Hell Houses used to Scare Kids Straight during the Halloween Season
Hell Houses are “religious alternatives to traditional haunted houses that are designed to scare youth into a ‘sin-free life.'”
Instead of spooking youth with ghosts and monsters, Hell House tour guides direct them through rooms where violent scenes of damnation for a variety of “sins†are performed, including scenes where a teenage lesbian is brought to hell after committing suicide and a gay man dying of AIDS is taunted by a demon who screams that the man will be separated from God forever in hell.
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Hell Houses first appeared in the 1970s at the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, and they have been gaining popularity since 1996, when the Rev. Keenan Roberts, an evangelical Christian pastor in Colorado, began selling “Hell House kits†to churches worldwide. Roberts estimates that these kits, which cost $299 each, have been distributed to 800 churches across the United States and 18 countries. Some churches report that their Hell Houses receive up to 12,000 visitors per year and are run by casts and crews of 300 student volunteers.
Read all of “New Report Reveals How Right Wing Fuels Homophobia With Halloween ‘Hell Houses'” HERE.
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The web comic Something Positive did a storyline on those recently – you can see it starting at http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp10032006.shtml (it’s about 7 or 8 strips long).
I don’t know whether to be horrified senseless or to start bellylaughing.