*WARNING* THIS IS A RANDOM POST */WARNING*

As I sit here with my newly acquired 44 cent freezer mug full of Mountain Dew, I will ponder over chapter 12 of this fine novel that I have been reading.

While reading through this chapter about Christian theme parks (which I think are the silliest things ever) I came upon something I found to be wholly disturbing. There was a little excerpt called "Should Churches Host Hell Houses?" by Annalee Ward. Unfortunately Annalee didn't answer this question.

So I will..... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOooOOooOooOOOOoooOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOoOOOOoOo they should not.

I'd like to point out before I continue on, that I think the whole idea of Hell houses and 'trick-or-treating' is rather stupid.

I knew that some churches did little Halloween events to get kids off the streets where they are potentially in 'danger'. I'd also like to mention that most of the deaths on Halloween are not related to people putting arsenic or cyanide in candy or razor blades in apples. They are from motorists not paying attention to children running across the street. I don't think it is a bad idea for churches to create a safe place for children. Not only can this allow parents to monitor the intake of sugar that their children are inducing them selves with; but it gives parents a good place to network with Christians that they might not have run into on the streets.

But where is it ever a good thing for the church to scare kids 'poopless' with disturbing images like fake botched abortions. Abortion is not something that should be used to scare children. Not only does it give people a terrible view of the church but Abortion is not a trivial issue. If Christians want to be taken seriously on the abortion issue this is not the way to do it. Next on the list Ward says that there are fake school shootings. Isn't this insulting to the people who lost relatives in school shootings? It makes their deaths nothing more than a thrill ride for 'candy-tourists'.

The organized church needs to wake up and realize that fear, though occasionally good for creating superficial and problematic believers, does not work for creating good Christians. People that live in fear are not productive to a group that is bent on loving and reaching out to others, that's what we should be doing. Not just trying to frantically push their faces from the shadows into gold pavement.