Do you all understand what is going on in this country? Christians are being persecuted here now! These people called the police over a flier, and the media reports it? This is so wrong, and yet it is happening over and over again in this supposed freedom of religion country of ours.
I have always enjoyed Halloween, dressed up as a kid and as an adult, it is fun. I decorate my house for Halloween and always will. I am a Christian, and in no way do I worship Satan when I 'celebrate' Halloween. It is a fun day folks, just a fun day.
I don't like Halloween myself and never allowed my kids to dress up as devils, ghosts, witches, etc. I allowed them to dress up and go trick or treating.
However, many modern Christians are just incredibly stupid on how they should interact with a culture that is no longer Christian, and have no idea that Christmas and Easter were simply pagan holidays that the Church co-opted (Jesus could have been born on the 4th of July for all we know). Many of the symbols (Trees, stars, eggs, rabbits, pastel colors) are carryover from heathen, pagan practices of worshiping spirits, in short, devil worship. The way to influence your culture is to OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD, not to retreat to your holy huddle and throw rocks at all the wicked bad people. That reasoning is WHY we have the Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas
To be frank, evangelical culture today is sterile, biblically illiterate, surface, shallow, insular, prudish, and alternatively either syrupy sticky sweet or reactionary and hostile (kind of like the rest of our culture!). The best thing the church can do in the "culture wars" is learn to shut up when it is appropriate until people ask our opinion, and then to appeal to good, rather than start off telling them how wicked they are. Handing out a flier that informs people of the true history of the holiday would include the fact that the roots are both Christian and pagan. "All Hallows" is a reference that this day was a day that the church set aside to commemorate all the "hallows" or "saints," meaning the giants of the faith. The list is a long one, but a tract that lets people know that the sacrificial, selfless heroism of men and women like Augustine, Athanasius, Clement, Origen, Luther, Calvin, Irenaeus, Bernard, Hus, Mother Theresa, and countless others is a great part of the history of Western Civilization (a couple of these with a short history of their activities would be appropriate). A day celebrating these saints was considered so "holy" that the devil could not get much work done that day, so he got all lathered up on the "e'en"(evening) before, knowing that pickings were slim the next day. Thus the ghoulish emphasis of Hallowe'en. We believe that in a contest between Jesus and "Jason" that Jesus wins hands down every time. Christ still triumphs over evil here at XYZ church. Won't you come check it out?...... There, I have written your tract to pass out. It won't piss people off unnecessarily, and won't leave them with the impression that all the Christians are standing there pointing their fingers at you for being a "devil worshiper" because you let your kids dress up like a spectre. In short, you WIN your culture..., you don't beat them till they flee your condemnation for the safety of the church.
Our culture is not going to listen to the church till they have a good idea that our lives work better than theirs, that we have real joy instead of the fake saccharine junk you see on TV, that we have some kind of ability to hold our families together better than they do, and that our lives reflect an ability to reflect calmness, trust, and we quit trying to fake it and admit that Jesus died for a bunch of losers. Prudish moralism never impressed me as a heathen and I don't see it impressing our culture much, either.
While these people can be offended all they want by the flier, as long as it wasn't placed in their mailbox, no crime was committed. Calling the police was a ridiculous overreaction, and they should have simply called the church and informed them that their fliers were not welcome, and that should end the issue.
Mark
Wow, I can call the police whenever I'm offended?
You mean this church and it's members didn't have anything else better to do than to attempt to preach to some 6 yr olds and their soccer moms?
I find that really hard to believe. And I think they take Halloween WAYYY to seriously too.
Sending "people" to anyone's home to tell them Halloween is devil worship is ridiculous. They need to relax a bit. Its for the kids. We all celebrated this day by eating candy and dressing up. We never sacrificed animals and praised Satan.
Like hell they didn't!
Haloween is more about the fall harvest, at least in my interpretation. The costumes are just the fun. Some do get gross though.