Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 10, 2022 / 05:14 am (CNA).
The offices of Oregon Right to Life in Salem, Oregon, were set on fire late Sunday night, the organization announced Monday.
“In the late evening on Sunday, May 8, the offices of Oregon Right to Life were attacked. An individual used incendiary devices, one of which exploded and caught the building on fire,” Oregon Right to Life said in a statement posted on its website.
“The office was vacant at the time, and no one was harmed. Fire and police departments responded quickly, minimizing damage to the building. The agencies are actively investigating the incident.”
“Understandably, our team is shaken up by this attack. We are committed to taking proper precautions to protect the safety of our staff as we move forward,” Lois Anderson, Oregon Right to Life executive director, said in the statement.
“We are thankful for the quick action of our first responders committed to maintaining a safe environment to operate in this community,” she said.
The attack is the latest in a wave of violence and other provocations against Catholic churches and pro-life organizations triggered by last week’s leak of a preliminary Supreme Court opinion in a Mississippi abortion case. Politico, which published the document, reported that a conservative majority on the court was poised to overturn the landmark decisions Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that institutionalized legal abortion nationwide.
Among other incidents, the headquarters of a Wisconsin Family Action, an organization that advocates for the unborn, traditional marriage, and religious liberty, were set on fire Sunday. “A molotov cocktail, which did not ignite, was thrown inside the building. It also appears a separate fire was started in response,” a police report said.
Graffiti left outside the building, located on the north side of Madison, Wisconsin, said, “If abortions aren’t safe than you aren’t either.”
A pro-abortion group, Ruth Sent Us, called last week for abortion supporters to disrupt Catholic Masses on Mother’s Day, and on Saturday threatened to burn the Eucharist. The group also has published the addresses of Supreme Court justice and called for rallies outside their homes. Demonstrators gathered outside the home of Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who wrote the draft opinion, on Monday night.
Oregon Right to Life referenced the violence spree in its statement Monday.
“Oregon Right to Life has had long-standing opposition to the use of force, intimidation, and violence by any person pursuing pro-life activities,” the organization said.
“Our commitment to the well-being of all human life requires that we respect the inherent value and dignity of all people. Just as we condemn abortion and euthanasia, we oppose private acts that take human life, inflict bodily harm, or destroy another’s property. No board member, officer, employee, or chapter officer may participate in any illegal or harmful act against another person or property in pursuing pro-life activity. Oregon Right to Life will not knowingly do business with any organization or business which endorses violence in any way toward pro-abortion persons or businesses.”
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A scene from the trailer promoting Liberty University’s campus ministry production of “Scaremare.” / Scaremare on YouTube
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 29, 2022 / 10:55 am (CNA).
This October some churches and ministries in the United States are once again hosting Christian versions of haunted houses, and nonbelievers and believers alike are lining up for some rather existential spine-tingling for the first time since the pandemic.
Popular among evangelical Protestant churches in the South, these “judgment houses” typically stage dramatic representations depicting what happens after people die, leaving visitors to ponder whether they themselves are headed for heaven or hell, and presumably, to act accordingly.
Is this a good way to save souls? Some Catholics experts in evangelization who spoke to CNA have reservations.
A different way to evangelize
The late Jerry Falwell, the Baptist televangelist, and founder of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is credited with hosting the first judgment house in 1972, “Scaremare.”
Scaremare is still going strong in Lynchburg, where the university’s campus ministry stages a production every year around Halloween that draws people from all over the region attracted by the lure of “fun-house rooms and scenes of death in order to confront people with the question ‘What happens after I die?’”
The performance does not disappoint those looking for the sort of adrenaline surge a horror movie produces. As many as 4,000 visitors a night witness gruesome death scenes including a massacre at a movie theater and a camper who is mauled by a wild animal.
According to Josh Coldren, the director of the 2022 production of Scaremare, the scenes are intended to make people think about their fears and their mortality.
“We talk about how everyone faces death, but how there is hope beyond our fears and hope beyond death, and that hope is in Jesus Christ,” Coldren told CNA.
