Going to Hell at the Happiest Place on Earth

By Rev. Grant Knepper

Every November the youth at my congregation participate in a Disney turn-around trip. The trip works something like this. We depart from our church parking lot in a rented bus late on a Friday evening. The bus drives all night, arriving at Disneyland Saturday morning just as the gates open. We spend all day in the park running ourselves ragged going between Main Street, Adventure Land, Tomorrow Land, Mickey’s Toon Town, and all points in between. Late Saturday evening, after the fireworks, we meet back at the bus. We then drive all night bringing us back to our church parking lot just in time for the late service on Sunday morning.

Now Disneyland is one of those places that works because almost nothing in it is real. It is an escape from reality. You can do things, or at least pretend to do things at Disneyland that you could never do in real life. Let's face it, enjoying the rides and seeing the shows can be fun, but when it is time to leave the park, the fantasy stays behind. Or at least it should.

However, on my last visit, I noticed something different. This time the park was not content just to offer a welcome respite from the common day-to-day existence most of us share. No, this time Disneyland offered a lifestyle, a way of living that would bring meaning and satisfaction to our existence. Disneyland offered us THE ANSWER.

According to the disembodied voice that boomed during the fireworks show, all we had to do to have happy, successful, trouble-free lives was to simply believe in holiday magic. This belief would see us through the troubled times, the times of uncertainty, and would ensure that we all had successful, financially lucrative careers.

Shortly after the end of the fireworks show we decided to go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Seated in an old fashioned car, the ride took us on an out of control drive through the streets and buildings of an old city. It appeared that the ride had come to an end when our car got hit head-on by a train, but much to our amazement, it didn't end there. Seconds after the head-on collision, our car drove into a hot, steamy room filled with what appeared to be flames and ghostly apparitions floating about. In short, we found ourselves in hell. I thought, “How could this be? Disneyland was supposed to be the happiest place on earth. Maybe I just did not believe enough in holiday magic?”

We rode the ride again, except this time I tried my hardest to believe in holiday magic. I also tried to steer the other way when the train came at the car, but nothing worked. No matter how hard I believed or tried to steer the car in the other direction, I ended up in the hot, steamy room with the flames and the floating spirits. Despite what the disembodied Disney voice had promised, belief in holiday magic was not THE ANSWER. If holiday magic couldn't keep me out of Mr. Toad's pretend hell, how could it possibly be of any real help outside the gates of Disneyland where trains really hit cars, people really die, and worse yet, people really go to hell?

I was still mulling this over in my head as we boarded the bus and began our overnight ride. The next morning, we pulled into the church parking lot and got off the bus near the doors of the church. Suddenly, I realized that inside the gates of Disneyland we found only fantasy masquerading as reality. But inside the doors of the church we find reality. The reality of font, pulpit, and altar. The reality of the words, “given and shed for you.” Inside the doors of the church we find THE ANSWER that is just as real and true inside as it is outside.

The Rev. Grant A. Knepper is Pastor at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Seattle, WA