Today is Halloween.
The most controversial day in the Christian calendar.
It’s more controversial than which version of the Bible you prefer to read. It’s more controversial than your views on the timing of the tribulation. It’s more controversial than having a woman preach in your church.
It’s a really really bad day for many many Christians.
Should Christians celebrate Halloween, or should they not?
Most Christians agree that it’s a holiday based in paganism and devil worship. But few agree on how best to approach it. To disregard it is touted as cruel to your young. To celebrate it is accused of the sin that leads to death.
Churches fight about it. Christians attempt to redeem it. Personally, I simply skirt the whole issue by making sure I work on it. I mean that literally.
Here’s my annual halloween tradition: My shift starts at 5, which means that despite my lack of any fall decorative items anywhere close to my house, between the hour of 3pm and 5pm I turn all my lights off in my house and hunker down in the basement.
Then at 5 minutes to 4, right when I’m about to hit the road for work, I slowly make my way to the surface, look to the left, look to the right, then bee line it to my car faster than a skunk at night.
Yes, Halloween is a dreaded day in my life for a whole number of reasons, and at the risk of angering about 52% of the readers of this blog, I’m about to make it worse for you by giving you my thoughts on the
13 Most Pathetic Ways Christians Try to Save Halloween:
1. Treat and Trunk parties in the church backyard.
2. Dressing your kid as a Bible character for their halloween outfit.
3. Having a halloween party and calling it a “fall fest”.
4. Dressing up as a hooker and claiming your “Christian Liberty” card.
5.Dressing up as Jesus and claiming your “Good Christian” card.
6. Giving your kids gospel tracts to hand out as they go trick or treating.
7. Handing out gospel tracts instead of candies when tots come trotting to your door when all they want is a lame piece of chocolate. (Try hunkering down in the basement with the lights off like I do instead. It works).
8. Sermons dedicated to bringing down the entire holiday once and for all.
9. Flicking candy corns at kids dressed as little devils.
10.Withholding candy corns to kids dressed as little devils.
11.Making a list of all facebook friends who celebrated halloween and whom you intend to defriend on Nov 1.
12.Calling it All Saint’s Day in an effort to make it Holy.
13.Not letting your kids trick or treat the houses with evil decorative items like zombies, graves, and witches.
Wait. Did I just give you 13 reasons why I think Halloween is pathetic? Aaaah. It’s a conspiracy I tell you. I must add a 14th.
14. Blogging about how lame Christians are about halloween.
Disclaimer: this post is intended for satirical interpretation and does not accurately reflect the views of the writer.
Disclaimer #2: I did write a post about halloween last year. You can read it here. Single people do have it easier in many many ways. Not having to over analyze Halloween for your kids sake is one of them. Any additional thoughts or questions about halloween are welcome in the comments section.
Photo Credit: Jen Pollock Michel, author of one of my favorite blogs findingmypulse.com.
LOL… Still lol… That’s too funny, but I don’t Halloween either. I head to work too. But instead of fixing that broken pumpkin or pulling a candy corn from a child’s nose like you, I’ll be out looking for Charlie Browns great pumpkin before it snatches that lil bag of candy corn. I do hope that while i’m away my house doesn’t receive extra egg, or Tp as it too will sit this one out… Thanks true but funny:)
Great I’ll have to throw out my bag of candy corn now.ill be home studying hiding from goblins. In all seriousness I won’t be on the road.for those that have to be,be careful. Lookout for anyone that has a pumpkin on their head.
We did the fall festival at one of the big megachurches when the kids were little. It was fun and they had no real concept of what was going on AND they got a ton of candy that I could raid.
When they got older, we all went trick-or-treating together.
Neither are Satan worshipers that I know of.
We took the kids out when they were young (and before we felt compelled to skip the trick or treating), but do they REALLY need all that candy -truthfully ? Top it off with the debate bigger than the democrats versus the republicans. We now just sit it out. Put in a movie, or just go about our daily business. We live in the boon docks so we don’t get trick or treaters. I usually pick up a small bag of candy in case my niece stops by. I can usually find a volunteer to eat it. My kids have never complained about not going out. Most people in the community look st me like I’m Amish when I answer the question of what my kids will be. I refuse to force my convictions of Halloween on others, but am glad to explain my feelings. Just as long as they don’t tell me that it is a holy day that we should observe, I am good with it.
Hilarious…lol!
Happy Halloween. Have a great day.
Here are my thoughts on it — if you feel convicted about not celebrating Halloween – don’t. However, I don’t feel convicted about it and personally think that God can still really move in the celebration. Phil and I throw our annual Thorman Halloween Party, and it is quite a fun evening! It is an opportunity to invite people into our home and develop our relationships with them. Because this year, Phil has his men’s small group and I have my women’s small group – we felt it hit another level. The connections developed were deeper and our friends really embraced the new people we invited. I think it’s also a great opportunity for our non-Christian friends to see that we can have fun in a different way. We don’t need to dress inappropriately or drink too much to have a good time.
We are friends with our neighbors and have been witnessing to them and inviting them to come to Harvest with us. They came to our Halloween party and had a really great time. The husband clicked with several guys in Phil’s small group and he now wants to come to that! Praise God!
The way I see it, if Halloween is a chance to welcome people into our home and get to know them better – I’m all for it!
Oh, and last – it’s just plain fun to wear a costume one day a year!
I got a kick out of this tweet from Luke MacDonald
Whatever your personal views on Halloween, please know that I am judging you harshly for them.
You left out the best one – celebrating Reformation Day in place of Halloween!
The most important thing I believe about Halloween is that if a person is convicted about it in any way, no one should criticize that. When my son was little, I was involved in a mother’s group at church. A film was shown telling about the origins of Halloween. Many of the moms felt strongly about avoiding the holiday at any cost. I didn’t have that conviction. After much praying and some discussion with my little boy (who was surprisingly calm about the prospect of not trick-or-treating), I felt that we needed to eliminate things such as ghosts, witches, and jack-o-lanterns, but trick-or-treating remained.
I know Christian people who do not celebrate Christmas or Easter because of their pagan origins. Is that a reason to not celebrate the birth and resurrection of our Lord? Not to me, but I wouldn’t try to talk them out of it; I have to respect their earnestness to obey and please God they way He leads them.
Night time thinking. Almost post Halloween. Deep thoughts. Deep Prayers.it wasn’t a trick or a treat. A Powerful blessing in my prayer time. Follow what is in ur heart as long as it is in his and that is where he is directing u 2. Never felt his strength like I did today and always will.