Mormons & Halloween: How we celebrate, and what to do if it's on a Sunday

This year Halloween falls on a Sunday, causing some to reconsider traditional celebrations that don't quite fit into usual Sabbath-day activities.

But it can be difficult to avoid the holiday known for scary creatures and costumed children begging for candy.

So we asked Mormon Times readers how they celebrate Halloween — and how their plans might change with the holiday falling on a Sunday.

For some, it's just a matter of moving the ward or branch's fall festival or trunk-or-treat to Friday or Saturday. City officials in a few cities in southern Alberta, Canada...have moved celebrations to Oct. 30 and asked their residents, many of whom are Mormon, to go trick-or-treating a day early...

And there are a few who are celebrating this "Day of the Dead" by revisiting their family history — which can be done any day.

"My name is Linda Shattuck. The neighborhood kids called me Sister Shattuck, Sister Shaved Ice or simply 'The Costume Lady.'

"However, this year, I'm battling breast cancer. I'm in chemotherapy, and my fourth round will be Oct. 21. I won't be passing out candy this year and seeing the beautiful costumed children on what my family used to call 'Beggar's Night.'

"Instead, I'll be doing what I love most — preparing names to go to the temple. I'm planning on it being a night for me to honor my dead so that they can live forever with their families. It will be an entirely different version of the 'Day of the Dead' and I'm looking forward to an alternate celebration from ghouls and ghosts. I need to rest in peace this year — and so do my ancestors."

From the article: "Instead, I'll be doing what I love most — preparing names to go to the temple. I'm planning on it being a night for me to honor my dead so that they can live forever with their families. It will be an entirely different version of the 'Day of the Dead' and I'm looking forward to an alternate celebration from ghouls and ghosts. I need to rest in peace this year — and so do my ancestors."

So, she's not going to focus on ghosts this Halloween, just the dead who need her "saving touch." (OKaaaaaaay)

For some of you, this comment needs context You see, Mormon leaders have long told Mormons that they themselves are "saviors" and to "treat" (to add an unhalloweenish halloween word) to this mere men as "saviors":

Citations from former lds "prophets": ...we are the only people that know how to save our progenitors, how to save ourselves, and how to save our posterity in the celestial kingdom of God;...we in fact are the saviours of the world..." (Lds "prophet" John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol.6, p.163).

"... mortals have to be saviors on Mount Zion, acting by proxy for the dead." (LDS "prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, p. 325)

"We know something about our progenitors, and God has taught us how to be saviors for them by being baptized for them in the flesh, that they may live according to God in the Spirit." (LDS "prophet" John Taylor, March 20,1870).

From the article: "Instead, I'll be doing what I love most — preparing names to go to the temple. I'm planning on it being a night for me to honor my dead so that they can live forever with their families. It will be an entirely different version of the 'Day of the Dead' and I'm looking forward to an alternate celebration from ghouls and ghosts. I need to rest in peace this year — and so do my ancestors."

92 years ago this very month, Joseph F. Smith, nephew of the "prophet" Joseph Smith and in ill elderly health, had a vision of the ghoulish dead...leading him to write it down...which was so important to Mormons that they decided to add it to their "scriptures"...well, so important that they did it almost 60 years later, that is.

[By comparison, that would be like the Christian church adding to the Bible]

In chapter 34 of the Teachings of the Presidents: Joseph F. Smith, Smith said:

Not a soul that has ever lived and died from off the face of this earth shall escape a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they receive it and obey it, the ordinances of the gospel will be performed for and in their behalf, by their kindred, or their posterity in some generation of time after them, so that every law and every requirement of the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be carried out, and the promises and requirements fulfilled for the salvation of the living and also for the salvation of the dead. (Original citation: “Latter-day Saints Follow Teachings of the Savior,” Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, 2 vols. (n.d.), 2:561–62.)

Well, you know this is a church of the false gospel when their "prophets" constantly reference the gospel of Jesus Christ as the "law" and chock full of "requirements."

The fact is...gospel literally means "good news." News is something you announce and receive and embrace and trust (or distrust). The focus is on the One sending the message that "you are forgiven and now reconciled to Christ."

It's not a chore-filled spiritual "to do" checklist.

Seekers of truth,

If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you will notice a pattern. There's an anti-Mormon group of people here that spends a great deal of their time attacking the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They post regurgitated propaganda on an almost daily basis.

