Halloween II - Why Christians should not celebrate
The signs are out. There are sharks in the water. You can not see them and you do not know how many are out there, but you know that they are there. Will you let your children swim? The swimming is just for fun. The sharks probably will not bite. They may just brush against your child and you will never even know because the sharks are covered. In the end, no one will be hurt and everyone will have a great time.
Parents, It is not too late to put the brakes on this year’s Halloween celebration for your family. You are the parents and your responsibility to protect your children is more important than how upset they will be when you say, “we are not participating in Halloween. Period!”
I will start this by stating that I realize that there are a variety of views on this subject even within my own circle of friends and family. I love everyone just as much whether they participate in these pagan rooted evil traditions are not. I hate the traditions not the people who participate in them. I really do believe that a person can completely avoid Halloween without jeopardizing any friendships or missing out on this small opportunity to bond with the their neighbors. That is one argument I have heard, and it is a very weak argument to support participating in Halloween. Actually, as a Christian your lack of participation might be the doorway to sharing Jesus with a neighbor.
For starters here is a comment left by Renee on my recent post titled Halloween - Should Christians Participate?.
The year before I got saved, I dressed up as a vampire. The next year I had to explain to my children why I did not want to participate in Halloween. My children understood totally; unfortunately, my husband did not. We are still divided over the subject 5 years later.
I have a proposal for anyone who says they don’t associate Halloween with the origins. Let’s have a Nazi day. We can all dress up like Nazis, decorate with swastikas, have the best Hitler look a like contest. Then we can lure children into it with enticements of candy and the lure of fun. Why not, we were never Nazis, we never killed Jews. So what if there are people who are still Nazis today and do horrible things because of it. What if this holiday was their ‘holy’ Nazi day. But we don’t associate it with them or with what Nazis did.
How can we participate in a day that was and is a day set apart to glorify evil, the very evil that we have been set free from. We are children of light and not darkness. It is so absurd to me. It’s a slap in the face to our Lord.
That’s just my opinion. To me it’s very black and white. And yes I do have fond memories of dressing up and trick or treating as a child, but my parents were not Christians and did not know any better. I don’t think any child is robbed of fun by not participating in Halloween. Last year I went with my children and my husband trick or treating. I told them they did not have to go to any scary looking houses. They avoided them all. Then my 4 year old walked up to a very benign looking house and came back screaming down the walkway. There was a fake severed hand on the porch which was wiggling. Wow, what fun.
Now, if you are thinking about arguing the point of where the day originated from you can save your hot little fingers. It really does not matter where the day originated. There are people glorifying Satan and Evil on this day and there are a ton of people who are just ignorant to the facts and having fun. The motives of those who celebrate this day are irrelevant. It doesn’t matter whether it is done “just for fun” or to perform a formal Satanic ritual. Why would you want to go out and mingle with them and possibly be confused as being one of them or being tolerant of their practices? You can stay home and enjoy a quiet evening with your family (porch lights off and not giving out candy). By the way, you can consider yourself warned of the evil roots of this holiday so you are no longer a participant who is ignorant of the facts.
There is no benefit in subjecting yourself and your children to what might be hidden behind some of the masks walking the streets in your neighborhood, roaming the malls, or browsing through your church fall festival. Yes, that’s right, your church could even have some intentional evil doers among your children if the church has opened their fall festival to the public and allows costumes.
The church is not always filled only with those who are seeking salvation in Jesus Christ along with the regular attending well meaning Christians. Sometimes a few seats can be filled with those who are trying to get a first hand look at their enemy, us, the believers. An article reminded me of this possibility when the author, a self proclaimed non-believer, visited a popular church to get a feel for how Christians were being sold on this whole faith thing. His view of what he saw is likely distorted, but it gives proof that not everyone who darkens the doors of the church is doing it with good intentions. There are people out there like the ones in this article who are trying to lure folks to their side of the fence on the salvation and faith subjects. The Wired Magazine article titled The Church of the Non-Believers by Gary Wolf proves this point in its analysis of some well known atheists. I do not endorse Wired in any shape form or fashion and I certainly do not believe that atheists are devil worshipers. Here is small portion of the article that proves my point on the mysterious visitors that you may never be aware of in your church.
In the evening, as it cools to 102, I decide to enter the emplacements of the adversary.
