Chez Hell
I went to a Hell House over the weekend to recommit myself to Jesus smirk along with all the other smirking hipsters.
A Hell House is a concept first popularized by Jerry Fallwell in the ‘70s. It’s based on the concept of a haunted house, only the horrors within are designed to scare the shit out of those wacky Christian teens with scenes including gay marriage, rape at the rave, and cheerleader abortion (cheerleader abortion comes complete with pom poms and bloody chicken parts, sure to wipe that lascivious look off of little Billy’s face).
For $300, you can buy your own Hell House kit, which I understand is comprised of a script, a DVD with staging suggestions and sound effects, and notes on what kind of meat is best used to represent an aborted fetus for maximum shock value.
The theatre company who staged the Hell House, Les Freres Courbusier, did the whole thing in deadly earnest. According to the literature, hundreds, if not thousands, of these things are staged every year throughout the, um, ‘middle’ parts of the country. Once the youths endure the horrors of the house, they are expected to recommit themselves to Jesus with newfound vigor at a lively Christian music hoedown and pin their sins on Jesus, who is present in the form of a cardboard poster. In my group, people wrote things like “I love Noam Chomsky, “ and “I took the morning-after pill waiting on line at CVS,” and then stuck them right on Jesus.
Les Freres stayed completely true to the evangelical script, which of course played out to raucous laughter with the crowd I run with, but I could see how, in the rest of the country, things like gay marriage probably really are the scariest thing young people might fear encountering. Of course those homos got married and immediately one died of AIDS, and this is the message that I fear kids in Kansas or wherever really believe and really take to heart.
All of my New York and California living has provided me with, I’m starting to realize, a limited perception on how must of this country really operates and thinks. I mean, to me and everyone else I know, evolution is a given. Yet, in Kansas, the intelligent design debate rages. Our president believes in intelligent design. (Well, then again, look at our president . . .)
I know it’s not as simple a matter as red state, blue state, but it really does freak me out that a great deal of this country truly believes fags go to hell, abortion is murder, and that reading Harry Potter is aligned with Satanism. To each his own, but sometimes one’s own is just fucked up.
A Hell House is a concept first popularized by Jerry Fallwell in the ‘70s. It’s based on the concept of a haunted house, only the horrors within are designed to scare the shit out of those wacky Christian teens with scenes including gay marriage, rape at the rave, and cheerleader abortion (cheerleader abortion comes complete with pom poms and bloody chicken parts, sure to wipe that lascivious look off of little Billy’s face).
For $300, you can buy your own Hell House kit, which I understand is comprised of a script, a DVD with staging suggestions and sound effects, and notes on what kind of meat is best used to represent an aborted fetus for maximum shock value.
The theatre company who staged the Hell House, Les Freres Courbusier, did the whole thing in deadly earnest. According to the literature, hundreds, if not thousands, of these things are staged every year throughout the, um, ‘middle’ parts of the country. Once the youths endure the horrors of the house, they are expected to recommit themselves to Jesus with newfound vigor at a lively Christian music hoedown and pin their sins on Jesus, who is present in the form of a cardboard poster. In my group, people wrote things like “I love Noam Chomsky, “ and “I took the morning-after pill waiting on line at CVS,” and then stuck them right on Jesus.
Les Freres stayed completely true to the evangelical script, which of course played out to raucous laughter with the crowd I run with, but I could see how, in the rest of the country, things like gay marriage probably really are the scariest thing young people might fear encountering. Of course those homos got married and immediately one died of AIDS, and this is the message that I fear kids in Kansas or wherever really believe and really take to heart.
All of my New York and California living has provided me with, I’m starting to realize, a limited perception on how must of this country really operates and thinks. I mean, to me and everyone else I know, evolution is a given. Yet, in Kansas, the intelligent design debate rages. Our president believes in intelligent design. (Well, then again, look at our president . . .)
I know it’s not as simple a matter as red state, blue state, but it really does freak me out that a great deal of this country truly believes fags go to hell, abortion is murder, and that reading Harry Potter is aligned with Satanism. To each his own, but sometimes one’s own is just fucked up.
posted by Liz at 10:42 AM
3 Comments:
as someone living in the dreaded "middle" of the nation, I can attest to the fact that people do, indeed, hold these inexplicable views. but only about half of them. The other half are just as surley, sarcastic, and intellectually elite as the coasties.
For instance, in my city (which hosts a nationally recognized debaucherous riot for halloween) there was a kind of hell house. it was held in a storefront right across the street from my office, just a block from our state capitol. a few months ago, the storefront housed an "adult entertainment center," the creepy papered-window oily-haired clerk kind that you go once to check out but are creeped out and from then on resolve to only, ONLY shop at your local feminist sex boutique.
So, this hell house used quite well done short films to illustrate that 1) reality is scarier than fiction, by barraging you with a devastating group of clips about natural disaster, genocide, ethnic violence, serial killers, etc. and that 2) everyone wonders about the 'big' questions. at the end, the guy gave a real soft sell - "I'm so glad I found jesus, now I want to help everyone find him and find peace. no pressure, have some doughnuts and we're here if you want to chat about stuff."
What was creepy about it, even as someone who is fairly spiritual and has religious practices, was the casual, no-pressure approach. It was eerie. here they are proselytising with a huge expensive display, but no big deal if we just want to grab some cookies and go.
This passive, friendly approach masks a dangerous, intolerant, and frankly abusive ideology that is destroying our democracy, our public policies, and the very meaning of truth.
Now that's scary.
as someone living in the dreaded "middle" of the nation, I can attest to the fact that people do, indeed, hold these inexplicable views. but only about half of them. The other half are just as surley, sarcastic, and intellectually elite as the coasties.
For instance, in my city (which hosts a nationally recognized debaucherous riot for halloween) there was a kind of hell house. it was held in a storefront right across the street from my office, just a block from our state capitol. a few months ago, the storefront housed an "adult entertainment center," the creepy papered-window oily-haired clerk kind that you go once to check out but are creeped out and from then on resolve to only, ONLY shop at your local feminist sex boutique.
So, this hell house used quite well done short films to illustrate that 1) reality is scarier than fiction, by barraging you with a devastating group of clips about natural disaster, genocide, ethnic violence, serial killers, etc. and that 2) everyone wonders about the 'big' questions. at the end, the guy gave a real soft sell - "I'm so glad I found jesus, now I want to help everyone find him and find peace. no pressure, have some doughnuts and we're here if you want to chat about stuff."
What was creepy about it, even as someone who is fairly spiritual and has religious practices, was the casual, no-pressure approach. It was eerie. here they are proselytising with a huge expensive display, but no big deal if we just want to grab some cookies and go.
This passive, friendly approach masks a dangerous, intolerant, and frankly abusive ideology that is destroying our democracy, our public policies, and the very meaning of truth.
Now that's scary.
i hope you didn't pay money to see this place!
sounds scary!
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