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.
The flyer was probably not a direct threat, and this woman is probably over-reacting. I've been trying to find a copy of the flyer on the net, but haven't succeeded. I did see the cover of it.
By publicizing this, though, she has done a good deed for everyone. It's about time these anti-everything creeps get a little public notice.
I mean, I can tell them how disgusted I am at their silliness, but there's nothing like a little publicity to shine a light on their nonsense.
There are ways to attract people to your church that actually work. A nice young couple stopped by my wife and my house shortly after we moved into it. They were from the neighborhood Lutheran church. They came to the door with a freshly-baked coffee cake, welcomed us to the neighborhood, and gave us some literature about the church they attend. Even though we do not attend church, we thanked them very graciously, said we'd enjoy the coffee cake and would read their literature. We did read it. It seems like a very nice church, full of very nice people.
The anti-halloween flyer guy wouldn't have gotten the same response, I bet. Angry people don't generally gain followers, except for other angry people. There's danger in that.
So, the publicity about these creeps is a good thing.
Oh my gosh. That is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Great story! :-D
I think that folks who are determined to find King Charles's head, so to speak, will find it. (Mr. Dick in David Copperfield is the great example.)
Thanks Corin. My said she 14 year old can't wait.
"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.
And if some trick-or-treater's TP her front lawn, egg her windows, and throw a cherry bomb in her jack-o-lantern, that's all part of the fun, right?
I'll see you in heaven, IF your "repentance" is good enough to get you there.
Ciao!
That would be kind of hard as at the time human sacrifices were going on the pumpkin would have been completely unknown.
Thank God He has more sense than some of His followers.
The ultimate irony here is that while the Catholic Church was able to co-opt and obliterate the memory of pagan religions, it is the ultra-scrupulous "Christians" of today who keep the memories alive.
Without you guys to remind everyone every year with your hysterical overreactions, the association with "pagans" would be long gone. Think about that.
SD
It would seem the paranoids in this instance are the fundies leaving unsolicited literature on private property.
Some believed, many did not. And demons ARE real.
And, for that matter, the Witch of Endor was real too.
The witchcraft can be real, no matter whether people believe in it or not. And playing with witchcraft is a serious sin no matter if it works or if it is believed.
BTW, I knew one women who was into some Asian meditation and who once when in trouble tried a magic technique she learned in the class. She did not pay her tickets and the boot was put on her car one morning. She was broke and she could not use her car, so she sat before the car and meditated, the boot fell down. She was scared beyond her wits as she did not believe that such magic can work. (She NEVER did anything with eastern meditation after that.) Still she took the advanateg of this situation and drove her car off :)
You can't compare actual worship of pagan gods and consulting unclear spirits with the little kids dressing up as firemen or princesses to go score some candy -- nobody believing a word of it.
You know very well that "firemen or princesses" are not the issue here.
Invoking spirits or demons or trying magic can be quite real as the story with Saul illustrates. Saul was a fool.
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD
(Deut:18)
If you want a good "magic" or a miracle, pray to God or to one of His Saints. This is the proper way for a Christian.
The candles made of human fat in the jack-o-lantern is myth passed off as 'historical' by the always amusing Jack T. Chick tracts.
Either I will go to my church (there is service at the same time) or I "will turn my porch light and hide".
Passing out Jack Chick tracts to the kiddies?
I am not a fundamentalist Protestant.
You sound judgemental.
Okay, so I'm judgmental because I'm tired of Christians judging me and others? Sure, waateva buddy
No, Halloween comes from pagan traditions celebrated in ancient Ireland and Northern Europe. That they practiced human sacrifice is highly doubtful. Pumpkins come from the New World, so no pagan in ancient Ireland would have seen one at the time Christianity first arrived there. However, you might want to look up the Jack 'O Lantern legend, about a devilish Irish farmer doomed to wander the earth with a hollowed out TURNIP.
Of the kids that come to our door, the overwhelming majority are itty-bitties, and they dress up in innocuous costumes like video game characters (had a really good Princess Peach last year), policemen or firemen (a lot of those after 9-11), and so forth. Very few goblins, ghosts, etc. The older kids don't even dress up -- they just show up in street clothes and ask for candy.
Nothing occult or scary about it. My husband dresses up as a mad scientist with a fright wig, slide rule, and a frog in his lab coat pocket to hand out the candy.
I always encouraged my kids to dress up as martyrs for Hallowe'en, but they never bit! (My daughter was Pippi Longstocking one year -- she looks the part right down to the red hair.)
>Leaving threatening letters on people's private property is not cool.<
And you can support your claim they did this with some evidence.
I have attended functions at the House of Prayer before and know quite a few people who attend there. My guess is that the flyer was not an officially sanctioned literature drop of HOP. (That is, I'm sure the church didn't send people out just to drop a flyer on this lady's porch). I picture it as more of an independant action by people who attend HOP.
Larry Mitchell and the staff at HOP are very good Christians with a heart for outreach. They have a huge ministry to the motorcycle community and to the rougher edges of society. They can be found ministering in places where most Christians would fear to tread. And they are quite successful at it. Bikers need Jesus too.
In light of this I don't see them putting out a flyer saying "You're going to hell because you celebrate halloween" It's just not their style.
One of the ministries that they used to do (I haven't been there in a couple years so I'm not sure if it continued) was to make and distribute coffee each morning at the ABATE Boogie which is held in Lawrence county. The Boogie (for those who don't know) is a three to four day music/debauchery festival of bikers from across the midwest. Lots of drunkeness, drugs, nudity, and other anti-social type behavior. The HOP people distribute coffee in a non-threatening, non-judgemnetal manner. Displaying the light of Jesus by being friends to these folk.
So distributing a flyer that is threatening is just totally out of character for them.
I think this lady got her undies in a knot simply because some Christian tried to help her.
Also, unless the church has moved in the last year. They are located in Elletsville. They had a huge pice of ground out there and were planning anew building last time I was there. In fact the official name of the church is Elletsville House of Prayer.
BTW, obviously I'm an evangelical Christian (Pentecostal/Charismatic) and I agree with HOP. My family doesn't do halloween.
Trouble is "all" means "all", not "most." Even one of the so-called religious tolerance sites had enough candor to admit that there were indeed "some" factual cases of tamperings. (Granted, most reported cases, according to their site, proved unfounded.) Adulterated Halloween Candy And it is uncharitable to malign "Christians" for engaging in this behavior, when there is enough blame to go around. Paranoia at large is only natural, following the tylenol tampering case.
Vandalism, however, is a major concern and, if anything, is probably grossly under reported. (Most of my Halloween crimes against property as a pagan youth were never reported.)
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