I am headed for the Angelus Temple, in Echo Park. A landmark of modern Christianity, it is one of the original churches of the surging charismatic movement.
Source: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/atheism.html
Now what does this article have to do with Halloween? It has very little to do with Halloween directly, but the article can give you a sense of the beliefs, or lack of beliefs some of your friends, family, co-workers, and fellow church goers might be working off of if you have never asked. Consider your neighbors. How many of them have a clear picture of where they stand spiritually, good bad or otherwise? Better yet, how many of your neighbors know where you stand with your relationship with Jesus Christ? Then once again, why would you step out and participate in something that might tag you as a supporter of evil? Why muddy the water when there are people out there who are preying on non-believers and weak Christians? Halloween night is not the best night to go out witnessing to them for the first time. You can just pass on that 2-3 hour opportunity and instead hook up your neighbor during one of the other 8757 hours in an average year. Who knows, your staying in the house on Halloween might prompt your neighbor to approach you and ask why did you not bring your kids out on Halloween night? “Was one of your kids sick?” they might ask. And then the door is wide open to share your faith with them.
Don’t forget that you are the parent and you can say no to this holiday.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.Romans 12:2 (NIV)
October 31st, 2006 at 3:48 am
Halloween’s a day where people of all ages dress up in costumes. The kids get candy, the adults get liquor. It’s nothing more than that. Fortunately, the other 99.99999% of the people in this country get it.
If you have kids I predict some expensive therapy bills in their future. Unless this whole post was a joke, in which case it’s kinda funny.
October 31st, 2006 at 9:45 am
No Jenée, this post is not a joke to me. I think your percentages are far off the mark. I agree the numbers of intentional evil doers are probably very small, likely a single digit percentage. But who’s out counting? It really doesn’t matter for the sake of my argument.
I realize that you do not understand my point of view. I did not come to it over night. I used to participate in Halloween up until two years ago. Some may say that I am extreme with my view. Maybe so. I personally know dozens of people who share my basic view on this subject. I do spice up my posts a little to make folks think, but it is not a joke.
I see the participation in Halloween as planting seeds. They may be small seeds, but they could grow into big things later in life for your children. Let’s say I allow my kids to dress up and pretend to be a witch. At some point in the future they may decide to go research or ask friends about witches. After all, Dad didn’t mind me pretending when I was a young child. If they come across the right person at the right time with their questions, they could very easily be thrust into a world of satanic worship before they even realize it. It is real. I know people who have found their way out of it.
Simply avoiding some silly holiday will not land anyone in therapy. I am not spending the night preaching to my kids about the evil doers on the street. I just enjoy my time with them as I do on any other night of the year.
“Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:22-23 (NLT)
I appreciate your comment. I lived with your point of view for 37 years.
It is my hope that this post will serve as a confirmation for those who God has given a conviction over participating in Halloween traditions. They are not alone in their convictions. This post is not intended to change the whole world’s view on Halloween.
May God Bless You!
Hank O
October 31st, 2006 at 10:39 am
Thank you for an informative article. I have been debating about Halloween all week, I am a Christian living in the UK and we are now beginning to ‘copy’ the celebrations overseas. I am torn between the harmless fun and the serious implications of this new celebration. (it is new here, we didn’t bother with trick or treating when I was a child)
This made me wonder, why am I spending so much time looking for information on this subject? Why does is fascinate me so much? I suspect because I don’t really know what to think. I am also amazed at how quickly it is catching on. The local nursery is having a fancy dress party and there are costume parties in our area. It is getting very popular.
After some prayer I think that as I have been saved I have a different perspective on the world, so need to be aware that I may find this celebration wrong while others are unaware of any implication and see it as harmless. My decision is therefore not to celebrate it, to delete my halloween screen saver and to try and focus on my house group tomorrow night. While respecting my collegues and friends see this as harmless fun. They don’t join in on Sunday, so why should they expect me to join in tonight?
Thanks for a great article. One of the most balanced I have found in my search.
Kellie
November 1st, 2006 at 10:12 am
I wrote a long comment that got erased because apparently I didn’t put in the right security code (get the Spam Karm 2 plugin and you won’t need the code).
In a nutshell- I don’t know what sort of harmful affects your 37 years of celebrating halloween have caused you but they must have been severe to take this stand (why would somebody who came out unscathed be opposed to it)? And if you don’t think your parenting skills are sufficient enough to prevent your children from becoming devil worshippers simply because they donned costumes, then halloween should be the least of your concerns.
