If you were possessed,
isn't that exactly what
the demon would say?!
Posted on 10/20/2005 11:09:48 AM PDT by Millee
An Ellettsville family whose home is decorated for Halloween contacted police after someone placed on its porch a flier that suggests Halloween praises the devil.
Dalene Gully told Indianapolis television station WRTV that she took offense to the flier, which was placed outside her home by the House of Prayer Church of Bloomington.
"I started reading it, and I was very, very upset by it. I found it very accusatory and very threatening," Gully said.
The church's pastor, Larry Mitchell, said the people who left the flier would have preferred to talk with Gully, but she wasn't there.
Mitchell said the church didn't intend to upset the Gully family, but rather tell people that Halloween isn't harmless fun.
"Halloween is not fantasy," Mitchell said. "We're training up our children, and obviously this lady was trained up in this. Halloween seems like it is taking just as much prominence as Christmas."
The Gully family filed a complaint with the Ellettsville Police Department. The incident also prompted the family to install an alarm system at the home, the station reported.
"This is my home, and I like Halloween. If I want to decorate my home, I have every right to decorate my home," Gully said.
I was just kidding of course :) I've been here five years. The Libertarian/Conservative thread wars of old have given way to creation/evolution and christian/non-christian.
Soon, it will be something else.
I do remind myself that other than the trolls we're all conservatives here and we all have some common ground so I'm not going to hate anyone over their philosophical differences with me.
Of course.
However, I wasn't. They're here, and they command an audience.
I've stayed below the radar pretty much.
I do know that for more active freepers however, stepping on the wrong toes becomes an issue.
Honestly, it doesn't matter who steps on my toes.
This is the kind of shrill overreaction against certain evangelicals you might find over on Democrat Underground.
Just toss the flyer and act like a grown-up.
This woman did what any liberal would do. She knew she had to use a buzzword "threat or threatening", so she could justify a very obvious shrill overreation because she just didn't like the message.
A whole lot of people have always thought Halloween had evil implications, so what. Welcome to America, the land of free speech, even religious speech.
Booooooooo!
Woops, I hope nobody feels 'threatened'
Well, it could be a rise in the nuts that actually take Halloween as a religious holiday. Was New Age/Wicca (among other things) really around when you were a kid? While as it currently is, its modern form is mostly just a religion which appears made up to annoy parents, many adherents do celebrate Halloween as a religious event. Given that change in context, one should expect a change in attitude.
Most towns I have lived in, people don't bother to report trashing (TPing, shaving cream, water ballons, egging and the like) around Halloween until and unless it includes feces, arson (excluding open flame that isn't near a car or structure), or actual property damage. There has been an upswing in "Hell Night" actual vandalism - beginning about 1992 in my experience - with rocks through windows and other riotous behavior.
I could make a comment about proposed flag burning amendments when the subject of "right not to be offended" comes up, but then people start slinging bizarre claims of terrorist sympathies.
I'm Christian and I've always participated in halloween. The whole dressing up and trick or treating is a fun filled day.
I've yet to suffer from demonic possession. I doubt this year will be any different.
This is my only thought on the whole subject. I really don't like strangers leaving flyers at my house, period. If they really want to get in touch with me, then they can send it snail mail. That way, no one is on my property.
Now, I don't like flyers, but I don't do anything about them. If I saw the person passing out the flyers, I would politely ask them not to. I also might even call up the church and ask them not to leave flyers on my door.
If you were possessed,
isn't that exactly what
the demon would say?!
Just curious: do you tell trick-or-treaters to keep off of your property? And is your property posted? (That would seem sensible to me.)
I sincerely dount there was any "trick or treating is devil worship" type stuff in the flyer. It's just not HOP's style. I figure it was probably a more historical "this is where halloween comes form" sort of thing.
Of course I might be proven wrong if the flyer gets posted but until then I'll go with the folks I know as opposed to the woman with her undies in a knot
I'm not questioning the unfounded hysteria over halloween candy being tampered with. I believe that's merely news media looking for ratings. I due question your statement that specifically cites Christians being the culprits that spread these stories hoping to quell trick-or-treating. It sounds like you're generalizing and slandering Christians to suit your need.
"copy/pasted" does not equal intepreting.
Let's not continue this.
Nobody is forcing you to continue.
You've made your decision...
What decision?!
Never underestimate the power that the devout & dull have to just be a collosal bore. :-)
There is nothing wrong with these customs. Most of them never had any offensive connotations; and the few that did, had the offensive parts suppressed and the wholesome parts "baptized" by their absorption into Christian culture.
So many people don't realize the genius of Christianity in appreciating, adapting and purifying so much that was harmless and even good in pagan cultures.
Read some of Milton's poetry --- a Puritan of all Puritans in the very Age of Puritanism--- and see how many allusions there are to classical Greek and Roman paganism. It is amazing!
Read what Tolkien and C.S. Lewis have to say about Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic myths and their significance, sometimes, as a kind of pre-evangelium to Christianity.
A great resource giving insight into this is a book called "Peace Child" by Evangelical missionary Don Richardson. He tells about how even a tribe of headhunters had an element in their traditional tribal religion that was "pre-evangelical" --- a legend that suggested that they could have peace by being "born again." Missionaries used this to teach about Jesus Christ. Like I said, "careful discernmet" in using pagan customs. Fascinating. By the way, "Peace Child" is available for under $5 at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0830704159/002-5423294-3388818?v=glance
Almost everything known about the druids was written down by the Romans, who were their enemies and somewhat suspect as witnessess. Most of the rest is crap made up out of whole cloth by Victorian Romantics.
I am not hysterical, I am saying that Halloween is as kosher for the Christians as ham is for the Jews. And if others want to celebrate the Halloween , it is their choice. And if some want to be Satanists and pagans it is their choice either. God will judge them, not me.
Do you or your spouse wear a wedding ring? Can you find that custom in the Bible, or is it of pagan origin?
We do wear wedding rings. We do it because it is the Church rule.
I do not think that it is in the Bible, but the Bible is only a part of the Christian Faith. The key part, but only a part. The Church was BEFORE the Bible.
I have run into a few real ones (fortunately they are few). Sick, sick people. The Wiccans are models of sanity compared to those folks.
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