I got a flyer in my mailbox at work for Hell House 13. For the uninitiated, "HellHouse is a radical alternative to a haunted house, presenting the truth in a manner that appeals to (teenagers) long after they go through. Our desire is for your youth to catch a "glimpse of eternity" and realize that there is more to this life."--from their website.

How this actually plays out: You pay your money, and then go through the house, which has drama rooms depicting raves, abortions, car wrecks, etc. What happens is that someone in the skit will die, and then one will go to heaven and one to hell, and then the patrons see the eternal results acted out by teenagers in the church youth group.

Obviously, there are a myriad of reasons this would be controversial. But what I'm wondering about is a balance of "means" and "ends."

I mean, what if, when eternity plays out and I'm in The Kingdom and this guys says, "Yeah, the reason I'm here is because I went to Hell House 13 and thought about eternity for the first time and accepted Christ." I'm sure if we called the church after it was over they'd tell us how many people made a "profession of faith."

Unfortunately, there's no one we can call to see how many people are alienated from Christ by this harsh approach. Of course, most non-Christians don't even know this exists (which raises the question of who the target audience truly is) and will simply go about their lives alienated from Christ anyway.

I guess I just don't think that the hope of a few "ends" justifies the emotionally manipulative "means" in this case, and much of the time, energy and effort expended ultimately results in even more reasons we're not taken seriously when we talk about being salt and light.

Maybe it's my anti-programming/pro-relational approach to the Gospel message, but, in this case, WWJD?