t is a time for costumes, trick or treat candy, and partying. Halloween is nearly upon us, bigger than ever say store owners and other entrepreneurs. Amidst the revelry, though, are what along with pumpkins and masks has become an icon of this time of year -- dramatic presentations staged by Christian fundamentalist and evangelical groups with the goal of portraying the damnation of vice and sinful behavior. Operating as "Hell House," "Deadline" or "Judgment House" tours, the staged dramas take visitors through a scripted trek of rooms and live dioramas. Many deal with serious themes which critics say are inappropriate for the make-believe atmosphere of the commercial Halloween season.

   "Warning!" admonishes a sign outside one Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas area "Hell House." "By voluntarily going through Hell House X you will see ... Live Gunfire, Suicide, Blood, Strobes, Drug Usage, Death & Hell!!! Anyone afraid of the dark, or enclosed areas should notify the Tour Guide BEFORE their tour. Enter at your own risk." (

   The themes are gruesome, but represent a selection culled from the social and theological angst of the devoutly religious. Suicides, teen pregnancy and premarital sex, drug abuse and interest in the occult are usually the targets of dire warnings at "Hell house" and similar presentations. Critics have charged that the tours often deceive the public by competing with commercial "haunted house" shows and not notifying customers that they will be proselytized with a distinctly sectarian message. Others have noted that the Christian dramas stereotype gays and lesbians, single moms and others. As AANEWS observed in last year's coverage of the "Hell house" phenomenon, the concept's creator, Kennan Roberts of the Abundant Life Church in Arvada, Colorado admits that he is not trying 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."

   Jerry Falwell is believed to have staged the first such display at his church in the 1970s. The idea appealed to aging leaders of the "Jesus Freak" movement which exploded across America a few years earlier. With its emphasis on populist-style evangelism and dramatic flair, religious groups and "spirit filled" churches were soon creating their own Halloween presentations with the idea of terrifying people into the pews. They became the dramatic equivalent of Jack Chick-style religious tracts, emphasizing personal salvation and the ever-present seduction of the devil. Roberts wrote an official how-to manual for the "Hell House," which eventually swelled to a 263-page book on everything from costuming and music to generating media publicity.

   An appearance in 1995 on the Phil Donahue Show gave both Roberts and the "Hell House" fad new media exposure, especially since the Abundant Life minister was paired off with a lesbian cleric and a representative from Planned Parenthood. Four years later came the shootings at Columbine High School; and some "Hell houses" included a colorful, if imaginative re-creation of the events. An estimated 450 "Hell houses" were operating during the Halloween season.

   Slightly less gory are the "Judgment House" kits sold by another religious group headed by Alabama youth evangelist Tom Hudgins. In 1983, frustrated by the staid Halloween parties and presentations made by traditional churches, Hudgins came up with an idea for a more "in your face" drama. "Judgment House" was born complete with a step-by-step instruction manual. The theatrical show also includes software produced by Judgment House, Inc. that keeps track of the names and addresses of those who attend the Christianized horror shows.

   Churches also concocted their own dramatic presentations using names like "Revelation Walk" where the goal of the show is "to evangelize the sinner, to edify the saints and to exalt the savior." This year, for instance, The Christ is Coming Baptist Church in Boaz, Alabama is presenting its own Halloween drama in Spanish. The skit, "Where's There's Smoke, There's Fire" attracted over 2,000 spectators last year. One local student told the Huntsville Times newspaper that "a ton" of her classmates attended. "In school the next day, I heard a lot of them say how it reached them... They may not have become Christians, but it made them really think."

   This year, "Hell house" presentations seem to be fewer in number and attracting less of the controversy they did previously. While many Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals reject October 31 as an occult celebration, some churches are concentrating on "Safe Halloween" events for youngsters. Reasons for the possible decline in "Hell house" numbers may reflect the cost and effort behind staging such events, and the fact that the public is now more aware -- and perhaps jaded -- to the hard-shell religious message and hyperbolic portrayals of abortion, homosexuality and other "sins." Real life offers competition as well. American Express Services reports that an estimated $6 billion will be spent this year on costumes, candy and other party accouterments. That doesn't include the cash people will part with at the movie box office for films like "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" and the re-release of William Friedkin's classic, "The Exorcist," based on the best-selling novel by William Peter Blatty.

