CHURCH GROUPS OPERATING HALLOWEEN HELL HOAXES

alloween... It is a time of year that conjures up images of carved pumpkins, kids trick or treating, and people of all ages dressed up in outlandish, spooky costumes.

   For some, though, it is a much darker occasion, like the two men dressed in trench coats who charge into a library, their guns firing.

    "Any Christians and jocks in here?"

   A victim is selected, a young girl. One of the gunmen grabs her and demands to know if she believes in God. She replies, "Yes!"

    "Kill her!" A shot echoes throughout the room.

   The scene is eerily reminiscent of what some say took place in Columbine High School last April, when two student gunmen went on a rampage and murdered 13 people before committing suicide. One of the victims was Cassie Bernall, a 17-year old who allegedly was confronted by a shooter and asked if she believed in God. Bernall was reportedly shot in the face after saying that she did. A subsequent investigation raises doubts about whether this confrontation took place as claimed, but for many in America's religious community, Cassie Bernall has become a modern-day martyr for her Christian faith.

   Now, what some say are the circumstances for her death has been transmogrified into a dramatic tableau being reenacted each night in hundreds of Christian "Hell House" performances throughout the country. Other exhibits depict abortions, gays burning in the fires of hell, the consequences of drunk driving, the temptations of premarital sex, the lure of the occult and the eternal reward of heaven. What is remarkable, though, is that this holiday pageant-noir is sometimes presented as a "haunted house" event similar to those staged by commercial vendors or community groups raising money for philanthropic activities. The hard shell religious message is often masked until people have paid their money and begun the tour of "Hell House" events.

   The hell houses have also been criticized for their stereotyping of gays and lesbians, single moms and others. The man responsible for promoting the hell house fad, pastor Keenan Roberts of the Abundant Life Church in Arvada, Colorado, is blunt in defending this latest tool for religious proselytizing. "We're not doing this to win a popularity contest," he told National Public Radio. "We're saying look, sin is hurting our nation and Jesus Christ is the answer to what you're going through."

   Roberts crafted the script for the congregation's first Hell House seven years ago. The idea was borrowed from Jerry Falwell who put on a similar display in the late 1970s at his church. Since then, the Halloween spectacle has thrived, and hundreds of "Hell House Outreach" kits have been sold to interested religious groups. Each includes a lavish 263-page manual on everything from media publicity to casting and costuming, a video of the Arvada Hell House in operation, and a "special effects" CD which includes "the voice of suicide, the voice of God, and the bone-chilling demon declaration of 'HELL HOUSE' in the opening scene..." The latest version of the "Hell House Outreach" package sells for $199 plus shipping.

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   In 1995, "Hell House" received its first boost of national publicity when Roberts appeared as a guest on the "Phil Donahue Show," paired with another evangelical pastor along with a lesbian cleric and a representative for Planned Parenthood. (Roberts insists that a "Holy Ghost glass enclosure" protected him during the taping.) The London Times, New York Times, Newsweek and Ms. Magazine were among those soon dispatching reporters to cover the annual Arvada Hell House show, and since then the popularity and controversy surrounding the Halloween spectacle have mushroomed.

   Last year, as many as 450 "Hell Houses" were operating throughout the United States. One production staged by a charismatic youth congregation in Tulsa, Oklahoma attracted such interest that it resulted in mile-long traffic jams. In London, Kentucky, over 2,100 trekked through the Calvary Baptist Church Hell House. In Salt Lake City, an Assembly of God production added scenes about gang warfare, while a Texas Hell House included a segment depicting a crack house. In another Hell House presentation, a man argues with his wife and is supposedly left vulnerable to the seductions of his secretary.

"Visitors encounter a 'demon' who prances around the coffin of an AIDS victim, declaring I tricked him into believing he was born gay! Have you ever heard something so silly?

   Other Hell House presentations can vary, but most include thematic presentations about AIDS, suicide, drinking, sex and drugs. In a Vacaville, California Hell House, visitors are led into a darkened room where a casket sits on a stage surrounded by faux flames. A "demon" leading the tour says that it is a funeral for a gay man who died from HIV. In an adjoining "abortion room," a woman lies on a hospital gurney screaming. "A small TV shows videotaped footage of a real fetus inside a womb, until at the last moment when doll parts are discarded into a metal bowl and the screen goes blank," noted an AP story.

