Hell House : Plays about Christian Repentance

[The Ascetic Crusader]

Dallas’ Pentecostal Trinity Church and the controversial haunted house that it puts on each Halloween called Hell House depicts a gay man dying of AIDS and cursing God for it, a girl who attends a rave and has only herself to blame when she is raped, and a teenage school shooter all being dragged off to hell for their sins, the church hopes to make the 12,000 attendees each year see the light.

One out of five people join the church after the show.

What do you think of this type of evangelism ? Hell House type screenwriting ?

 

[KataGraphe]

I remember going to a church function like that as a young man called Judgement House. It was the story of two kids, one church going and the other who went out and got drunk. They ended up getting in a crash and everyone dying and then were escorted to thier respective eternal abodes. I thought it was a good way of evangelism simply becuase of the power that drama can have on the human psyche. Instead of simply hearing a preacher they can see it with thier eyes and associate themselves with the people in it.

As for scare-tactic evangelism, my motto on it is "if it works then do it." however, the problem is that it must help create a truly changed life that desires to follow Christ, and not simply someone terrified out of thier mind and hoping to be safe from the terror to come. The reason why is becuase the latter will not last. It needs to "work" not just in boosting temporary church attendance, but in changing lives for Christ.

The other issue is what exactly the play depicts, sin is sin and as followers of Christ we should acknowledge it as such. However, when dealing with the lost world we must be sensitive in how we proceed. Christians can often times exaggerate the problem of activities they themselves do not do (such as go to raves) and connect it to seperate issues (such as rape). Granted, a rave is not the prefect place to go to stay safe, however the blame must still lay on the sexual violator not the violated. Rape is very invasive into the human psyche and must be treated with care. The people in the audience may have been raped (both Christian and non-Christian) and we have to be careful that we are not careless in our handling of a vary personal issue.

As for the gay man it still needs care, just becuase it as well is a very personal issue. To sum it all up, it needs to have the motivation of love and care for the non-converted soul. We can show man his sinful state but only so that we can show him the love of Christ's personal sacrifice; not "This is what happens to bad people and will happen to you if you do these bad things"

 

[avatarblade2000]

KataGraphe hit all the right issues, and was absolutely right about all of them. I too go to Judgment House every Halloween at our church, and have seen over the past few years that while it is a very powerful ministry, it is also one you have to be particularly careful with. Fire-and-brimstone tactics, they work only to scare you into salvation, but not often do you hear anything relatively good about the heaven that salvation gets you: in Judgment House especially, the balancing of these two elements - showing how bad Hell is and how great Heaven is - has to be taken extreme care of, otherwise it's just blowing a lot of hot air into a bunch of lost people's faces and sending them out the door faster than they got in.

I was always proud of our Judgment House, though, because it did achieve that balance: even though I would walk into "Heaven," recognize every actor in the room playing some angel, saint, or even Jesus Himself, I would always think to myself, "Wow...this is what I'm getting when I die...plus some. Jesus really does love me." THAT is what Judgment House - or Hell House, or Halfway House, or whatever in the world it's called from place to place - should aim for: showing people that Jesus loves us and wants to be with us, and that it's a whole lot nicer than being with the Devil...

 

[The Ascetic Crusader]

They should do Hell- House for other Christian holidays too

 

[avatarblade2000]

Agreed.

 

[The Ascetic Crusader]

How would one go abouts writing a "Hell- House" script ?

 

[FireRock]

Are you talking about a "Heaven's Gates Hell's Flames" type of deal, or of an actual building you walk through and see different scenes, then at the end you walk through Hell and then Heaven? I've been to both types. I could see writing a script about the first kind, but I think the second kind would be a little hard to write a script for, at least from what I've seen.

I might be really confused too.

 

[The Ascetic Crusader]

Hey Firerock!!!!! What´s up ? Did you wrap up your movie...

 

[FireRock]

Hi Crusader!! Alas, no...the movie has been postponed indefinitely...I sent you a message so as not to defer from the OP.
Good to see you though!

 

[The Ascetic Crusader]

I believe the Hell House genre will catch on more and more as time goes by... Its amazing.

 

[Randombitsofstring]

Dallas’ Pentecostal Trinity Church and the controversial haunted house that it puts on each Halloween called Hell House depicts a gay man dying of AIDS and cursing God for it, a girl who attends a rave and has only herself to blame when she is raped, and a teenage school shooter all being dragged off to hell for their sins, the church hopes to make the 12,000 attendees each year see the light.

One out of five people join the church after the show.

What do you think of this type of evangelism ? Hell House type screenwriting ?

Yep, cause we sure as hell shouldn’t like, blame the rapist. I’m sure he was only doing God’s work by showing the girl she shouldn’t be out side without a protector.

 

[The Ascetic Crusader]

Yep, cause we sure as hell shouldn’t like, blame the rapist. I’m sure he was only doing God’s work by showing the girl she shouldn’t be out side without a protector.

Some people at "raves" (usually young men) pump themselves up full of stimulants which emboldens them...Raves are no place for young girls. I´m sure Hell House was trying to illustrate that point. And yes, we should all blame the rapist , unfortunately that´s only possible once the damage is done, right ?

 

[Historygeek]

Hell House, and other forms of such evangelism teach fear, and gain converts through the threat of eternal damnation. I don't think a loving God wants that. I think he wants people to come to him because they love him, not because they're afraid of what he will do to them if they don't. before I accepted Christ, such preaching had no effect on me, if anything, it hardened my heart because I felt that if God was such a petty tyrant, I'd rather join the rebellion. It was only when someone showed how much he loved me, and wanted to forgive me, that I opened my heart to him.

 

[The Ascetic Crusader]

if God was such a petty tyrant, I'd rather join the rebellion.

God has destroyed before. He will do so again.

 

[Lou Saffire]

hey guys, i find hell house to be an example of everything that's wrong with the role of organised religion in the world today, everyone has the right to make there own mind up on the nature of the universe, and should be allowed to without peer pressure and scare tactics from groups who want there membership, hell house is nothing more than preying on peoples concerns, nothing new for religion i know.

not only is the intent and execution of hell house productions morally barren but they contain no real information anyway, how may people on stage have been to a rave, how many of you have been? i have been to a few and not only were there no rapes but i saw people caring and considering each other in a way i have never seen a religion reproduce, but that's just one example, an objective point of view , you know what i mean where you find out all the information first an come to an informed decision, not something religions are fond of i understand as the more capable peopel become to make there own decisions the less relevant ancient superstitions become, and trust me brothers and sisters, they are irrelevant.

in conclusion, it is my firm belief that if your god exists, and his son and holy spirit truly do love the human race, then it would take joy in all our works good and bad, as we are incapable being anything other than how the god made us, but more importantly, i believe the only people who would be sent to hell are those perverting his name.

thank you for reading

Lou

 

[mark kennedy]

Dallas’ Pentecostal Trinity Church and the controversial haunted house that it puts on each Halloween called Hell House depicts a gay man dying of AIDS and cursing God for it, a girl who attends a rave and has only herself to blame when she is raped, and a teenage school shooter all being dragged off to hell for their sins, the church hopes to make the 12,000 attendees each year see the light.

One out of five people join the church after the show.

What do you think of this type of evangelism ? Hell House type screenwriting ?

But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.(Romans 10:6-9)​

A message of repentance is a wonderful but I find the approach off base.

Grace and peace,
Mark