Hell Houses

[Bishka]

This is a new thing to me and apparently these 'Hell Houses' have been around for years.

HELL ON EARTH A Jewish boy (almost) gets the Holy Spirit while visiting Hell House By Justin Ravitz



A first-time raver pops a pill, gets gang-raped and commits suicide. A pompom-toting cheerleader endures a literally gut-wrenching industrial vacuum included abortion. Two gay men wed and smooch each other and one soon dies an excruciating AIDS death. A trenchcoat-wearing, Dungeons & Dragons-playing, heavy metal geek guns down a classroom of bullies. A virgin gives it up to her new boyfriend on her out-of-town parents’ bed and contracts HIV. Coffee-swilling hipsters write a comedy sketch about Christian fundamentalists.


They will all go, kicking and screaming, to Hell—escorted by a chortling, black-robed demon-MC, snarling hell-hounds and mortal ticket-buyers brave enough to enter Hell House. A production of Les Freres Corbusier at the 14,000-square-foot St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, this is a haunted house of sin and consequence. During my hour-long tour through dozens of rooms and levels, creaky corridors and sticky curtains, I was bled upon and looked into the eyes of a doomed fetus (played by an actor in a red leotard). I heard the moans of the damned (actors playing terrorists, drunks, dandies, unwed mothers), stepped over their prostrate bodies and shook off their clutching, blood-stained hands. I had an audience with Satan himself (a


vocoder-voiced lounge lizard), and I politely refused a prayer session with a blond girl-angel standing beside a bearded Jesus. Giggling, wiping the dry-ice vapor from my eyes, I felt like an escapee from a painting by Hieronymus Bosch as interpreted by a crazed Outsider Artist—just the kind



of avant-garde theater experience only available in New York.
Except it’s not, and New Yorkers are over a decade behind what’s become an October ritual at hundreds of Christian Evangelical churches in the South and Midwest. First innovated by Jerry Falwell in the 1970s, Hell Houses became a Bible Belt institution in the mid-’90s thanks to youth minister Pastor Keenan Roberts. In a press release, he describes Hell Houses as “a spiritually based adventure depicting the hell and


devastation that Satan and this world can bestow on those who choose not to serve Jesus Christ.” The explicit aim of this full-sensory-assault morality play is straightforward: to shock lapsed Christians and non-believers into converting or recommitting themselves to godly, sin-free lives.






http://www.nypress.com/19/41/news&columns/feature2.cfm

 

[Booko]

This is a new thing to me and apparently these 'Hell Houses' have been around for years.

Yeah, they have. It kinda reminds me of Reefer Madness.

 

[Zephyr]

Rediculous... That's all I have to say.

 

[Faint]

This is a new thing to me and apparently these 'Hell Houses' have been around for years.

HELL ON EARTH A Jewish boy (almost) gets the Holy Spirit while visiting Hell House By Justin Ravitz



A first-time raver pops a pill, gets gang-raped and commits suicide. A pompom-toting cheerleader endures a literally gut-wrenching industrial vacuum included abortion. Two gay men wed and smooch each other and one soon dies an excruciating AIDS death. A trenchcoat-wearing, Dungeons & Dragons-playing, heavy metal geek guns down a classroom of bullies. A virgin gives it up to her new boyfriend on her out-of-town parents’ bed and contracts HIV. Coffee-swilling hipsters write a comedy sketch about Christian fundamentalists.


They will all go, kicking and screaming, to Hell—escorted by a chortling, black-robed demon-MC, snarling hell-hounds and mortal ticket-buyers brave enough to enter Hell House. A production of Les Freres Corbusier at the 14,000-square-foot St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, this is a haunted house of sin and consequence. During my hour-long tour through dozens of rooms and levels, creaky corridors and sticky curtains, I was bled upon and looked into the eyes of a doomed fetus (played by an actor in a red leotard). I heard the moans of the damned (actors playing terrorists, drunks, dandies, unwed mothers), stepped over their prostrate bodies and shook off their clutching, blood-stained hands. I had an audience with Satan himself (a


vocoder-voiced lounge lizard), and I politely refused a prayer session with a blond girl-angel standing beside a bearded Jesus. Giggling, wiping the dry-ice vapor from my eyes, I felt like an escapee from a painting by Hieronymus Bosch as interpreted by a crazed Outsider Artist—just the kind



of avant-garde theater experience only available in New York.
Except it’s not, and New Yorkers are over a decade behind what’s become an October ritual at hundreds of Christian Evangelical churches in the South and Midwest. First innovated by Jerry Falwell in the 1970s, Hell Houses became a Bible Belt institution in the mid-’90s thanks to youth minister Pastor Keenan Roberts. In a press release, he describes Hell Houses as “a spiritually based adventure depicting the hell and


devastation that Satan and this world can bestow on those who choose not to serve Jesus Christ.” The explicit aim of this full-sensory-assault morality play is straightforward: to shock lapsed Christians and non-believers into converting or recommitting themselves to godly, sin-free lives.






http://www.nypress.com/19/41/news&columns/feature2.cfm

Hmmm...news to me. I'm sure it would be just as easy to set up a secular "Horrors of Religion House", but then it probably wouldn't be as shocking since all the exhibits/performances are already broadcast nightly on prime time news.

