Should Christians participate in Hallowe'en

[Kabowd]

Because I had said earlier that she had no authority to tell me what I could and could not post, and then found out apparently she does.

Tess, I don't have any authority on the boards.

And no where did I say you had no right, or make any inference that you didn't have a right to post on the boards! Please go back and read my posts...

Blessings~

You're not a Moderator? Someone told me you were. Well, I was just explaining what I was referring to earlier.

Oh..and the reason I thought you were telling me what I could or couldn't post was when you said this:

...So do not try to debate this issue with me any further...

But maybe I just misunderstood what you were saying. I was just asking questions and you thought I was debating I guess. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

I am a chat room moderator....

...So do not try to debate this issue with me any further...

This was not a statement saying I am denying you, your rights to post in this or any given thread. Merely my desire to not personally engage in further conversation with you to argue/debate my position concerning this topic.

Edited September 16, 2004 by Anonymous

[Kabowd]

I am a chat room moderator....

...So do not try to debate this issue with me any further...

This was not a statement saying I am denying you, your rights to post in this or any given thread.

Okay, I guess I was hearing it like when my brother and I are discussing something and he goes, "This discussion is closed and not up for debate" (which means he's made up his mind and I'm not allowed to challenge it further. I was understanding you to be telling me I wasn't allowed to discuss it anymore. I guess I misunderstood you.

[shammah]

The Lord says not to do as the heathen do; do not participate in their unholy days!

But you all say; yes lets have fun and make it christianized! Lets call it Easter after the god of fertility instead of the resurection,and let the children learn of the rabbit and eggs symbols honoring demon gods, and call it good fun! The devils laugh in the face of God when they see Gods people like puppets practicing heathen rituals! What you call good innocent fun in the Flesh, God see's as idolotry in the Spirit!

You are innocent if you are ignorant of practicing heathen ritual, but if you know it's roots and that it's dedicated to false gods and do it anyway, it offends the Holy Spirit at the cost of you having fun!

Isn't it better to stand up for truth and righteousness than to seem weird by your neighbors, and upset the kids because they want to be little candy grabbing monsters too! I thought standing up for truth and righteousness was why Christ was persecuted in the first place, and so all those also who follow Him!

But that doesn't mean anything anymore if it gets in the way of our fun; we can make anything Christian, or say we're dressing up as angels on halloween as a good wittness!

Lets just face it we got rid of the real Holy Days long ago because they wern't fun; just about the same time we lost the true Christians who were willing to stand up for principle!

[tako]

HI THERE, HALLOWEEN, Now I have respect for all of your views out there, But for me I look at it this way, Basically, we're dealing with kids, and it's there childhood, and it's an exciting time for them, They could care less what we as adults know about what halloween is all about. All they know is their friends and neighbors are out there getting the LIONS share of the CANDIES and GOODIES, I just emphasize safety and fun for that one night, and thats all they'll remember about halloween is fun time. Now I do take advantage of that evening by putting TRACKS in all the little packets that my church gives out, I always make sure I put it in each year and just enjoy the KIDS. CHRISTMAS and EASTER I emphasize our LORD JESUS the most and just enjoy the HOLIDAYS with my wife and kids so they can have the fond memories like I had when I was a kid, But my kids are adults now, Still, I have fun with the new kids on the block. Just my take on this ...........TAKO

[kittyjo]

Here is an article with many good links and info:

Should Christians participate in the Halloween Holiday?

Click Here from christiananswers.net

I tend to agree with the article above, personaly, we don't participate in Halloween... Why? It's real simple there is just no desire or interest. I was 9 when I gave up trick or treating, for the same reason.

The intent of dressing up a kid and sending them out and about in the community to beg for empty hyperactive calories, is basically innocent and I share some fond memories of the experience myself... But many times what you find out there scattered amongst the shy fairy princess' and the adorable little cowboys are a bunch of greedy little monsters, and that is no reflection on the costume the child is wearing.

All sarcasam aside, retailers will tell you that Halloween is big business... For adults not children. The majority of the costumes and themes are gory and evil. Bars, clubs, even the Vegas casinos make money on Halloween, there are costume contests that give away big money and other various promotions including exclusive dressup/down fettish parties but...

Ultimately what does the day represent? Death, darkness, gory slasher movies, things that exalt evil, fear not to mention the pegan roots and occultisic rituals that are still practiced by some... It's my personal choice to avoid these things.