They have a misguided obsession. You can witness many different tactics employed that you might find quite interesting. The straw man argument is a big favorite and is frequently preceded by cherry-picking quotes or other material. After the "quotation" the attacker will misrepresent what has been said or what was meant and then attack their own interpretation.Later they will have the audacity to claim they were "only" quoting our own material.

They will of course insist ad nauseum that they are merely using our sources and are therefore innocent of any deceptive practice. LDS persons have no issue whatsoever having our scriptures or leaders quoted as long as it is presented fairly and accurately. This is rarely (if ever) done.

Another favorite is posting scripture or statements which on their own really present no dilemma. They make something out of nothing while never bringing up a single objection that hasn't been addressed a hundred times before.

You might note a couple of other tactics used to try to antagonize is the use of disrespectful or insulting terms or language and/or pictures. That's a Christlike thing to do right? Yeah I don't think so either. It does speak volumes about them though.

Sometimes they cruise the headlines of the day seeking any story that might be twisted into making the Church look bad. Anything will do, just watch the progression of posts following it and see what I mean.

After reading their posts, I invite you to seek the truth about whatever "issue" they seem to be "revealing" or "exposing". I promise that if you do so with honest intent, the "ahah" moments you will have will be many and frequent. You will start to recognize the tactics employed to cleverly twist and attack and will likely chuckle the more you see. In actuality, there's nothing new here. It's all been addressed many times before.

The latest twist in the anti-Mormon propaganda machine is to actually go to the links provided, but then they cherry pick what they want, then quote and straw man attack that. Clever. It almost appears that they are helping you, the seeker of truth out by doing some footwork for you. Not so much. Don't be insulted, look for yourself. It's not the haystack they want you to think.

Here's a few links to get your started from a different viewpoint. I have found that the vast majority of the "issues" brought up can be found and addressed at http://www.fairlds.org/ but here's more:

http://scriptures.lds.org/
http://www.lds.org
http://www.fairlds.org/
http://www.mormonapologetics.org/
http://www.mormonwiki.com/Main_Page
http://www.lightplanet.com/response/index.html
http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDS_Intro.shtml
http://www.answeringantimormons.com/index.htm
http://promormon.blogspot.com/

Now you will likely notice the "you never address our points" posts pop up as usual. All after providing the answers just as you have here.

Sometimes it is claimed that these sites present a needle in a haystack. Far from it. But if you give up before you try you won't know will you?

Will you wear blinders too? Seek truth. Find out for yourself. Want to chat with someone on any topic? A few of these sites provide just that. So do your homework sincere seeker of truth. Listen and read from both "sides". Make up your own mind.

I witness to you of these truths and wish you the best, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discerning, decided readers,

Some Non Defenders Non Defend by claiming what we say has been covered over & over @ links they provide...
These Non Defenders claim these are Non issues...
...and that all you need to do is click, pop in a word in the search, click again and voila!
...”needles of wisdom” just pour forth from your computer screen...

Some Non Defenders claim one such haystack link worth investigatin' is fairlds.org...
...So when you take up this defective deflective challenge...
...and put in a phrase like “Adam-God” [re: Brigham Young's teaching that the first man, Adam, was God] in the search box of that Web site, the second entry that pops up from that search is Church doctrine/Repudiated concepts/Adam-God [This is FAIR's WIKI format attempt to address some things]

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links both "address" and "answer" these claims...
...yet when you check under the hood of this lemon, you get varied Lds apologists' opinion about Brigham's "Adam is God" teaching...
...like: Brigham was wrong [Joseph Smith said the very “first principle” of the Mormon gospel was to know the character of God, (King Follet funeral sermon), yet Brigham couldn't get a kindergarten identity issue down in not being able to distinguish Adam from God?]

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links reinforce for us such attractive snapshots of Brigham Young, such as Lds apologist Van Hale's concession that Brigham was ”mistaken” about who Adam was and that Adam, after all, was a ”complex doctrinal subject.”

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links love to cite Lds “apostle” letters from almost 30 years ago, letters which concede THAT BRIGHAM YOUNG, CONTRADICTED BRIGHAM YOUNG, AND THE ISSUE BECOMES ONE OF WHICH BRIGHAM YOUNG WE WILL BELIEVE. [Lds "apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, 1981 letter cited on link above]

Therefore, instead of Non Defenders just telling you outright that Lds “apostles” concede that...
Brigham Young taught falsely who God was...
But didn't always identify Adam as God...
Therefore, Brigham Young was theologically schizophrenic...
And that Brigham Young was 100% untrustworthy, because we don't know (still) which Brigham Young to believe?
...he makes you click twice, type in a word, and read an entire Mormon FAIR Wiki entry!!!