I hope you think long and hard on this matter before denying your children the opportunity to enjoy one of the most joyous occasions of childhood. Any harmful effects that could possibly come out of dressing in a costume will be outweighed by the bitter lifelong toll it will take on your relationship with your child.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:01 am
Kellie,
Thank you for your comments. We share common experiences on this subject.
Jenée,
Your comments are borderline rude. I will allow them to stay because I want both sides of this subject to be seen together.
I take make responsibilities as a father and a husband VERY seriously. Take a look at my boys Riley and Caden. Do they look like they are denied of anything good and pleasurable in the world? Halloween is just a silly holiday, but it is a seed. You should do a little research on “seed, time, harvest” to better understand what I am talking about. If you have never heard of it, then start by reading the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15. If you still do not understand then pray and ask God to help you understand. He will.
Halloween is not the only holiday tradition that I take a stand on. Take a look at where I stand on Santa. This is certainly not the norm of society either.
I have already thought long and hard about this Halloween thing. I am not denying my children of anything by keeping them home on Halloween. What I am doing is placing a higher value on our time together as a family playing, doing Bible devotionals, and watching good clean videos. Oh, and I don’t let my kids watch an ounce of TV either. My wife and I preview all videos before our children watch them too. That is certainly not the norm either is it? But once again, I do not let society determine the path my family takes. Some parents do let fads and social norms determine what the activities that they take part in, but I try not to as best that I can.
I choose for our family to have its own unique identity based on solid Biblical principles. There is nothing in the Bible that prevents us from dressing up and exchanging candy on October 31st, but there is nothing in the Bible that requires it either. I choose not to participate.
Oh, there really was no harmful affects from my 37 years of celebrating Halloween that I am aware of. My first 37 years worth of experiences are not what was driving my decision. My closer relationship with God in recent years along with my focus on following His principles is what has driven me to come to this decision. Standing up for what I believe in and teaching my children to do the same far outweighs the loss of a couple of hours of trick-or-treating once per year.
November 1st, 2006 at 4:24 pm
Wow! Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. I also have been reconsidering the Halloween tradition.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the celebration of Christmas in general as a Christian as well since it too is a pagan holiday. I’ve been reconsidering a lot of the Christmas “traditions” lately. And articles like the following really make me scratch my head:
[Links removed]
November 2nd, 2006 at 7:43 pm
I understand your sentiment on Santa in regard to Christmas. Last year I wrote a blog on the hypocrisy of so-called Christians who can justify lying to their kids about Santa and I think the other aspects of Christmas can still be enjoyed without doing so if it goes against your belief system (though I hope your kids won’t ruin for the others who do believe in Santa).
But when it comes to halloween, I don’t see how the practice of wearing a costume and going door-to-door conflicts with any sort of beliefs. If it’s about the day’s origins, Thanksgiving has very brutal origins. But its current practice is a beautiful one. This nation has horrible origins and a dark history. If origins are a concern, how could you justify living here?
If it’s about “seeds” being planted, then I have to ask how many of those seeds do you think grow into something negative? The overwhelming majority of people in this country celebrate halloween as children but there’s no correlation between those who do and any negative behavior later on. If there was a correlation then I could understand your take on the matter. But right now your position seems to be one of “Just because I said so” rather than rooted in any sort of rational thought or logic (then again, nothing associated with religion ever is).
When I was growing up, there was one year in which my parents insisted I wear a sweater over my costume and I refused and they didn’t let me go trick-or-treating. As the night grew later and I realized my trick-or-treating opportunities were about to pass, some friends came to our door and I gave in and put on the sweater so I could join them for the rest of the night. That halloween stands out more than any other of my youth because it was fairly traumatic to me that I almost missed out on one of the biggest events of the year for a child.
Halloween is not a fad, it’s a tradition. It’s easy for you as an adult to say you won’t be celebrating halloween- you had your experiences growing up. If you don’t think your children will harbor resentment toward you for denying them the experience of halloween for the reasons you’ve listed here, then you are incredibly naiive. Well-balanced parenting creates well-balanced adults. Extreme parenting creates extreme adults. I have no vested interest in your family or in halloween. I’m merely an objective observer who’s seeing some very dangerous seeds being planted and they have nothing to dow with halloween.