According to Scaremare’s website, over 26,000 people who visited over the years “have made decisions for Christ over the past two decades. Ironically, this House of Death points to the Way of Life!”
While judgment houses can function as memento mori, efficacious reminders of the inevitability of death, some judgment houses, also known as “Hell Houses,” have become controversial for taking the idea to an extreme. Graphic scenes such as abortions, extramarital sex, and drug use are sometimes depicted along with the consequence of these actions as the sinners are shown condemned to spend eternity in hell.
Scaremare doesn’t get into these issues or talk about hell at all, Coldren told CNA.
“We don’t have a scene of hell, and we stay away from demons. We believe those things are real, we just make sure we stay away from them,” Coldren said.
Tom Hudgins, is the owner of Judgement House, a company based in Seminole, Florida, that provides scripts to churches to stage dramas. Before COVID, he told CNA, they helped as many as 350 churches at a time hold Judgement Houses. They are slowly getting back to business, he said, and about 50 participating churches are listed on their website.
Hudgins explained to CNA that, unlike more extreme Hell House productions, his scripts never talk about social issues. Small groups of visitors walk through scenes meant to encourage self-reflection. Each production begins with death, by a car crash or cancer, for example, and then the audience sees what happens after death.
“They see what hell would be like, but they also see what heaven will be like, and everyone can make their own decisions,” Hudgins said.
A scene from a production of a Judgement House script. Decaturville Pentecostal Church YouTube
Bonnie Gilliland, the dramatic director at Morningside Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, is staging a play with the help of Judgement House this October. She told CNA that the productions are a way of sharing the Gospel.
“We include a lot of scripture, it’s very biblically based,” she said.
Gilliland explained that this year’s production isn’t just for nonbelievers – it’s meant to give the regular churchgoer a wake-up call.
“The current drama gives people an opportunity to understand and examine whether they have a relationship with Jesus Christ because it’s more than just going to church, it’s about accepting Jesus as your savior and receiving the gift of eternal life,” Gilliland said.
Kelly Armstrong, the director of the judgment house at New Harmony Baptist Church in Albertville, Alabama, told CNA that past productions have depicted scenes of car wrecks, overdoses, and abuse.
Visitors see “how people make decisions that affect their eternity,” he said. “It brings our church together, and makes people think.”
Catholic criticism of “hell houses”
Judgment houses have not found favor among Catholic churches in the United States, and two experts in evangelization and pastoral care told CNA that they don’t think talking about hell attracts people to the Church.
Sherry Weddell is the founder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, an apostolate that helps evangelize Catholic parishes to turn pew-sitters into “intentional missionary disciples.” She told CNA that she advises any Catholics considering introducing hell-related themes to their Halloween decorations or celebrations, to rethink that idea.
“If you live in an area that has a significant number of young adults, especially parents of young children, or in an area that is highly secularized like urban areas of the East or West coasts, many will find it offensive or off-putting. And there is a real chance that sensitive and young children could be upset by it which would fuel their parents’ unhappiness with the sponsoring Catholic community,” Weddell explained.
“You could upset people who might otherwise have been open to attending an Advent or Christmas event at your parish or just open to a friendship with a Catholic like you.
“Instead of building or strengthening bridges of trust, you could be shattering or weakening whatever trust may already exist. There are creative, positive, child and parent-friendly alternatives such as “trunk-or-treating,” costume parties, and community of light events that foster both long-standing relationships and fun,” Weddell said.
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, the chief exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington, and a psychologist and researcher at the Catholic University of America, told CNA that the threat of hell isn’t effective in this day and age.
“People today are not convinced or influenced by threats of hell. The Church just really stopped doing that because it just doesn’t work. You know, you can do all the hellfire and damnation sermons you want, but people just kind of yawn, “ Rossetti said.
“We’re trying to emphasize God’s love and God’s mercy, which I think is much more to the point, frankly. And also more of a message that’s needed in our day. And I think that started with Pope John XXIII at Vatican II. He said, today what the message needs to be is of God’s mercy and compassion and God’s love.
