Nbadan
10-28-2007, 03:40 AM
http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2007/10/26/hellhousex-large.jpg
Real life husband and wife Lincoln and Jenny Smith role-play a date-rape scenario while "demons" hover around them in the Abundant Life Christian Center "Hell House" in Arvada, Colo.
By Heather Donckels, Religion News Service
Cindy Cathcart was angry with God and on the brink of divorce and suicide on Oct. 30, 1998, when her nephew dragged her to "Hell House." Without it, she says now, she's not sure where she would have ended up.
Though raised Lutheran, she had repeatedly refused her sister's invitations to come to church and had no desire for a relationship with God. All of that changed as she walked through Hell House.
Hell Houses are intended to literally scare the hell out of people. Participants walk through several "scenes" depicting the consequences of things like abortion, homosexuality and drunkenness.
"As I went from scene to scene ... (God) just started working on my heart and showing me that it's not him that caused this," Cathcart said. "It was the lack of having God in my life."
By the time she reached the heaven scene, Cathcart was on her knees, begging God for forgiveness and asking Jesus for salvation.
While some Christians aren't certain what to make of Halloween — unsure whether to embrace or ignore all the goblins and ghoulishness — some evangelical churches use Oct. 31 as a day to evangelize.
"Hell House is not a celebration of Halloween," said Pastor Keenan Roberts, who created Hell House at New Destiny Christian Center in Thornton, Colo., as an outreach tool in 1995. "It's not even a Halloween event. It is the church taking advantage of America's cultural influence of the haunted house. ... It's the church absolutely capitalizing on the time of year."
Like Roberts, Terry Long, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Salt Lake City, believes the church can turn Halloween into something good. "Instead of cursing the darkness," he said, "just turn on the light."
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-10-26-hell-house_N.htm?csp=34&loc=interstitialskip)
Here's a pic from the abortion scene>
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/plastic_turkeys/hellhouse2.jpg
Real life husband and wife Lincoln and Jenny Smith role-play a date-rape scenario while "demons" hover around them in the Abundant Life Christian Center "Hell House" in Arvada, Colo.
By Heather Donckels, Religion News Service
Cindy Cathcart was angry with God and on the brink of divorce and suicide on Oct. 30, 1998, when her nephew dragged her to "Hell House." Without it, she says now, she's not sure where she would have ended up.
Though raised Lutheran, she had repeatedly refused her sister's invitations to come to church and had no desire for a relationship with God. All of that changed as she walked through Hell House.
Hell Houses are intended to literally scare the hell out of people. Participants walk through several "scenes" depicting the consequences of things like abortion, homosexuality and drunkenness.
"As I went from scene to scene ... (God) just started working on my heart and showing me that it's not him that caused this," Cathcart said. "It was the lack of having God in my life."
By the time she reached the heaven scene, Cathcart was on her knees, begging God for forgiveness and asking Jesus for salvation.
While some Christians aren't certain what to make of Halloween — unsure whether to embrace or ignore all the goblins and ghoulishness — some evangelical churches use Oct. 31 as a day to evangelize.
"Hell House is not a celebration of Halloween," said Pastor Keenan Roberts, who created Hell House at New Destiny Christian Center in Thornton, Colo., as an outreach tool in 1995. "It's not even a Halloween event. It is the church taking advantage of America's cultural influence of the haunted house. ... It's the church absolutely capitalizing on the time of year."
Like Roberts, Terry Long, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Salt Lake City, believes the church can turn Halloween into something good. "Instead of cursing the darkness," he said, "just turn on the light."
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-10-26-hell-house_N.htm?csp=34&loc=interstitialskip)
Here's a pic from the abortion scene>
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/plastic_turkeys/hellhouse2.jpg