed me, so I said, "I think it's disgraceful to use fear as a motivating factor to talk about Christianity. Where is the Love? The beaten and bloody body of Jesus being nailed to the cross? That ain't love, that's gore."

Later, I told the kids exactly why I hated the experience. I think we bonded together that night, esp. when I told them "this is NOT what Christianity is all about."

[GrpCaptMandrake]

6. Nothing new here, really

It's all just a throwback to the grim, gruesome imagery sculpted onto the walls of Gothic cathdrals.

It's a sick and twisted attempt to terrify someone into "accepting" the fundamentalist, hell-obsessed perversions of the teachings of a man who taught (mostly) love and peace.

The Religion Industry church not too far from here is doing one. The fundies are all copycats. One church comes up with an idea, and scads more copy it. Wouldn't be surprised to find that the SoBapCon was peddling a "kit" to its member "churches."

[jackelope72]

7. Our church used to have Halloween night "lock-ins".

Basically, youth group slumber parties where no one was allowed to leave until the parents came to pick them up in the morning. They would show us movies about how rock music is influenced by Satan and how movies use Satanic imagery and references in order to win the souls of America's youth over to the Prince of Darkness.

We'd have "Praise and Worship" time, where the idea was to get yourself into such a frenzy of dancing and clapping and singing that you would actually inflict bodily harm on the person dancing and clapping and singing next to you. From there, you would work into jumping up and down and speaking in tongues, a talent I learned to fake very well.

Is it any wonder I'm now a non-religious, non-church-attending agnostic these days?