“This is what attracts people, and this is sort of the core of our message. God loves us and God has saved us out of his love and compassion in Jesus,” he said.
Washington D.C., Feb 3, 2021 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- Warning: graphic and disturbing content below. Reader discretion is advised.
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4 Comments
We will probably never know the identity of the person (?) who leaked the document, but the violence unleashed in the week or so since the leak, with much more undoubtedly to come, leads us inevitably to that latin phrase – cui bono?
Let’s also keep in mind that behavior like this is their norm, that abortion is their holy of holies, and that for the most part the ‘press’ is sympathetic to them, so they won’t really cover too much of it, and what little coverage there is will be painted in sympathetic tones – “expressing their frustration” will probably be a popular one this time around.
BTW – It sure would be nice if our ‘catholic’ president came out and condemned the violence, but – I ain’t holdin’ my breath on that score.
Right, Terence. BTW! Wouldn’t it also have been nice if our Frank Catholic would have spoken to our president and legislators about a Catholic respect for all life, especially innocent and vulnerable, dependent on the love and care and protection by others.
Are we surprised at the violence? No. As you point out, these are the same people who have advocated and agitated for surgical excision and chemical ablation of future generations. If they would destroy life in a nascent phase in an innermost place, why should we hope they respect life or reason at any stage, in any place, in any circumstance that fails to meet their expectation? They seem to say: ‘Bow down and worship Baphomet, you F—ing Catholics of Disgrace!’
Maybe prolifers should leave those states that are proving to be pro death as the answer and turn them over to God. They should come to places like Ohio which is very prolife in most places. We would welcome them. Diane
We have then these people who mouth the expression “love-making” on one hand, and who then issue death-dealing all the while. These attacks are “reaction formations,” designed to give the appearance of defending some noble cause, like the right to “love-making,” yet are really motivated by the desire to cloak the real animal nature of the perpetrators. Killing fetuses that are late term , especially is not an art of a civilized society. (Nancy Pelosi disagrees, it seems.) These people need to be placed in the category of the “godless.” That label – that divide – needs to be revealed in the public debate.
We will probably never know the identity of the person (?) who leaked the document, but the violence unleashed in the week or so since the leak, with much more undoubtedly to come, leads us inevitably to that latin phrase – cui bono?
Let’s also keep in mind that behavior like this is their norm, that abortion is their holy of holies, and that for the most part the ‘press’ is sympathetic to them, so they won’t really cover too much of it, and what little coverage there is will be painted in sympathetic tones – “expressing their frustration” will probably be a popular one this time around.
BTW – It sure would be nice if our ‘catholic’ president came out and condemned the violence, but – I ain’t holdin’ my breath on that score.
Right, Terence. BTW! Wouldn’t it also have been nice if our Frank Catholic would have spoken to our president and legislators about a Catholic respect for all life, especially innocent and vulnerable, dependent on the love and care and protection by others.
Are we surprised at the violence? No. As you point out, these are the same people who have advocated and agitated for surgical excision and chemical ablation of future generations. If they would destroy life in a nascent phase in an innermost place, why should we hope they respect life or reason at any stage, in any place, in any circumstance that fails to meet their expectation? They seem to say: ‘Bow down and worship Baphomet, you F—ing Catholics of Disgrace!’
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us.
Maybe prolifers should leave those states that are proving to be pro death as the answer and turn them over to God. They should come to places like Ohio which is very prolife in most places. We would welcome them. Diane
We have then these people who mouth the expression “love-making” on one hand, and who then issue death-dealing all the while. These attacks are “reaction formations,” designed to give the appearance of defending some noble cause, like the right to “love-making,” yet are really motivated by the desire to cloak the real animal nature of the perpetrators. Killing fetuses that are late term , especially is not an art of a civilized society. (Nancy Pelosi disagrees, it seems.) These people need to be placed in the category of the “godless.” That label – that divide – needs to be revealed in the public debate.