It's fun to make hell on earth...
A Columbine reenactment with real guns....
At the tryout: "I want to play the abortion girl." (turns out everyone wants to play the "bad" guys)...
In one scene:
"Do you believe in God?"
"Yes."
"Do you believe in God?"
"Yes," she says screaming for her life as he points a gun at her head.
"Why?" and then he shoots her...
At the awards ceremony for Hell House actors: "I want to thank my rapists."
***
As the documentary film makers ask, who are the good church going adults who sponsor this event?
To steal a phrase from HighTouch's recent blog post and put it in a much darker context, a little piece of me died hearing this story. I was stunned at the inanity of it all, stunned that people would create such "theater" for young teenagers in order to convert them, stunned they didn't see how they were inviting the very things they say they are against, stunned that humanity could stoop so very low.
Even now, writing/reflecting/re-listening to the episode, I'm incredulous--surely well-meaning adults did not subject their teens to this in the name of a God? Unfortunately it seems to they did.
5 comments:
A student of mine back at Knox was part of a hellhouse event--craziness. That whole report was so unbelievably upsetting, esp. the thanking the rapists part. i'm sure religious zeal and dollars could be spent better elsewhere.
I heard this as well. Scary stuff.
Horrible, horrible. I wish I had never heard of it. The religion is a specially horrible aspect, but frankly, I don't understand any of the genres of horror. Life in the actual world is horrible enough.
I had a similar response to a book of short stories that won a HUGE award a few years ago. All of the stories were based on headlines, and one was called "Columbine: The Musical." I heard the author read from it and was horrified. Apparently he thought it was funny or ironic or something. The story was about kids putting on a show of Columbine, and, of course, everyone wants to be the bad guys. It was in such bad taste. I just can't believe some things, but then again, I can.
I've heard a little about this stuff. They had these in Boise a while back. I think I get the strategy that the creators are going for, however in bad taste. The question is then, is it effective at "converting" teenagers? Or is it a product of some True Believers warped minds that does not influence anyone for long. I suspect the latter, since most teenagers are very adept at detecting manipulation and it would be hard to top those theatrics sunday after boring sunday.
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