   Religious publications and web sites continue to debate the status of Halloween. Is it an authentic Christian holiday, or one based on pagan roots? Is it a harmless secular event, or a "gateway," like Harry Potter books or Ouija boards, leading vulnerable youngsters and others into the occult?

   For many fundamentalists and evangelicals, Halloween is a pagan rite; lock the doors, confine the youngsters, and fight off the devil worshippers and witches, say some. A poll running on Excite news, for instance, asks web surfers "Do you think that celebrating Halloween is a sin against Christianity?" About 20% answer in the affirmative.

   "Nothing could be further from the truth," writes Father Augustine Thompson in reaction to claims that Halloween is a pagan bacchanal. "The origins of Halloween are, in fact, very Christian and rather American." Thompson's essay on the beliefnet.com web site adds, "Halloween falls on October 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic piety."

   "It's true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on October 31 -- as they did on the last day of most other months of the year," Thompson adds. "However, Halloween falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints, or 'All Hallows' falls on November 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to November 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter's at Rome. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland..."

   Most modern pagans say that Halloween has its roots further back, though, in the festival time known as Samhain (pronounced sow -- rhymes with "now"). Indeed, Halloween occurs near the time of agricultural harvest, which to early, nature-oriented religions symbolized the intertwined connection between birth and death. The Celts, ancestors of the Scots, Irish and Welsh marked this as a time of year when all manner of supernatural events took place. The wall between the living and those beings in the afterlife was crossed, and spirits or ghosts strolled through villages. People often put out propitiatory offerings. As Christianity spread throughout the western world, its holidays were often grafted on to the more ancient pagan celebrations. The Winter Solstice season became "Christmas," and the time of Samhain was coopted as "All Saints Day." The night before was "All Hallows," or Halloween.

   In different cultures, the residue of a harvest festival or Samhain itself survived with folkloric tales, asking for and receiving food, costuming and mummery and more. Halloween in early America was much like the original celebration of the season we know as "Christmas." It involved drinking, rituals of misrule and other forms of revelry.

   Christian fundamentalists rave that Halloween is a temporal doorway to the occult, and some new agers consider it a magically charged time of the year. Rev. Conrad Nordquist of St. John's Episcopal Church in Costa Mesa, California says that it is a "secular holiday ... that has served to frighten little kids."

   "Halloween is a great opportunity for all American children to have fun on a vague theme of scariness and preposterousness and for adults to enjoy children being children. I love it!" he told the Los Angeles Times.

   This year, the commercialization of Halloween seems to be attracting as much controversy as the alleged religious overtones of the holiday. It is the second biggest holiday (after Christmas) in terms of dollars spent. USA TODAY notes that 86% of Americans will decorate their houses with Halloween-themed items, and spend $1.25 billion on costumes. Seventy-eight percent of youngsters will deck themselves out as ghosts, goblins, presidential candidates or other scary figures, with 28% of adults indulging. Eight percent of pet owners will be dressing up their dogs, cats and other animal friends, although veterinarians advise against this.

   Halloween also seems to be riding the wave of economic globalization. In Singapore, the Bahamas, Sri Lanka, Eastern Europe and Hong Kong, Halloween has caught on as both a social event and a commercial moneymaker. A radio station in Sri Lanka is holding a competition for the oddest Halloween recipe and most bloodcurdling death screams. In the former British colony of the Bahamas, the centuries old festival commemorating the execution of Guy Fawkes, the Catholic terrorist who allegedly conspired to blow up the House of Lords, "has been scrapped for Halloween, American style," notes Association Press.

   "Critics say it is just another manifestation of creeping U.S. commercialism in the age of globalization. But, either as an American export, a new twist to an old ancestor-worship festival or a welcome excuse for another party, Halloween, which this year falls on Tuesday night, is taking root around the world..."

   There is resistance, though, to this cultural imposition.

   Roman Catholic officials in Guatemala last week told parishioners not to celebrate Halloween, alleging that the event threatened the spiritual health of their children. Alejandra Vazquez, coordinator of the nation's Family and Childhood Archbishopric bureau, suggested that the focus should instead be on traditional celebrations such as the November 1 "Day of the Dead" when people visit graves of ancestors, and leave offerings of food and decoration. Stickers proclaiming "I love Jesus, not Halloween," have appeared in Guatemala City shop windows in recent days, notes Reuters news service.

