For Heaven’s Sake

The name was just too close for at least one woman, apparently jittery over last week’s mass suicide by the Heaven’s Gate cult in Rancho Santa Fe.

When a flier showed up on the windshield of her car while she was shopping at a Ralphs market, she called the police.

“Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames,” it proclaimed.

It turned out that’s the name of a play being performed at the Calvary Bible Church, which has “absolutely no connection” to the spaceship cult, said Dora Briles, assistant to the church’s pastor, Richard Laue.

The manager of the supermarket called the church to ask about the flier, saying it had so alarmed at least one shopper that she called police, Briles aid.

“We haven’t felt much of a need to explain the title because it’s a fairly well-known religious play that vividly portrays the outcomes of how we choose to live,” she said, adding that the church scheduled the performances of the play long before the mass suicide occurred.

“Besides, ‘Heaven’s Gates’ is plural in the title of the play and the cult is ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ singular.”

“Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames” was written by members of the Niagara Falls-based Reality Outreach Ministries, depicting the souls of individuals who have died waiting to be ushered by angels into heaven or dragged by demons into hell.

A manager at the Ralphs store confirmed the incident but would not comment further. When the church explained, the woman did not pursue the complaint, Briles said.