 

[Tigress]

There's even a documentary film on them. Click. I saw it a couple of years back, but have never been to an actual Hell House. It appears to be a strictly United States phenomenon.

 

[Faint]

More info...

A hell house, also commonly known as a judgment house, is a haunted house-style attraction typically run by fundamentalist Christian churches or parachurch groups. These attractions are meant to depict the divine judgements that await unrepentant sinners and the torments of the damned in Hell. They are typically operated in the days preceding Halloween.
A hell house, like a conventional haunted house attraction, is a space set aside in which actors attempt to frighten patrons with gruesome exhibits. Unlike the conventional haunted house attraction, the hell house focuses on occasions and effects of sin, or the fate of unrepentant sinners in the afterlife. The motivation for the event occurring during the month of October before Halloween is to take advantage of the similarities between hell houses and conventional haunted houses.
The first hell house may have been created by Jerry Falwell in the late 1970s. Similar events began in several regions during that period. More recently, the concept has been promoted by Pastor Keenan Roberts, originally of Roswell, New Mexico, who started a well-known hell house there in 1992. Since that time, hell houses have become a regular fixture of the Halloween season. Pastor Roberts remains active in what he calls his hell house ministry by providing kits and directions to enable churches to perform their own attractions. He is now the senior pastor of Destiny Church Of The Assemblies Of God where Hell House is still performed each year in the month of October.
The exhibits at a hell house often have a remarkably political tone and tend to focus on sins that are also issues of concern to the religious right in the United States. Hell houses frequently feature exhibits that are meant to depict sin and its consequences. Common examples include abortion, homosexuality, suicide, use of alcoholic beverages and other recreational drugs, adultery and pre-marital sex, occultism, and Satanic ritual abuse.[1] Given the theology of the churches that sponsor them, hell houses typically emphasise the belief that anyone who does not accept Jesus as their personal saviour is damned to Hell. However, these politically controversial sins are usually singled out for special criticism in a typical hell house. Hell houses have been criticised for misleading potential patrons that they are a conventional Halloween attraction rather than an evangelical presentation. They are also often criticised within the Christian community as being too focused on the number of conversions rather than long lasting commitments to Christianity.

 

[Faint]

FYI: It seems that the production cited in the OP is actually a parody of the more serious Hell Houses started by churches around the country.

NEW YORK - The irony in Les Freres Corbusier's re-creation of a Christian fundamentalist "Hell House" is apparent from the start.
The theater company, known for its off-kilter and highly satiric productions lambasting controversial figures such as L. Ron Hubbard and Robert Moses, said it wanted to present its Brooklyn "Hell House" as true to form as possible.
They bought a kit that Roberts offers to churches who want to host their own "Hell Houses," taking only a few liberties with the script. The artistic director, Aaron Lemon-Strauss, also conferred directly with Roberts about how to make the production more realistic.
The result is a creative house of societal horrors, though it's not nearly as frightening as a conventional haunted house, nor as humorous as pure satirists would expect.
The irony, whether intended or not, is almost too much to bear at times, as the cast ratchets up the camp value while acting out scenes reminiscent of a badly produced 1980s after-school TV special. One particularly grating scene involves an irony-dripping group of friends at a coffee house who brainstorm creating a show in which they mock Christian fundamentalists.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_en_re/theater_hell_house;_ylt=AqNvXfpnoQGdWJ4OF3MR6RU9FRkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Here's the exact site for this production: http://lesfreres.org/hellhouse/main.html

 

[!Fluffy!]

Hmmm...news to me. I'm sure it would be just as easy to set up a secular "Horrors of Religion House", but then it probably wouldn't be as shocking since all the exhibits/performances are already broadcast nightly on prime time news.

...nail on the head.

"The irony, whether intended or not, is almost too much to bear at times, as the cast ratchets up the camp value while acting out scenes reminiscent of a badly produced 1980s after-school TV special. One particularly grating scene involves an irony-dripping group of friends at a coffee house who brainstorm creating a show in which they mock Christian fundamentalists."


:biglaugh:

 

[Buttercup]

Wow...I shouldn't be surprised anymore about such things but I am. Living on the west coast I think we are spared alot of this kind of crap. Like Faint, I've never heard of such a twisted evangelical tool. And did it say at the bottom of the link that the price is $25?????

This quote drove me nuts though:

“The way to do it is sincerely,” he explains. “To do it judgment-free, so that people could make their own decisions.”

Yeah, sure. Graphic and scary depictions of what happens (supposedly) in Hell is judgment free.

 

[d.]

wow.

i can't help feeling this works as something of a compensation for these people not being allowed to dress up at halloween.

 

[Devil's_Chaplain]

What a superbly crafted (utterly disgusting) tool to scare people into behaving how they think is right. You have to admire the ingenuity of these guys. Apparently they let people from age 12+ in, what a perfect way to ruin your childs chance of ever escaping the religion you happen to follow. Magic.

