P
Peter_J
Guest
Title pretty much says it: Is anyone here familiar with Evangelical “Hell Houses”?
- Status
M
MaryT777
Guest
I’m not familiar with Hell Houses but I am interested to hear more…
D
drac16
Guest
I remember watching a documentary about them a loooong time ago, so my memory is rather rusty. If I recall correctly, they are like haunted houses that people walk through, but Hell houses are specifically designed for children. The purpose behind a Hell house is to scare children into obedience (obedience to their interpretation of the Bible). The underlying assumption behind a Hell house is that certain Biblical passages about Hell are to be taken literally, so they take advantage of that.
M
MaryT777
Guest
Thanks for this informative post; good grief, that sounds terrible to scare children in that manner.
Mary.
D
dje101
Guest
Yeah, this pretty much sums it up. I only went to one way back when I was 16 and involved with a very…lets say enthusiastic…Pentecostal church. Didn’t really scare me per se, but it was definitely on my mind for the rest of the week. Actually, still have a pretty vivid memory of it 10 years later.
P
Potato1237
Guest
I’m not going to sugar coat this friends; that is absolutely horrible. I actually was a counselor this summer at a sports camp at an evangelical church near my home. They had something similar to what you have just described and it really was horrible. I’m 15 years old and it certainly unnerved me a bit, I can’t imagine how those kids must have felt.
They had people popping out wearing demon masks and stuff. Really could give someone the creeps.
All jokes aside, it was real weird how nice the counselors were at the camp talking about how much Jesus loved them, meanwhile having that… hell house!
They had people popping out wearing demon masks and stuff. Really could give someone the creeps.
All jokes aside, it was real weird how nice the counselors were at the camp talking about how much Jesus loved them, meanwhile having that… hell house!
P
Potato1237
Guest
Yup! I can look up a Catholic video on YouTube and I will actually see the same people (anti Catholics) commenting “refutations” on many different videos. Strange as it seems they have nothing else to do.
po18guy
Well-known member
We know what they hate. I cannot, for all the world, tell what they love, other than put-downs.
G
Gertabelle
Guest
We used to have a fairly (in)famous one at a church near our home in years past. It was intended not for children (there was actually an age limit) but for teens and young adults.
The hell house was a series of rooms showing people engaged in various types of sins (what we Catholics would call mortal sins). One room looked like a medical office with a young woman on an exam table with a sheet over her torso and legs. She was having an abortion and screaming while the medical folks laughed evilly and the lights flickered on and off.
Other rooms included drugs and other such things – always with demons and such encouraging the sin and looking like they were about to consume the folks in their sin.
One of the last rooms had a “glass” floor. Below it were souls being tortured by demons in hell.
There may have been one room that showed the resurrection, or heaven, or some such thing – can’t remember
In the last room there were “counselors” to talk with people and encourage them to repentance and praying to accept Jesus in their lives.
It was all very high end – can’t imagine how much money and time it would take to set up this sort of thing!
Scare tactics from beginning to end. :nope:
I absolutely did NOT attend. This hell house and the controversy around it were covered on the local news more than once.
The hell house was a series of rooms showing people engaged in various types of sins (what we Catholics would call mortal sins). One room looked like a medical office with a young woman on an exam table with a sheet over her torso and legs. She was having an abortion and screaming while the medical folks laughed evilly and the lights flickered on and off.
Other rooms included drugs and other such things – always with demons and such encouraging the sin and looking like they were about to consume the folks in their sin.
One of the last rooms had a “glass” floor. Below it were souls being tortured by demons in hell.
There may have been one room that showed the resurrection, or heaven, or some such thing – can’t remember
In the last room there were “counselors” to talk with people and encourage them to repentance and praying to accept Jesus in their lives.
It was all very high end – can’t imagine how much money and time it would take to set up this sort of thing!
Scare tactics from beginning to end. :nope:
I absolutely did NOT attend. This hell house and the controversy around it were covered on the local news more than once.
R
Rosebud77
Guest
Thought I was beyond being shocked… although at the same time irresistibly reminded of being in a phone company waiting room with a harassed mother and three small lively lads…Finally she told them when they would nit stop acting up that she would send for the Gardai, The effect was amazing, and she turned to me apologetically and said, “Well they have to be afraid of SOMETHING”
But that!
W
Wannano
Guest
I have never heard of it and agree it sounds bizarre. Please don’t write us all off by the actions of some!!
P
Peter_J
Guest
Possibly Hell House (2001).
imdb.com/title/tt0301235/?ref_=nm_knf_i3
youtube.com/watch?v=T57Dv6NcJWY
That’s just a 2-minutes preview, but it actually seems like a good wake-up call, not to be too self-righteous.
J
JustaServant
Guest
They’re more common among the rigid, fundamentalist type churches. They do it around Halloween as an ‘evangelistic’ tool to get ‘decisions for Christ’. I wouldn’t say they are common among mainline evangelical churches.
C
Catholic_farmer
Guest
I think having your teen read The Screwtape Letters will do a better job of scaring them…
M
Michael68
Guest
They are just Chick tracts with actors. That’s all
P
Peter_J
Guest
L
ltwin
Guest
Hell Houses are designed to accomplish several things. First, its an evangelistic outreach–people do need to know that hell is a real concept and this just dramatizes that. Second, its a “Christian” alternative to haunted houses. It’s not really for small children. When I was growing up (I’m only 27), churches would take their youth groups (so these would be teenagers in middle and high schools). And yes, there usually is a scene representing heaven and what awaits those who are saved and there are church volunteers who will give counsel and pray with anyone who is led to want to become a Christian or turn away from sin.
It’s pretty much a fire and brimstone sermon but taking advantage of the Halloween season to put a different twist on the message.
It’s pretty much a fire and brimstone sermon but taking advantage of the Halloween season to put a different twist on the message.
S
spedteacherita
Guest
Just sitting thru a service of a Baptist Church was enough for me as a kid!!
:bigyikes:
:bigyikes:
P
Peter_J
Guest
I want to admit up front that I’ve never participated in a Hell House – never even been to one. But I have been around conservative Christians quite a lot, and I think I’m fairly good at recognizing displays of arrogant self-righteousness. From what I’ve seen of Hell House (2001), I’d say it was an unusually blatant display of self-righteousness.
So no, I don’t buy the explanation that it “just dramatizes that”.
- Status