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links don't all agree what Mormon apologists should do about Brigham's out-of-tune “glitches” … as if you – the spiritual inquirer – just warm up and tingle all inside whenever you hear admissions from “the faithful” that their flock front man “glitches” on basic Genesis quizzes like, “Who was Adam?” But, not wanting to psychoanalyze Brigham Young as spiritually schizophrenic, what's a Mormon apologist to do?

Well, that narrows down the conclusions left for the average Mormon apologist, if you follow the links provided by some Non Defenders.

Why, if Brigham wasn't schizophrenic, what then?
Final “options?”...
The summations below precede the bracketed {actual quotations found @ one of Non Defender's links -- FAIR's WIKI entry on Adam-God being "repudiated"}

#1 Brigham was PR-challenged {“A final explanation is that Brigham Young believed and taught Adam-God...but he...didn't live long enough to 'develop' the teaching [read: spin] into something that could be reconciled with LDS scripture...”}
#2 Brigham inspired a LOT of Mormon agnostic followers about who God was: {”We don't know...In this view, we simply don't know what Brigham Young meant...”}
#3 Brigham's plain English was non-interpretable minus either a decoder ring, or dark hat, or the Joe Smith special urim and thummim {"We simply don't know what Brigham Young meant."...why that could only mean they don't know plain English!!!}
#4 Brigham's “revelation receptor” was “glitch” prone – comparable to the Ford Pinto of a later era {”An anomaly is a glitch.... A classic example of an anomaly in the LDS tradition is the so-called "Adam-God theory." -- BYU professor Stephen Robinson}
#5 Brigham inspired in the average Mormon apologist this “confessional credo”: “How do we Mormons deal with these questions? We don't. We abandon them...like we abandon you the inquirer...like we abandon the questions on FR.” {”So how do Latter-day Saints deal with the phenomenon? WE DON'T; WE SIMPLY SET IT ASIDE.” – BYU professor Stephen Robinson}

Such “gems of wisdom” await you all...all at the multiple click of a mouse!

I want all my loved ones to live in the same house when I reach heaven but that ain’t gonna happen. There is no concept of family in heaven.

Same with every pet I ever had. I would love to lay under a tree if there is such a thing, in heaven, with all of them but that ain’t gonna happen.

I would love to save everyone but I have not the power to do so and logically it would make no sense for God to grant me that power.

Walking with God is a decision of Agency, one’s own volition. You make the decision as a sentient being to walk in God’s light or live in the shadow.

I cannot fix that in life and I sure as heck cannot improve anyone’s spiritual condition in death.

No one can count on the prayers of loved ones for God’s mercy, especially when that mercy comes through an imperfect being. Man has zero power over life and death, heaven or hell.

Moreover, no one can cross the great divide, if only to give water to a soul burning in eternity nor to come to the living and tell them how wonderful heaven is.

Honor your dead as a form of grieving and personal healing, maybe even healing for all you know but, you will not effect God’s plan or commandment.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Do you see the two agencies in that verse?

God - Gave his son up as a lamb for our salvation, that through him we might be saved.

God - layed down the condition of that salvation in that we must believe in Christ, have a change of heart, soul and spirit, ask for God’s forgiveness and salvation.

You will then be changed in that moment. Not perfectly nor the way anyone might judge you to be or should be but, at least slowly your character will change as a reborn soul must.

God’s plan for you is the condition of your character and intent. He want’s you to grow, not as an enlightened being but as a person whose daily intent is live better as God intend for you and to be a witness to others of God’s Love.

So ask God for forgiveness as a wretched soul and beg for eternal salvation, then go and live as God intends for you as a changed soul.

Paragon [Non-]Defender wrote... [clarifications and full mormon disclosure added in brackets. They should reveal the full truth, don’t you think?]...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Seekers of truth [that should be a red flag anytime it is written by someone wearing magic underwear],

If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you will notice a pattern.

There’s an anti-Mormon [former mormons who left the cult and now are Christians] group of people here that spends [devotes] a great deal of their time attacking [revealing the truth they learned about] the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [the cult known commonly as “mormons”].

They post regurgitated propaganda [From our own mormon church official sources!!! When they do it, it’s propaganda. When I do it, it is official doctrine.] on an almost daily basis [actually, they do it throughout the day - that’s how much they care!].

They have a misguided obsession [understand that as I write this, I am wearing magic mormon underwear, which can be tight and tend to ride up into the crotch, so pardon my frustrations with this and my emotional language - it’s the magic underwear talking].

