"The 99"...

This was originally posted on my Twitter using TwitLonger. Then I wanted to post it here, so I copied/pasted it. This just really grinds my gears. Read on fearless readers...

I checked the mail today and someone had stuffed 4 little flyers in. The front had half a person's face with the "rated R" symbol in the eye. It said "The 99", gave the location which is the local mall, dates and times and sponsers. On the back was two coupons to get into this show for 2 bucks only when it's a 10 dollar value. There's a small blurb at the top saying the 99 symbolizes the "average amount of deaths" among young Americans due to drugs, alcohol, suicide, etc. There's a website on the flyer so I looked it up a few minutes ago.

Basically it's a pretty graphic production you walk through that tries to 'wake up' people from 16 - 25 years of age and get them to make better decisions (no drugs, alcohol, texting while driving, etc.). Now I'm cool with this but something still nagged at me. So I googled it.

Turns out this 'production' is a Hell House. Ever heard of them? You might if you live in the South. Basically a Hell House is something churches put up to compete with a haunted house. It gives you a tour through the life of a sinner, complete with a visit to hell, then afterwards talks to you about accepting Christ as your Savior. I have no problem with Hell Houses (aside from the fact I don't think fear is the best way to Evangelize), because they're clearly marked as such.

This 'The 99' production is NOT. According to someone who visited, they lead you through all the bad situations young adults need to avoid but then the tour goes through Hell. You end up in a small room, watch a video, and a preacher tries to convert you. Some of the news blurbs on the actual 99 site have scenes from the drugs & car accident, and one news reporter says they can't show any more of it because the producers want to keep the ending a secret.

Well sure they do! They don't want to turn off non-Christians who might visit and/or take their kids there, thinking it's a good message. It IS a good message, but the ending is totally unnecessary. It's Ambush Evangelism. It's GOTCHA!Preaching. It'd be better to clearly state this is a Christian production, give people a clue that this has a religious message at the end, instead of tricking you into spending money to visit it and then pounce on you at the end. It's deceitful! It's not right. Unless you look very carefully at the sponsers on the flyer, you'd never realize it. Once I did, I saw where Evangel (a local mega-church) and the On Fire Christian Center were two sponsers alongside companies like Arbys, Chic Fil A, Texas Roadhouse, etc. That gave me a clue and made me research it when I got home.

My point is, Jesus never resorted to tactics like this. Know what He did? He talked to people. Got to know them. Didn't condemn them. He sat with prostitutes and tax collectors. He taught them. He never ambushed people nor deceived them.

Stuff like this makes me mad. I may go up to the mall on one of their production days and scope the outside out. It's taking place in the middle of J-Mall and there's not that much space so I wonder how big it'll be. I may or may not actually walk through because I want to see if the blogger was right about the presentation. And depending, I may speak up. Stuff like this just isn't necessary. Gandhi had a point.

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

I wanted my second post to be about how I got into wrestling and then into women's wrestling. But this really got on my nerves so I wanted to share it here. I'd actually write more but it's almost 2 a.m. So until next time...