   In France, some Protestants and Roman Catholics are now denouncing Halloween as a satanic festival that could injure youngsters. A statement from the Protestant Evangelical Committee for Human Dignity this past week charged that Halloween is a ploy for commercial interests, and represented "a veritable resurgence of Druidical beliefs."

   "Our lay society ... must not focus its attention on the death cult that surrounds Halloween," added the CPDH broadside. Meanwhile, in the town of Saint Raphael, Roman Catholic priests organized an anti-Halloween protest on Wednesday, charging that the holiday was "devoted to Satan, ugliness and absolute evil." Father Louis-Marie told the rally, which included 120 Catholic school students, "We should have something else to offer children besides a macabre festival. Imposing on them only that which is cold, dark and morbid is not good."

   He added that Halloween was a commercial festival "directly imported from the United States."

   "You can't celebrate both Halloween and All Saint's Day," declared another speaker, Father Don Pascal. "You can't mix everything together under the pretext of having fun."

   Salem, Mass. is ground zero for partisans on all sides over Halloween. This time of year is characterized by rampant commercialism, and tension between Christian pastors and Wiccans who flock to Salem as a communal focus for their own spiritual beliefs. There are as many as 2,000 people out of a total population of 39,000 who identify themselves as "witches," says writer G. Jeffrey MacDonald of Beliefnet. Each Halloween season, they are joined by thousands of other Wiccan pilgrims who flock to Salem to pay homage to the 20 victims of the infamous 1692 Witch hunt.

   "It's safe for someone to be a witch in Salem, declared Theresa Pendragon. "That's why Salem is a witch Mecca."

   While witches and their supporters visit historic Salem -- part of a $42 million tourism industry for the town -- Christian ministers see rampant evil threatening the community. Rev. Kenneth Steigler, a United Methodist Church minister who moved to Salem in 1991, is joining with several area evangelical pastors to wage a $10,000 publicity campaign to proselytize area witches and others. Students from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary will litter the town with 50,000 "anti-Halloween, pro-Jesus tracts," notes Beliefnet, and a local church will offer an open house "where dabblers in paganism can hear praise music and testimonies every night..."

   Steigler's anxieties over Salem and the annual Halloween festival reflect those of many evangelicals -- that faith-hungry seekers "will die spiritually" if they begin flirting with Wiccan or new age philosophies of empowerment. For Steigler, even the holiday festivities are the equivalent of poisoned candy. Those dabbling in the occult, he says, are on a slippery slope to Satanism. "I take a bite, then another bite. I lose my sense of right and wrong. I lose my moral compass."

   Local witches disagree. Laurie Stathopoulos, who operates Crow Haven Corner, says that her brand of witchcraft helps others to become "good spiritual people and then choose their own religion."

   All of this has ignited debate throughout America's evangelical and fundamentalist subcultures. Richard Mouw, who writes a column "The Evangelical Mind" for Beliefnet, says that while not all of the worry about Halloween is justified, Christians should be "concerned." He notes that "evangelicals have been getting stricter on this matter, and I am sympathetic to the trend." Mouw warns readers about the "genetic fallacy" -- postulating that because something is rooted in a certain meaning or belief system, it still has that meaning today -- but adds that "we ought to be increasingly nervous about Halloween practices in light of new developments in our culture." The new age movement, with its belief-smorgasbord of occult, irrationalist practices is one red flag.

   "We can no longer take 'innocent' Halloweens for granted.

   We also note a current of discussion about the constitutionality of Halloween. Again, some Christians feel that with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions banning student-led prayer or other religious activities in public schools, the celebration of a "religious" event like Halloween would then be hypocritical.

   Educators in the Dallas suburb of Coppell, Texas are prohibiting any school-sponsored Halloween activities. "The children of Coppell are on the cutting edge of a national trend that is turning the old-time celebration of kids, candy, and costumes into an uncomfortable period," writes Beliefnet reporter Deborah Caldwell, one they choose to avoid. She notes that "In the case of Halloween, many Muslims, some Jews, and most evangelical Christians object to Halloween on religious grounds -- and are making their views known."

   Already, there are questions over whether Christian parents can organize "alternative" events to school-sponsored Halloween activities.

   "For a significant number of people, Halloween represents the full expression of an occultic viewpoint," says Robert Knight of the Family Research Council. "If you're going to kick Christian celebrations like Christmas out of the schools, and leave Halloween in, you're going to have a reaction. And if they're going to be evenhanded in not establishing religion in the schools, they're probably going to have to do away with Halloween."

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