Today's Topics:
Fresh off the wire...
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Message-Id: <9110292222.AA07523@thelonious.MIT.EDU>
From: "The Rt. Rev. Wor. Dr. Y. Foo" <dryfoo@athena.mit.edu>
To: subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Fresh off the wire...
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 91 17:22:19 EST
HAUNTED HOUSE DEPICTS WOMAN SENT TO HELL FOR HAVING AN ABORTION
DENNIS, MASS. (AP) Furious protesters are picketing a church-sponsored
Halloween haunted house that portrays a woman being sent to Hell for
having an abortion.
Inside the display, an actor in a bloody nightgown writhes on a
stretcher, screaming, "I want my baby. I want my baby. Where's my
baby?"
Another actor, dressed as a physician, hands the woman a handful of
simulated blood and tissue, shouting: "Here's your baby."
Amy McGillen of Harwich, who said she was "horrified" by the depiction
when she viewed it Friday night, is among the protesters now picketing
the haunted house and trying to persuade others to stay out.
"What offended me the most was there was absolutely no warning that this
was going to be coming up," she said. "You go in there and are taken
through a haunted house, and then suddenly you're pushed into Hell and
have to stand and listen and watch this propaganda about abortion."
The display is operatied by the Victory Chapel Christian Fellowship
Church. It opened Friday and is scheduled to continue through
Halloween.
"We're out to reach people with a gospel message and donate the proceeds
to a worth cause," said Jack Gaeta, associate pastor. "We're up front
about this. We have nothing to hid."
But officials from the organization that was slated to receive the
profits from the $2-a-person admission, the Cape Cod Child Development
Program Inc., said they may refuse the money.
"We're opposed to violence and we're opposed to frightening children and
not telling people what they're getting into and we certainly don't
condone the method of fundraising," said Phil Sheerin, the
organization's executive director.
Sheerin said he had "absolutely no idea at all" that the haunted house
would encompass an abortion message.
Gaeta said the protesters are entitled to their opinions, "as long as
they don't block access to the driveway and don't endanger anyone in the
street."
He said visitors under the age of 13 are not admitted to the haunted
house unless they are accompanied by an adult.
At least one teen-age girl was so shaken by the exhibit on a visit
Saturday that she asked to leave the tour, the Cpe Cod Times reported.
A protester, Peggy Lilienthal, said she would not want her three
teen-aged grandchildren subjected to the abortion scene, no matter what
their position on the issue.
"I don't question anyone's right to express an opinion. I do question
whether it's right to spring something like this on people without
warning," she said.
"If you have a moral message to give there are lots of ways to do that.
If you have to resort to trickery and deceit to get that message across,
something is wrong with the message."
Another visitor complained to the police, the newspaper reported, but he
was told the churchwas violating any laws.
APTV-10-29-91 1036EST+
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End of Subgenius Digest
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