Well, "Hell Houses" may be a uniquely Southern perversion, I'm not sure. I do know they were very common where I came from and every Halloween, several churches would set them up and invite all and sundry to come there instead of taking their kids trick-or-treating, because they said those were pagan things and related, somehow, to the devil. Because paganism = DEBIL WORSHIP in their minds. There was this sort of movement that I can remember a kid, especially among the more evangelical and conservative churches, to weed out anything that they thought might be "pagan" or not purely Christian in holidays and events. At Christmas there was some anti-Santa murmuring same about the bunny at Easter.

The only good thing I can report is that while they managed to get a few of the devout, or those who were forced to go by parents and church leaders (as I was), most people laughed and went right on dressing up and asking for candy from strangers and toilet papering people's houses on Halloween Night. :) Sorry, but when religion bumps up against a good excuse to get drunk, dress us, and eat candy? Religion almost always loses. We might be conservative nutjobs, but us Southerners are very food oriented and neither God nor man shall stop us from the eating and disseminating of candy, casseroles, and other baked goods.

Thanks for the suggestion about the podcast. I'll seek that out. It sounds like a something that I'd enjoy. I'm always sort of searching for anything that discusses God and religion and faith and spirituality in a way that is more open and rational.