Love and Forgiveness or Hate and Fear: Lessons of Christianity from the Deep South

Religious fundamentalism was a hard topic for me to write about – not because it was difficult to think of something to say, but because I had too much to say. I could probably blather on about this topic all night, but instead I’ll try to keep this to a reasonable length and stick to one aspect of religious fundamentalism.

BlogSupergroup (as well as its readership) is pretty stacked with current and former residents of Lake City, FL. However, for those of you who did not have the pleasure of growing up in the LC, let me enlighten you. Lake City is a small town in North Florida, located a little less than an hour south of the Georgia border. For those of you who aren’t personally familiar with Florida, North Florida is nothing like the stereotypical Florida you see on TV. No spring-breakers or wealthy retirees from New York there. North Florida is part of the Deep South, the Bible Belt. (If you have any stereotypes about Georgia or Alabama, they might apply better to Florida than any stereotypes you might have held about Florida itself.) Let’s sum this up by saying that Columbia County (wherein Lake City is located) had no questions about who won the 2000 election; Bush took the county by a landslide.

While I grew up in Lake City, my family was one of the few non-religious families in the area. However, my parents weren’t staunch atheists or anything; in fact, they sent me to a Methodist (I think…) preschool for three years. (Anyone else go to Mrs. Cannon’s?) Mom felt that because Christianity is such a huge part of Western culture, I should at least have a basic understanding of the Bible and Christian teachings. My parents also let me go to church with various friends to a variety of denominations whenever I wanted. They also didn’t seem to mind when I started a cult in our backyard. Unfortunately, most people in Lake City weren’t as open-minded as my parents.

I learned at a young age not to tell people that I didn’t go to church. Even when I was in elementary school, telling my compatriots that I didn’t go to church (or worse, that I didn’t believe in god) was the sort of thing that would earn me shouts of “You’re going to Hell!” (Most commonly pronounced “Yer goin’ ta Hay-ell!”) I spent years lying – giving the name of a church near my home when asked, and fervently hoping that whoever was asking wasn’t actually a member of that congregation!

Now, from what I know about the Bible, there are many good aspects of Christianity. Do unto others, love thy fellow man, learn to forgive, that sort of thing. But unfortunately, in many of the churches in Lake City (although definitely not all) the message of love has been replaced by a message of hate and fear. Hate of those who haven’t been "saved," who who reject (or simply don’t believe in) Jesus Christ. Hate of those who support a woman’s right to choose, those who vote Democratic and those who oppose the war in Iraq. Hate of homosexuals and anyone who supports them. (A little while back, Glenn wrote about his experience stopping at a gas station in Lake City while wearing a pink shirt…) And fear… it seems to me that so many local churches preached that the reason to worship Jesus wasn’t necessarily that he was a great guy, son of god and all that, but that if you didn’t, you would spend all eternity on a slow-roast in the fire and brimstone with the gnashing of teeth and such.

To me, one of the worst examples of this was the Tribulation “hell house” put on by one of the local evangelical churches, the Lake City Church of God, as a Christian alternative to Halloween. I only went to Tribulation once. That year I went to two traditional haunted houses – one located in the Lake City “mall” and one put on (I do believe…) by resident blogger Stephanie and some of her friends. Those two haunted houses (of the sort decried by the Church of God), were simply spooky, campy fun for all. In contrast, Tribulation was unpleasant. I still feel sickened thinking about it. Instead of re-telling what I saw, I’m going to quote this section of ReligiousTolerance.org, which is quite accurate (although as I went to Tribulation in 1997, the events at Columbine and 9/11 had not yet occurred):

A Hell House consists of a group of horrific scenes within a type of haunted house. The customer walks through a sequence of tableaus designed to create terror and revulsion. The last scene is different; it is typically a portrayal of heaven. The visitors are then asked to accept salvation by repenting of their sins and trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Hell Houses are a relatively new evangelistic technique used by many hundreds of conservative Christian churches in North America. One intent is to proselytize the unsaved public. Another is to promote certain conservative Christian beliefs:

*that abortions kill human babies;
*that sexual orientation is a matter of choice and can be changed;
*that everyone who is not saved will go to hell when they die (perhaps sooner, if Jesus returns);
*that underground Satanic cults engage in widespread sacrifice of humans.

Some hell houses are disguised to resemble conventional secular haunted houses. The customer only realizes that they have a religious theme after they have bought their ticket and gone part of the way through the scenes.

Typical scenes are:
*A realistic reenactment of the murder of Cassie Bernall, a teenager victim at the Columbine High School in 1999-APR. She was allegedly asked whether she believed in God, answered yes, and was murdered on the spot. The incident never happened. But the story has taken on a life of its own, and is frequently referred to in conservative Christian magazines and radio programs.
*A person being sacrificed during a Satanic ritual.
*Women undergoing very bloody late-term abortions, complete with screaming, lots of blood, and particularly insensitive, uncaring health providers. This scene has been partly abandoned in recent years in favor of a portrayal of guilt and depression arising from Post Abortion Syndrome.
*Gays and lesbians being tortured in hell for all eternity because of their behavior while they were alive on earth.
*The dangers of "dabbling" in the occult and becoming demon possessed.
*Personal tragedies arising from pre-marital sex.
*Disastrous tragedies and loss of life resulting from drunk driving.
*A man has an argument with his wife and is later seduced by his secretary.
*Witches pressuring a depressed teen to murder his fellow students.
*A 9/11 ground zero scene.

The Tribulation hell house I visited in 1997 was incredibly graphic and quite disturbing, involving “sinners” of varying ilks being tortured in an incredible number of ways – and yet people were bringing their children there as a safe, Christian alternative to Halloween. Gone is the Christian ideal of forgiveness, of love for one’s fellow man. Love and forgiveness have been replaced by the need to vilify those who are different and to use fear to coerce all to follow Jesus.

I urge all of you to check out the full article on hell houses at ReligiousTolerance.org.