Some Thoughts on Halloween

If you're a normal person, Halloween is probably just a fun holiday for costumes, candy, and general frivolity. You've probably never sat and thought about whether it was morally right or wrong. If, however, you were raised in any one of a number of conservative Christian denominations, Halloween is the epicenter of a significant amount of fervent debate. Is Halloween evil or is it harmless? Are its origins pagan or actually Christian? Should we shun it, go all out, or find a middle ground?

I'm not necessarily here to offer any special insight into those questions. What I would like to do is offer my point of view, and let that be that. I was raised a Reformed Presbyterian. If you've read my blog at all before, you're probably aware that we were on the fringe even of Reformed Presbyterianism (read: weird). One of the emphases of traditional Presbyterianism is that we should not celebrate holidays that have pagan origins. Now, many of you are probably thinking, "What? Who cares?" Presbyterians care, that's who, and they really care. When they care about stuff, they care a whole lot.

Now, I have two thoughts on that. First of all, let me just say that I respect how much Presbyterians care about the stuff about which no one else has given a second thought. I respect my heritage. I am still a Reformed Presbyterian, though I no longer hold to some of its traditional tenets. More particularly, there are a bunch of people I love and respect who feel strongly about things like Halloween, not to mention Christmas and Easter. I respect their motives, generally speaking. I believe their desire to avoid pagan ritualism is honorable and they are well within their freedom in Christ to abstain from holidays they feel are immoral or harmful to their faith.

On the other hand, however, I just don't get it. Why is it such a big deal? Is celebrating Halloween really a sign of compromising with the world? Are you really inviting Satan into your child's life by dressing him/her up as a puppy dog and letting him/her canvass the neighborhood in search of sugary treats? Okay, so you think that Satan uses the niceties of such holidays to trick us into doing pagany kinds of things. Even if you feel strongly about something like that, do you really have to declare your abstinence from such vile filth at every turn? Do what you want to do, but don't be a jerk about it.

Two closing thoughts. Firstly, please don't interpret that last paragraph as my way of saying "different strokes for different folks." When it comes to right and wrong, Christians are called to do what's right and to speak the truth in love. The problem is that the Bible never really discusses something like Halloween. Certainly there are principles that we can glean, but the question of observing irreligious holidays of your culture is not really dealt with (equivocating commands to the Jews to spurn the religious practices of the Canaanites do not apply as well as some may think).

I'll go a step further and say that I really don't see how it is harmful, either. We as Christians are called to choose not simply the "not that bad," but the excellent. This means that we avoid things that are harmful to our faith and the faith of our children, even if they aren't explicitly forbidden. How is Halloween harmful to our faith? I simply haven't seen that. Life is holistic. Your kids are not going to leave the faith because you let them celebrate a holiday that has pagan origins (which also has Christian history, mind you). If your parenting plays any role in your child's faith or lack thereof (it doesn't always, but often does--that's a different subject though), it will be because of how you taught them the the truth of the Gospel in word and deed. I can't see how Halloween contradicts that.

Secondly, what's really important? Is Halloween even close to the biggest problem the Church is facing today? How does this make Christianity look when we quibble over trick-or-treating while our marriages are falling apart and our children are defecting en masse? What emphases are we missing when we call down hellfire on our heathen brethren? Does complaining about other Christians on Facebook really qualify as a good work?

I guess that sums up my thoughts on Halloween. What's the big deal?

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