 

[Smoke]

Richard Dawkins has interviewed Keenan Roberts, who told him: "f they end up having nightmares, as a result of experiencing this, I think there's a higher good that would ultimately be achieved ... "

Dawkins: "I suppose that, if you really and truly believed what Pastor Roberts says he believes, you would feel it right to intimidate children too."

Dawkins recounts the story of a correspondent of his, a middle-aged American woman:

At the age of seven, she told me, two unleasant things had happened to her. She was sexually abused by her parish priest in his car. And, around the same time, a little schoolfriend of her, who had tragically died, went to hell because she was Protestant. Or so my correspondent had been led to believe ... Her view as a mature adult was that, of these two examples of Roman Catholic child abuse, the one physical and the other mental, the second was by far the worst. She wrote:

Being fondled by the priest simply left the impression (from the mind of a 7 year old) as 'yucky' while the memory of my friend going to hell was one of cold, immeasurable fear. I never lost sleep because of the priest -- but I spent many a night being terrified that the people I loved would go to Hell. It gave me nightmares.
​

Roberts, to his credit, doesn't think children as young as seven should be subjected to Hell House, which is intended for slightly older children. The question is whether terrorizing children of any age is a good idea. If you believe in hell, it probably is. While I find this whole idea disgusting, I agree with Dawkins that it makes sense if one believes in hell. Isn't it the doctrine itself that's morally repugnant?

 

[Smoke]

Hmmm...news to me. I'm sure it would be just as easy to set up a secular "Horrors of Religion House", but then it probably wouldn't be as shocking since all the exhibits/performances are already broadcast nightly on prime time news.

But maybe it's not a bad idea anyway.

 

[lizskid]

Wow, what a sick deal in the name of Christianity. The evangelcals or whatever is the correct term seem to continue until no stone is left unturned for bizarre behavior and hate.

 

[Booko]

What a superbly crafted (utterly disgusting) tool to scare people into behaving how they think is right. You have to admire the ingenuity of these guys. Apparently they let people from age 12+ in, what a perfect way to ruin your childs chance of ever escaping the religion you happen to follow. Magic.

Not all the kids will remain so isolated throughout lives or will such appeal to fear work well with everyone. Sometimes harsh warnings about hellfire backfire.

Stuff like that certainly drove me right out of religion into atheism, for a very long time. While I may be a theist now, that was more on account of a freak accident, and this religion doesn't do mental abuse of that sort.

It's gone out of fashion even in the religions that formerly did use fear as a primary motivator.

 

[Booko]

i can't help feeling this works as something of a compensation for these people not being allowed to dress up at halloween.

Basically. There's a significant subculture here (well, actually several of them) in the U.S. of people who believe Halloween to be evil, Satanic, related to witchcraft, and whatnot.

Children in these families are not allowed to go to haunted houses, or trick or treat. There are a very few exceptions. We always get some kid dressed up like Joseph coming by and exchanging candy for religious pamphlets. Sometimes we have a few more -- I guess it depends.

Some churches have parties on Halloween night where the kids dress up as Biblical figures, and they pass out candy at church and do bob for apples, but you know...it just ain't quite Halloween.

 

[Devil's_Chaplain]

Not all the kids will remain so isolated throughout lives or will such appeal to fear work well with everyone. Sometimes harsh warnings about hellfire backfire.

Stuff like that certainly drove me right out of religion into atheism, for a very long time. While I may be a theist now, that was more on account of a freak accident, and this religion doesn't do mental abuse of that sort.

It's gone out of fashion even in the religions that formerly did use fear as a primary motivator.

That's a very good point, I guess I can only go off my experiences. Many of my friends went through this (not hell houses, but similar exposure to unpleasant images), they are still haunted by it. I do insist that it can be much harder to escape a religion if you have been brought up on this garbage. But I guess I'm be generalizing a tad too much. I sure don't know how I would have have turned out if this had happened to me; luckily I was taught how to think, not what to think.

(Sorry for the tortuously overdone cliche)

 

[Booko]

That's a very good point, I guess I can only go off my experiences. Many of my friends went through this (not hell houses, but similar exposure to unpleasant images), they are still haunted by it. I do insist that it can be much harder to escape a religion if you have been brought up on this garbage. But I guess I'm be generalizing a tad too much. I sure don't know how I would have have turned out if this had happened to me; luckily I was taught how to think, not what to think.

I was not taught to think, but even at 10 I rejected the idea as essentially unfair and incompatible with the notion of a loving God. That's not to say I couldn't bring myself to believe that there might be negative consequences for immoral actions, but *eternal* negative consequences? Even my abusive drunken neighbor occasionally forgave his kids when they messed up. I should think any God can manage a little balance between justice and mercy. sheesh!

And then around 11 or 12 I hit Ike Asimov and then Bertrand Russell at 13. If I'd entertained any notions of returning (which I really didn't) that put a permanent end to them.

But I do recognize that many many people are affected by such "promises" of horrific ends if one doesn't toe the line. For those kids, I'd bet it's tough to break out of the mold.

Sometimes I wonder if being adopted made a difference. Oh, I was only 6 days old, but somehow the thought that I was not genetically related to my relatives meant I had no pressure to follow in any of their footsteps.

 

[Ody]

This idea made me have lulz in rl