This Halloween, you may have gone to a haunted house, such as the 13th Gate. Even scarier, you may have braved the shock-fest that is the Carlotta Street block party. But did any of you have the guts to go to hell?Thanks to a small but elite smattering of churches across our nation, the opportunity is now yours.Since the first one was started by the late Jerry Falwell in the late 1970s, fundamentalist churches have hosted unique walk-through dramas called “hell-houses,” “judgment houses,” or “revelation houses.”These events are essentially religiously-themed versions of walkthrough horror productions, such as our own 13th Gate. Instead of the typical zombies, vampires, skeletons, and other horrific fare, these hell-houses are populated by demons. Hell-houses are generally divided into several rooms, where various fictional people succumb to earthly temptation. Common set ups include drug and alcohol rooms, gay rooms, abortion rooms, pre-marital sex rooms, suicide rooms and occult or satanic rooms.After observing the human characters in each room revel in their debauchery, participants look on as each one dies gruesomely, from overdoses, to car wrecks, to murders, to the specialty of the “gay rooms:” AIDS. As soon as each character dies, they are dragged screaming to hell by demons, who laugh malevolently as they harvest the unfaithful souls for eternal torment.Upon emerging from several rooms of hell, the frightened participants are herded into “heaven” — generally a room with ample air  conditioning and white rooms — whose inhabitants include angels, and, of course, Jesus. It is in this room where they deliver an ultimatum: accept Jesus (the real one) or everything you just saw will happen to you.Today, the hell-house phenomenon is spreading. Hell-house associations, such as Judgment House, provide local churches with kits to set up their own hell-houses. Individual organizations, such as Louisiana’s Extreme Reality Productions, create unique versions. The production values can vary wildly.The goal of these productions is to present, to quote Judgment House, “a dramatic walk-through presentation about the truth of people’s choices and their consequences both in this life and the next.” Their Web site claims “no other tool is more effective at presenting people with an opportunity to choose a personal and saving relationship with Jesus Christ,” and that “Judgment House has established a remarkable track record as the most effective evangelistic tool for reaching those who are wary of attending a traditional church service or outreach event.”That’s a hell of a claim.First, the Bible provides only the vaguest descriptions of what hell is really like, and even these portrayals are largely apocryphal. The commonly held perception of hell — which these houses base their performances on — is largely based on either definitely human works, such as Milton’s Paradise Lost or Dante’s Inferno, or on occult or pagan ideas. Using a largely fictional interpretation of the afterlife hardly seems like an honest method of evangelism.But on a deeper level, the idea of scaring people into faith – the express intent of hell-houses – is disturbing. Christianity is supposed to spread a message of love and forgiveness, not abject terror. And one has to question the quality or sincerity of a faith based on horror. If the basis for your religious belief is fear, can Christianity’s calls for love, peace and social justice really be effectively pursued? If you’re serving God out of fear, how earnest and meaningful is that service?Churches that put on hell-houses do themselves and Christianity itself a great disservice. By unfairly distilling Christianity into such a base, primal prospect they cheapen the beauty of a hope and life-giving faith into mere after-life insurance.It is entirely possible to share God with somebody without having first caused them to soil themselves — or at least it should be.—-Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]