   The pastor of the Hell House church declares, "If showing a simulated abortion keeps one young lady out of the back seat of a Camaro with her boyfriend, we've done our job."

   But there's competition for the job of scaring people back to church. The "Judgement House" is operated by Calvary Baptist Church of Clearwater, Florida, and like its "Hell House" counterpart, sells a kit for those hoping to terrorize their neighbors back to church. Offered by New Creation Evangelism, Inc., Judgement House "is an 8 scene drama that makes people aware of the reality of heaven and hell." It promises to "show them the joy of having a relationship in Heaven with Jesus," and that "hell is the ultimate haunted house, which is where they will spend eternity if they do not accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior..."

   Groups signing up for the Judgement House package become known as "Covenant" churches. The $250 tab includes a new script each year "that has been fully tested and includes color photographs of each scene, prop and costume, along with a set diagram," and a how-to manual with instructions.

   Many churches freelance their Halloween presentation offering variants of Hell House and Judgement House. In Pell City, Alabama, the Eden Westside Baptist Church offers "Revelation Walk," which a spokesperson describes as "an outdoor drama that will show what the end times will be like for those who are left behind when Jesus 'raptures' the church." Themes of the apocalypse are attracting more public interest, especially with the success of the "Christian thriller" movie Omega Code, and the popularity of the "Left Behind" series of novels by Tim LaHaye which portray the final days and Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

   Rev. Jacky Connell of Eden Westside Baptist told the Birmingham Post-Herald newspaper that the goal of "Revelation Walk" is to "evangelize the sinner, to edify the saints and to exalt the savior."

   The 12 scenes in the "Walk" are supported by over 180 members of the church's congregation who handle everything from parking to set construction. According to the Post-Herald, one segment depicts a traffic accident illustrating the chaos that will occur when Christ "raptures" millions of Christians, whisking them off to heaven. Other scenes depict the rapture event, hell, heaven (with Jesus sitting on his throne) and even the Antichrist.

   While many church leaders see "Hell House" and similar presentations as effective tools for evangelizing families, the Christianized spook shows are not without critics. The recreation of the Columbine shooting seems to have piqued even some former supporters of these Christianized Halloween displays. Pastor Dave McPherson who has been close to the Columbine tragedy as pastor of West Bowles Community Church in Littleton told the Dallas Morning News that the latest "Hell House" drama is "too close to home."

   "But even though it's not my style, I can see it can serve a purpose," claims McPherson.

   Rev. J.T. Tucker, director of Youth Ministries at Northway Christian Church in Dallas, Texas is more direct. "I detest those things," he said, referring to the "Hell House" exhibitions. He suggested that any shock value wears off quickly in a society saturated with violent images.

   "Trying to scare people into a decision is very wrong," he adds. "If you consider all the money, along with ministry hours ... if they would refocus those areas on missions in urban Dallas, I think they would have a lot bigger return..."

   Other critics, including the Human Rights Campaign, point to the frequent demonization of gays and lesbians that have become stock-in-trade for Hell House and Judgement House dramatic performances, such as one operating in Florida. There, visitors encounter a "demon" who prances around the coffin of an AIDS victim, declaring "I tricked him into believing he was born gay! Have you ever heard something so silly?" The demon adds how the dead man's soul is now suffering in hell.

   HRC spokesperson Wayne Besen calls such displays "pornography for the soul."

   "It's poising the minds of people," he told the St. Petersburg Times newspaper. "It's especially hurting gay and lesbian youth who are already under pressure."

   "You look at the attitudes, the pack mentality and what happened in Wyoming to Matthew Shephard. They want to say they aren't responsible when their rhetoric gives someone license to commit these horrendous acts?"

   Appeals for moderation, though, often fall on deaf ears, and "Hell House" promoters continue spreading their message of fear and damnation in hopes of harvesting souls for Jesus. One pastor declared, "It's what we believe, and we don't make any apologies. Satan is The Tempter, he is real, and it's so easy to fall prey."