Posted on 10/29/2014 6:06:11 PM PDT by lifeofgrace
Every year, my family and I face the same dilemma. The last time either of us participated in Halloween has to be at least 10 years ago. We have made a decision to abstain from Halloween celebrations, including all the TV specials, candy, and trick-or-treat associated with it. I’m not against dressing up in costumes, or candy, or fun. I and my wife simply oppose the values that go along with Halloween—the celebration of darkness, horror, fear, and mayhem.
I wrote a rather long piece about Halloween and why we believe what we believe, and posted it on my blog in three parts (it’s almost 4,000 words)…scroll to the bottom of this post for the inks. I got quite a bit of feedback on the blog and on social media, most of it negative. Here’s the general theme of the comments: Halloween is fun, therefore my being against Halloween is being against fun. The conclusion: if I am against Halloween fun, then I must be against all kinds of fun and therefore no fun to be around.
That’s a leap across a logical crevice too wide for me to safely arrive at the conclusion.
To be clear: Halloween is fun. In my posts, I never said it wasn't. So is gambling, sex with strangers, getting drunk (not necessarily being drunk), telling filthy jokes, swearing every other word, and lighting bags of dog poop on your worst enemy's doorstep then ringing the doorbell.
There are all kinds of fun, and each kind of fun has consequences. Fun has a price. Halloween celebrates darkness, death, fear, and mayhem. Those things might be fun to some, and in our culture which has been so inoculated to these values they seem harmless.
Every 'R' rated movie features all the kinds of fun I listed above, and though we might find them abhorrent when we put ourselves in the picture, we accept them perfectly well when others are doing it on the big screen. Our kids grow up baptized in this stuff, so Halloween seems like quaint good old fashioned fun in comparison.
If you separate yourself from the 'R' (and even 'PG13') rated culture, it takes a while for the garbage to wash off, and even longer for the smell to go away. But once there, you see how far we've slipped into the mound of filth every day.
Halloween is fun, alright, but if you take a step back and look at what values we're teaching our kids, you'll see how ruinous our path is. The only option is to turn around. I love fun. I love good clean fun. The beach, the sun, picnics in the mountains, going to the mall, even going to movies. But most movies are too debased for me to sit through. You might say that's because I'm a fun-hating prude, but I say it's because I've had a chance to wash the stink off me for a while, and if you don't realize it, you may be so surrounded by that stench that you can't even smell it anymore.
Halloween ruins children. It's not the only thing that ruins children, and in fact it's pretty minor compared with the tidal wave of filth in which most of us wallow. Sometimes it's more effective to look at the quaint little bad habits than the life-controlling ones, because it's easier to break those little bad habits, and so it is with Halloween.
Many churches replace the Halloween celebration with their own “trunk or treat” or “harvest festival”. As an evangelistic tool, it’s great to reach people for Christ in any way possible, including through popular culture. I am on the fence (but leaning against) the church taking a non-Christian celebration that stands in opposition to Biblical values and replacing it with a look-alike (candy, dressing up, bats and pumpkins) but also introducing the Gospel. Many times it pulls the faithful into the world more than it draws the unchurched to Christ.
For those who simply can’t step away from Halloween, I respect your opinion, and hope you can respect mine. Here’s the links to the original series.
Then he shouldnt celebrate christmas or easter either as they are both pagan holidays as well.
We did decorate this year. Our house and yard accurately reflects the people who live in our area. Cold, dead, haunted souls who vote democrat.
This guy could have developed constructive alternatives for his family in far less time than it took to write this screed.
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How do you know that he didn’t do both?
When I waas a kid ~50 years ago I rans around for a few hours and collected a LOT of candy (2 pillow case fills when 11). I had a lot of fun and a month + worth of candy. The OP needs to lighten up a bit.
Exactly right, and glad you could admit it.
They’ll say stop celebrating Valentine’s Day because the heart symbol looks like an upside down ass.
I won’t flame you, I’ll just tell you how we deal with Halloween as Christians. Just as Christ transformed Death into Life, we make Halloween a celebration of Life. We dress up as our heroes, our house is bathed in light (not spooky decorations). We give out candy and little toys with positive messages. We take the opportunity to meet the neighbors and their children. And we send off each visitor with “God bless!”
Christ called us to be the Light of the World. Not to merely curse the darkness.
” I and my wife simply oppose the values that go along with Halloween—the celebration of darkness, horror, fear, and mayhem. “
Yes, I see...
Often, when 2 year-olds come to my front door, dressed a princess, I see right through their guise to their true intent - celebrating DARKNESS!!! And HORROR!!!!! AND FEAR!!!! And MAYHEM (like that insurance commercial!!!)!!!!
Oh, they try to hide it. I often see their parents lurking out by the street, the blood dripping from their evil zombie mouths, barely hidden in the darkness.
Lighten up Francis!
Growing up Catholic, we celebrated Halloween because Oct. 31 was “All Hallows Eve,” the night before “All Saints Day” (Nov. 1).
“Hallow” means “holy.”
I agree that the way it’s celebrated these days doesn’t seem very holy. But I read somewhere that people used to dress up as the saints - in the way the saints (many of whom were martyrs) died. That might explain some of the gruesomeness of Halloween.
Oh okay. Now I understand. There’s a hefty chunk of Catholic-bashing in your article. Ugh.
Calvinist?
By that logic the author shouldn’t celebrate that pagan festival that has taken on the name Christmas.....
LOL. Our school (Catholic) gave us boxes to collect for “pagan babies” while trick-or-treating.
How can you not like seeing these kids?
Google images of all sorts of horror. Lasting memories for these kids plus they get to interact with the neighbors.
http://tinyurl.com/kgklj5l
Sheesh.
Let the kids dress up as ballerinas or tigers and go get candy.
Sheesh.
Let the kids dress up as ballerinas or tigers and go get candy.
Its fun to be scared of ghosts and ghouls, just like going to a scary movie. It doesn’t mean you condone bad things that happen in the movie or the Halloween witches and zombies, its just some good clean fun. Our kids love it and really focus more on dressing up and getting candy.
Now, the many adult parades and celebrations are definitely not kid friendly and those events celebrate depravity. I would suggest you focus your ire on those events rather than the harmless fun the kids have. I think I turned out ok. I dressed up as a ghost, c3po and superman when I was little and I don’t think it damaged me at all, or at least not much....
Cool pumpkin. Too bad he now needs a 21 day quarantine.
Ha ha—same thing happened to me!
Projection issues much?
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