Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9411010041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Medium
Forget Dracula and Frankenstein. Abortion, suicide and Satanism are the attractions of three area ``haunting houses'' sponsored by churches trying to scare teens away from modern-day evils.
The houses offer morality plays that focus on life choices leading to either salvation or damnation.
Visitors to ``Hell House,'' at Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, witness a Satanic high priest sacrificing a teen-age girl and drinking her blood, after snickering that trick-or-treating is just one way of luring children to evil.
In another scene, a girl dies after a botched abortion and is condemned to everlasting fire for killing her unborn child.
``Living Hell: A Glimpse of Eternity'' in Burleson includes an abortion scene that simulates the operation with a bowl of spaghetti and a clear hose connected to a vacuum. Grim reapers guide teens from scene to scene, all ending in death.
``It's disturbing, it's shocking and it really makes them think,'' said Stan Denman, interim youth minister at Burleson Baptist Temple, which runs ``Living Hell.''
``We're looking to really make kids aware of the evils of society - what is dragging our society down,'' Denman said.
``This is not really for church people,'' said Tim Ferguson, youth pastor at Trinity Church. ``We like church people to bring unsaved people.''
Most of the houses require children under 13 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, appears to have started the idea of alternative haunted houses in 1972, when the youth division of his Lynchburg Thomas Road Baptist Church put on the first ``Scaremare.'' The idea spread.
But not all approve of the houses as a technique for teaching morality.
Dr. J. Douglas Crowder, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and lay minister in the Church of Christ, called the concept ``heavy duty.''
The focus on Satanism as a serious risk for teens, he said, is overblown given all the real problems they face. And, he said, ``even traditional Halloween activities provide an opportunity to talk to children about good and evil.''
Some visitors think the experience is too graphic, particularly for youths.
``I wasn't comfortable with the abortion and pot smoking,'' said Melia Fillmore, who took her 12-year-old daughter and three other girls to ``Living Hell.''
``House of Judgement,'' at the Freeman Heights Baptist Church in Garland, begins with a scene of two demons plotting against two teen-agers, Adam and Liz.
Liz ends up pregnant, gets an abortion and commits suicide offstage. She's escorted away by an angel of death. Adam, who is active in his church, is accepted into heaven - as is his unborn child, portrayed by a real, sleeping infant.
Afterward, visitors are ushered into a room and offered counseling.
``That's the best type of haunted house,'' said Joaquin Barnett, 26, of Arlington. ``This'll last longer in your head than the ones that just try to scare you.''
by CNB