# Anyone ever been to a Christian Haunted House? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 7, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881 "2007-10-07T22:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/21 "2007-10-08T02:26:03Z")
So what’s the point of these things? Is it so that there’s no “pagan” things? I don’t get it; I consider myself Christian, but I don’t equate Halloween with Satanism or anything like that, regardless of the historical roots. Really and truly, if these folks are getting worked up about this, they ought to get worked up about the contemporary Christmas and Easter celebrations, as Christmas is generally a winter solstice festival, and Easter is a vernal equinox festival… religion notwithstanding, they’re too close date-wise for me to believe any different. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/22 "2007-10-08T03:06:30Z")
“Anyone else notice that Steve and Gary volunteer to act in the ‘Evils of Sodomy’ exhibit every year?” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/23 "2007-10-08T03:12:19Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] That’s not a particularly Christian message though, is it? Surely blindfolding children and then having them touch seedless grape “eyeballs” and cooked spaghetti “brains” is a practice valued by people of all faiths. [/QUOTE] What that was was a game at a standard Halloween party held by a mainstream church. In the mid-70s, the church I attended at the time, Christian & Missionary Alliance, rather fund’ist, probably fundy by SDMB standards, had Halloween parties complete with a regular Haunted house. Then the Satanism scares started up & that ended that. (Thanks a lot, Mike Warnke!) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/24 "2007-10-08T03:14:32Z")
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net] An interactive, online map of one of these 'Halloween Hell Houses" is here: [Lanodver Baptist's Interactive Online Hell House](http://www.landoverbaptist.org/hellhouse/thehouse.html) [/QUOTE] Heh. Never mind. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/25 "2007-10-08T19:24:15Z")
I _wish_ the Landover Baptist site was real. I want to see Jar Jar smite children! I actually didn’t know it was a fake till I saw that site and then Wiki-ed it. Hey, considering how ridiculous and smug some Christians are about their hell houses, can you blame me? I’ve got the docu “Hell House” coming tomorrow. Can’t wait to see what an actual Hell House is like. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/26 "2007-10-08T19:46:47Z")
[QUOTE=Soapbox Monkey] The Lutheran church I went to until I was 17 had one in their basement one Halloween, and I remember it being one of the best haunted house experiences I’ve been to. The basement was structurally segmented into a number of large rooms, so they set it up as if you were traversing the circles of hell as described by Dante. [/QUOTE] ``` Ohh, now thats cool. I'm not a Christian, but I think I would visit something like that if it were done well. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/27 "2007-10-08T19:56:23Z")
[QUOTE=bump] So what’s the point of these things? Is it so that there’s no “pagan” things? I don’t get it; I consider myself Christian, but I don’t equate Halloween with Satanism or anything like that, regardless of the historical roots. Really and truly, if these folks are getting worked up about this, they ought to get worked up about the contemporary Christmas and Easter celebrations, as Christmas is generally a winter solstice festival, and Easter is a vernal equinox festival… religion notwithstanding, they’re too close date-wise for me to believe any different. [/QUOTE] Yeah, except the winter solstice and the equinox were there first…:smack: I had a “Christian” quit talking to me once because I was chatting about how I was getting candy to give out to the little kiddies on Halloween. Uh…yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/28 "2007-10-08T20:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=bump] So what’s the point of these things? Is it so that there’s no “pagan” things? [/QUOTE] To try to scare people into converting to their brand of Christianity, probably. ---
**Author:** ![AdmiralCrunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@AdmiralCrunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AdmiralCrunch)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/29 "2007-10-08T20:26:06Z")
I went to a free one last year for kicks with some friends. Abortion, suicide, a re-enacted school shooting with a Columbine-style admission of faith, drunk driving, heroin overdose, witchcraft, and this really scary dead guy on a cross. There was an arcade to play around in beforehand, and a quick sermon if anyone wanted to talk to members of the church. It’s pretty much what one would expect from a suburban Atlanta church trying to reach out the witchcraft-fearing segment of the population. ---
**Author:** ![Galena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Galena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galena)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/30 "2007-10-09T02:38:19Z")
[QUOTE=AdmiralCrunch] … Abortion, suicide, a re-enacted school shooting with a Columbine-style admission of faith, drunk driving, heroin overdose, witchcraft, and this really scary dead guy on a cross… [/QUOTE] Yipes! These descriptions make me cringe. Who are these aimed for? Adults? Teens? I’d be totally depressed after that, not “inspired” to “go and sin no more”. When I was a teenager, my church group did a “Heaven House” for the under 8 set. We dressed up like saints, angels, and biblical figures, decorated the gym with clouds made from balloons, and passed out coloring books and candy. It was cute, and sweet, and fun, and associated the church with a much friendlier vibe than that brimstone and hellfire crap. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/31 "2007-10-09T02:44:16Z")