Safety is another factor, just this month we have had 3 violent home invasions in my general area. In good neighborhoods, one was even in a gated community. Years ago on Halloween some criminals used their kids by dressing them up and knocking on doors "trick or treat", when the door opened the home was rushed in by men with guns... Sometimes people answer the door to 'mail service' or 'phone service' people only to have a gun shoved in thier face. So we only open the door when we are expecting company, we have a call first before you visit rule. We have had people try to break in while we were at home so we are very careful.

Now on the other hand we do enjoy fall, I miss living up north and experiencing the real change of seasons with the leaves turning gold and red so we do jazz up the house with fall looking stuff.... And my mother works in a healthcare/rehabilitation facility as an activity director, I volunteer my artistic skills and decorate the hospital. Halloween is loved by the residents, it gives them a chance to reminisce. By inviting a class of children in costume to visit it gives them a chance to interact with the community. They enjoy any reason for a 'party' and all the snacks. They enjoy the fall colors and change of sceanery... All the Halloween decorations and props I've designed are very mild and fun as opposed to scary, evil and gory. This seems to bring them much joy. The movie 'Abbot and Costello meet the Wolfman' is as 'scary' as it gets.

One room is left undecorated for the many church services that take place through out the week. Do I feel that by doing this I'm contradicting myself? No. Why? Because I don't force my personal beliefs/feelings on anyone, and the intent here is to bring some happiness to some people who are mostly shut in; not to exalt evil.

Whatever a person chooses to do about a 'holiday' is between them, God and the conviction in their heart about the situation... Just be careful there are a bunch of nut-jobs out there.

Edited September 16, 2004 by kittyjo

[Guest Kandi]

I found this site rather interesting, jolly

You might find something here to dispel Halloween horrors

It is the history and customs of Halloween

http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm

Edited September 16, 2004 by Kandi

[artsylady]

I was just thinking about something. The costumes and masks are getting scarier and scarier at the same time at the same rate that the Christians are backing out wanting nothing to do with this day. Is this relative at all or am I way out in left field here?

I think the roots, as far as this site says, make it seem more superstitious than evil. (And there are many superstitions today that we innocently follow - like the bride wearing white, the bridesmaids, saying 'God bless you after a sneeze" and many other things we all innocently do.) In making it to be more evil than it really might be and getting away from the day itself, have we allowed evil a foothold on this day? Just a thought. maybe I'm way off.

[artsylady]

And I am dead set against some of these costumes and masks, by the way. Quick story about a shaman from another country who became a minister. On his first trip to the US, he saw masks in the store at Halloween and was startled because he actually recognized some of them from his past experiences when he'd travelled into the spirit realm. I think it's adults who generally wear these really awful things anyway, but I do hate them with a passion.

Anyway, wouldn't we as Christians be better off just trying to seriously tone down evilness of Halloween? We could even join anti violent groups and even for once BE politically correct, even though that's something we don't strive to be. Wouldn't we be doing more good this way? Wouldn't we Christians look pretty darn good to a lot of parents too? Just another thought.

[Kabowd]

Mixing anything of pagan roots with christianity is not pleasing to the Father

Could you elaborate on this please? Do you have Scriptural examples? Because...from what I understand, all things really have christian roots because they were created originally by God. Pagan's may have distorted things, but satan is not a creator..he is a deceiver. If anything, I want to offend the enemy by taking this day back...rather than passively letting him have it.

artsylady, that's exactly why I said this ^ earlier. To me, it's like when Joshua and Caleb came to the land of promise. The spies came back and told them that it would be impossible to take because it was already inhabited by giants. They had three options (basically):

1. Wait it out and hope that the giants would leave or die off.

2. Turn back and give up their promise.

3. Take it by force.

Sometimes I think Christians are far too passive. God has promised us victory and that we should not fear our enemy. If satan has taken over anything (a holiday, a tradition..anything), he is stealing something that does not belong to him. We must take it back. If Joshua and Caleb had listened to the fears and worries of all the other ppl, they would never have possessed the land God had promised them. They would never have realized the destiny God had in store for them. My perspective is that we can't sit back and wait for the world to "come around" to our way of thinking. We have to seize every opportunity to proclaim the truth. Sometimes that means advancing towards the enemy head on.