"Hallowing Halloween"

Gerard gives a link to a wonderful article in Christianity Today that reaffirms the way I feel about Halloween.

"It's Satan's Holiday, Dr. Rearick," affirmed one of my students. "Didn't you know?"

Well, no, I didn't know. And I am reluctant to give up what was one of the highlights of my childhood calendar to the Great Impostor and Chief of Liars for no reason except that some of his servants claim it as his.

I just can’t buy into the mindset that Halloween is a holiday that no decent Christian should participate in. We are free to draw are own boundaries of aesthetic expression and financial outlay. (The fact that Halloween is the second largest money grossing holiday, after Christmas, bothers me. A fun holiday that should involve lots of sweets and home-made decorations has been coopted by corporate America. But that is another debate.) But having some pumpkins, candy corn, and children dressed as M&M’s doesn’t make us Satanists. Tacky, gluttonous, less than perfect Christians but not Satanists.

I can’t think of a better way to alienate the children from our Church than to tell them that what they had previously participated in, in the most innocent way, is now strictly off limits. For a family that converted when we already had four children this would be a strange, and hard for me to rationalize, turn of events. Homeschoolers rub shoulders often with evangelical Christians who are adamant about Halloween’s evils. There is the temptation to take their earnest advice without to much of an examination of what we are really doing.

The author of the article does give credit to those who have had bad experiences with the occult and wish to shun any association, no matter how suprfluous, in the future. But he also giveshearty support to those of us who wish to communicate our disdain for the devil by laughing in his face.

The one thing Satan cannot bear is to be a source of laughter. His pride is undermined by his own knowledge that his infernal rebellion against God is in reality an absurd farce. Hating laughter, he demands to be taken seriously. Indeed, I would say that those Christians who spend the night of October 31 filled with concern over what evils might be (and sometimes are) taking place are doing the very thing Lucifer wants them to do. By giving him this respect, such believers are giving his authority credence.

Not all believers should celebrate Halloween. For those who have been redeemed from the occult, Halloween in its foolishness may contain what was for them deadly seriousness. While their souls were in deadly peril, however, what they experienced were lies and illusions.

It is understandable that they look with horror upon what once enslaved them. Such sensitivity may be appropriate for them, but it is not appropriate for the majority of Christians. Holding their opinions as appropriate for most believers is like having a former bulimic dictate how Christians should regard church hot-plate socials.