Now I long for someone to put on a white bedsheet and jump out at me yelling Boo! That’s about all my Halloween excitement. Where is Satan in that? I quote the master when I say, “these people would find something suggestive in a dial tone.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/32 "2007-10-09T03:05:55Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] The Methodist Church I attended as a child had one for us. All I remember is a bowl of tripe (we were blindfolded) they said was guts and peeled grapes they said were eyeballs of people they had killed as they ran our fingers through it. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] My mom used to pass around bowls of yucky stuff like that when I had Halloween parties at my house as a kid. Never saw it in church, though. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/33 "2007-10-09T03:11:40Z")
[QUOTE=vivalostwages] My mom used to pass around bowls of yucky stuff like that when I had Halloween parties at my house as a kid. Never saw it in church, though. [/QUOTE] I definitely heard about stuff like that being used–they mentioned it in Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, as a suggestion. It almost seems too…too much fun to be without sin (as I’m sure a Church might see it). ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/34 "2007-10-09T03:37:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Anyone ever been to a Christian Haunted House? Yes. They’re called churches. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/35 "2007-10-11T17:19:31Z")
I actually watched Hell House, the documentary. Man, that was creepy stuff. I cannot believe those people used real guns in their scenes. And those allusions to that guy whose wife left him for an Internet affair were creepy (well, coupled with the little scene in the Hell House where the husband kills his wife over it). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/36 "2007-10-11T17:29:55Z")
Apparently, being a fisher of men now involves gutting the fish? This all seems very sadistic - even more so than making people wake up early on Sunday mornings. [QUOTE=wolf in second hand clothing] (_Yes, I know that was from the Simpsons and not the King of the Hill episode mentioned, but I could totally see a Christian Haunted House having that_.) [/QUOTE] I think the Simpsons are doing a take on these things in the annual Halloween episode. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/37 "2007-10-11T17:51:07Z")
My mom’s house was kind of like that. Big pictures of Jesus with his burning sacred heart outside his chest and he’s staring at you and hold up his hands with the nail holes in them, in every room of the house. Where every you go, there he is. Creepy man. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/38 "2007-10-11T18:22:24Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] My mom’s house was kind of like that. Big pictures of Jesus with his burning sacred heart outside his chest and he’s staring at you and hold up his hands with the nail holes in them, in every room of the house. Where every you go, there he is. Creepy man. [/QUOTE] Awww. Just like Carrie’s house. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2007, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/39 "2007-10-14T09:48:37Z")
Been to serveral Christian run haunted houses…no “hell houses” or anything, just good ole fashined cheap sets and costumes and people who jumb out at you and stuff. Best one was a fake seance we did in my youth group in high school. We had the room strung with fishing line so kids hiding in the ac ducts could pull strings and chiars would fall over, doors would slam and books would go flying across the room. They had a bead on a fishing line rigged up in a piano so when one of the kids pulled the line it drug it across the strings right before the lid slammed closed. it took like half an hour to reset for the next group but damn it was cool. They also used to leave the church open on sunday afternoons so we could use the fellowship hall to play Dungeons and Dragons. Not all churches are run by nut cases. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2007, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881/40 "2007-10-14T12:11:13Z")
[QUOTE=bdgr] Been to serveral Christian run haunted houses…no “hell houses” or anything, just good ole fashined cheap sets and costumes and people who jumb out at you and stuff. Best one was a fake seance we did in my youth group in high school. We had the room strung with fishing line so kids hiding in the ac ducts could pull strings and chiars would fall over, doors would slam and books would go flying across the room. They had a bead on a fishing line rigged up in a piano so when one of the kids pulled the line it drug it across the strings right before the lid slammed closed. it took like half an hour to reset for the next group but damn it was cool. They also used to leave the church open on sunday afternoons so we could use the fellowship hall to play Dungeons and Dragons. Not all churches are run by nut cases. [/QUOTE] Classy dudes. I’m impressed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-to-a-christian-haunted-house/421881.md?page=3)