Halloween versus Christmas
It is fall - finally! That means Halloween. This morning on the way to the USPO I drove by that church - the one with the plagiarizing preacher - and they have a big banner out front announcing its "Fall Festival." This really bugs me. Can a reasonably serious Christian celebrate Halloween? My wife and I have a big disagreement on this. She wants costumes and candy; I just have a hard time with celebrating a pagan holiday.
There is a great juxtoposition between Halloween and Christmas:
- Halloween is a secular holiday that many Christians "relabel" and celebrate
- Christmas is a Christian holiday that many pagans "relabel" and celebrate
I just have a real problem with churches baptizing the culture - again - and celebrating Halloween. I am not saying if you or your kids dress up that you're necessesarily sinning; but I think it is wrong for church to celebrate Halloween - calling a pagan event a "fall festival" changes nothing. Heck, "Halloween" is (I think) a Christian appellation.
Think of what Halloween represents. It once represented the pagan ideals of spirits and witchcraft. Now it represents the pagan ideals of sexuality and immorality. Have you seen the Halloween costumes? My mailbox if full of flyers with costumes - which primarily contains sexualized immorality. Take Red Riding hood and add a bustier and some red thigh-high stockings and you have a trendy Halloween costume.
The call of the church is to be counter-cultural. To stand for the Truth of Christ. I see too many - particularly fundamentalist evangelical - churches just bringing the culture into the faith. After all, it is less about Gospel and more about marketing.
posted by Evangelical Orthodoxy @ 12:25 PM
6 Comments:
EO,
Halloween is the only time of the year that I know when people come to your door and ask you to give them something. I give candy and gospel tracts.
I think we can use Halloween to reach people with the gospel this way.
Regards,
Les
I think that is a good idea, but I think that is a little different than church's hosting a "fall festival," which is pagan in nature.
Kyle - Wasnt x-mas orginally a pagan holiday(Christ wasn't born on dec 25th)? Wasn't easter orginally a pagan holiday?
The Church has often taken holidays and put their spin on it.
Technically ... but it is a matter of degree to which something is new or repurposed.
I guess a church could really repurpose an October celebration to remember and celebrate the martyrs and the saints and use it as a teaching and inspiration moment.
My crumudgeon is more generally directed at the broad attempts by the church to baptize the American civil religion from the GOP agenda to Starbucks.
too simplistic, my friend. Besides, I agree with your wife--put on a costume and go get some candy.
Because children are really going to dig right into that Gospel tract and forget the candy...
Seriously, this past Saturday my church (I've been here 2 months) held a Harvest Fest and tried to keep it anti-Halloween as far as decor and volunteer costumes go, but this doesn't stop kids from dressing up like whatever (though there were probably only two or three children dressed up as anything even remotely pagan-ish). I want to agree with you in logic and principle, but here's the thing. Halloween, as you have pointed out, has changed. In fact, it has splintered. It can be about many different things.
For children, if it has morphed into a silly way of obtaining candy and playing games, so be it. I see no harm in a church utilizing these things to incorporate into a children's ministry activity. If anything, it is an anti-us-vs-them attitude toward the world, and that is always good.
For kids, there is no more danger in Halloween as there is in kids playing shoot-em-up video games. If not monitored, yes, problems can develop. If monitored, no real harm.
But maybe I'm just naive...
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