Red fluorescent lights blink on and off, the small room is shrouded in a cloud of smoke, and it is more than 110 degrees inside.
Men and women, dressed in ragged clothing, are screaming for help as a man dressed in a long black robe with a chain draped around it enters. He is wearing a charred demonic mask.
It is hell.
It is not actually hell, but one of the 10 scenes at Judgment House at Calvary Baptist Church in Horn Lake, Miss. Judgment house is an hour-long walk-through drama that tells the story of two characters who are following two different paths in life.
The theme of the drama is “Life is not a gamble.” In the drama, one character has accepted Christ while the other is on a path of destruction, drinking and gambling.
Tour guides ushered groups of 10-12 people through the different scenes, wearing orange t-shirts with white letters that read “You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get it all” ushered around groups of 10-12 people through the different scenes.
The first character is a teenage girl named Katie who has just been saved. In one scene, she is killed in a head-on collision. In another scene, she is climbing the stairway to heaven.
The second character is a middle-aged man named Don. Don habitually visits the Tunica casinos. In one scene he is robbed and murdered after he wins $125,000 at the casino. The next scene shows Don being sent to hell because he was not saved.
“We have been doing Judgment House here for the last five years,” said Calvary Baptist Church youth minister Anders Lee. “We began doing judgment house to provide a Christian alternative to Halloween.
“Halloween is usually associated with darkness and death,” he said. “We just wanted to bring truth and light.”
Lee said that he and other church members prayed about what the theme should be for this year’s Judgment House.
He added that the Lord told them that this was the right theme and it was important to tackle the casino issue.
“The first scene is actually a video,” Lee said.
The video shows coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks, car accidents and other natural disasters. “Someone dies every seventeen seconds. Will you be saved?” flashes across the screen in red letters.
“We are not trying to use the Judgment House as a scare tactic,” Lee said. “We wanted to do something different.”
Lee added that he wanted to avoid controversial topics like abortion and homosexuality, although some judgment houses do cover such topics. Lee said that Judgment House is not a haunted house.
“We are not interested in bashing people or scaring them,” said Lee. “The purpose is to get the community involved and have a major evangelist event. It’s not about getting more church members for Calvary, although we do have an increase in attendance after the Judgment House, along with other area church pastors.”
Judgment House was created in 1983 and is now a nationwide organization. The Judgment House at Calvary Baptist Church has between 400 and 800 visitors each night, Lee said, including school and church groups.
Lee attributed the big turn out to the community’s curiosity. The church also receives support from area businesses and organizations, like the local police department.