You can witness many different tactics employed that you might find quite interesting. The straw man argument [used primarily by myself and other mormons] is a big favorite and is frequently preceded by cherry-picking quotes or other material [we mormons like to cherry pick from the Bible in order to appear Christian, but it’s OK when we do it!]. After the “quotation” the [mormon] attacker will misrepresent what has been said or what was meant and then attack [our own fake strawman].

Another [of our] favorites is posting scripture or statements which on their own really present no dilemma.

They [we] make something out of nothing [of course, I acknowledge mormonism is made up out of whole cloth and pretty crazy! Really, where can you find millions of gods in the Bible?!!] while never bringing up a single objection that hasn’t been addressed a hundred times before [of course we claim to “address it” - we can’t claim we actually answered it, since we have no facts, evidence or logic to back us up. We “address it”].

Sometimes they cruise the headlines of the day [I know this because I have X-Ray vision and can see into their homes. I watch them all, closely, vigilantly and stalk their computers] seeking any story that might be twisted into making the Church [by “Church” I mean the cult, but Church sounds more mainstream] look bad. Anything will do, just watch the progression of posts following it and see what I mean [dang, my magic underwear is getting a bit tight-sorry].

You might note a couple of other tactics used to try to antagonize is the use of disrespectful [like referring to our founding prophet Joe Smith by terms that describe his actions] or insulting terms or language and/or pictures [this could be anything at any time]. That’s a Christlike [here, I should be fair and tell you that when we use the name Christ, we don’t mean the eternal second person of hte Godhead. We mean a created spirit being who later became a god, like all mormon gods - sorry for the confusion] thing to do right? Yeah I don’t think so either. It does speak volumes about them though [their stupid obsession with truth and pointing out the flaws of our prophet gnaws at me].

After reading their posts, I invite you to seek the truth about whatever “issue” they seem to be “revealing” or “exposing”. I promise that if you do so with honest intent, the “ahah” moments you will have will be many and frequent [many, for instance, say, “AHAH! Now I understand why those former mormons want to spread the truth of mormonism! What a wacked out religion!”].

You will start to recognize the tactics employed [by mormons] to cleverly twist and attack and will likely chuckle the more you see [I chuckle quite a bit as I fail to ever answer any and every question! Heh, heh!]. In actuality, there’s nothing new here. It’s all been addressed [but of course, not “answered”] many times before.

Here’s a few links to get your started from a different viewpoint [no doubt our young cultic missionaries have visited your home to tell you why your own church is a false church]. I have found that the vast majority of the “issues” brought up can be found and “addressed” [but of course not answered, since we don’t do that at mormon links... but really, you will get more objective answers at the non-mormon links] below [for some reason, they like to actually provide facts and evidence and logical argument to demonstrate the falsehood of mormonism - drats!!!]:

http://www.irr.org/mit/default.html
http://www.exmormonsforjesus.org/
http://4mormon.org/ex-mormon.php
http://www.exmormon.org/
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/

Now you will likely notice the “you never address our points” posts pop up as usual [we try our best to never actually ANSWER, but we do address them by posting links!].

All after providing the answers just as you have here [of course, these “answers” aren’t filled with any facts or evidence or logic - they are just our way of avoiding difficult issues until we have you hooked in our cult]. Will you wear blinders too [why not switch to wearing magic underwear! Don’t leave home without it.]? Seek truth. Find out for yourself [and don’t listen to me].

[One more thing...

PLEASE NEVER ASK ME A QUESTION!!! In all likelihood, you are too ignorant to get a real answer. We save the “meat” for when you have already joined the cult!

In particular, please do not ask questions about:

1. Millions or billions of mormon gods
2. How you can also become a mormon god!
3. Celestial sex between the gods
4. Mormon Jesus being created just like people or Satan
5. What the Holy Spirit (also created) did that was naughty
6. Magic underwear!
7. Heavenly Mother and our goddess harem breeding program - it’s not something we want to talk about anyway.
8. Our working our way to one of the three mormom heavens.

Really, any question. They have already been “addressed”

I post links that “address things”, but I never personally
answer a question. That would involve thought. It is much easier and cleaner to just post the official links to the cult headquarters.]

I witness to you [that sounds so much more powerful than saying I posted this at FreeRepublic] of these truths [here, truth, is of course, relative] and wish you the best, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ [and of course, I don’t mean the Christian Christ of the Bible, but you probably knew that]. Amen.

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