- God is a God of life, but Halloween focuses on death. Should I celebrate a holiday where people decorate their front yards with tombstones?
- The Scriptures tell us to put away deeds of darkness (Rom.13:12) and that light has nothing in common with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14). Is celebrating a dark holiday something a child of the light should be doing?
- I had been delivered from fear and panic attacks and knew that fear comes from the enemy. Should I participate in a holiday that has fear as its very foundation?
- Witchcraft is clearly detestable to the Lord (Deut. 18:10-13). Shouldn’t something that glorifies witchcraft (just take a walk through the Halloween store) be detestable to me as well?”
- Halloween is a sacred, high holiday for Wiccans (the official religion of witchcraft). Is this a holiday Christians should celebrate alongside Wiccans?
- Is it cute when we dress our kids like the devil (or witches, ghouls, scary characters, etc.)? Isn’t it, well, demonic?
- What if my child dresses in a wholesome fireman costume? Romans 16:19 says that we need to be wise to what is good and innocent of evil. If I let him participate in Halloween, even while dressed as a fireman, aren’t I sending him a mixed message by allowing him to participate in a celebration of evil?
- The Lord said in 2 Cor. 6:17, “Come out from them and be separate … Touch no unclean thing …” Doesn’t God want His children to be set apart from the world and from sin and evil? Aren’t we supposed to be peculiar people?
- My extended family thinks it’s ridiculous that we not allow our son to dress up for Halloween. Should their opinions matter to me more than God’s? Shouldn’t pleasing God be my utmost concern?
- If there is even a question in my heart and mind that it might be wrong, shouldn’t that be my first clue? Why would I continue to do so with even a lingering thought that it is wrong?
- Does Halloween bring glory to God? No! It glorifies the devil! Nuff said.
….
Halloween is the one day a year when neighbors come to your door expecting to receive something. So give them JESUS! Our family chose to give God the glory and the devil a black eye by reaching out to our neighbors with the gospel of Jesus Christ! “You are the light of the world … let your light shine among men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).
So stop justifying why it is fine to celebrate this demonic, worldly, evil holiday. There are no muddled lines or gray areas about it. A committed follower of Jesus Christ should not celebrate Halloween.
— Jamie Morgan, Charisma News, 11 Reasons Why Christians Absolutely Should Not Celebrate Halloween, October 12, 2018
Jamie Morgan is the pastor of Life Church (Assemblies of God) in Williamstown, New Jersey
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Oh good grief. What a twat.
My kids participated in some public school sponsored classes for homeschoolers back in about 2004.
One day of classes occurred on October 31st, and as I sat in the parking lot with another mom, watching kids arrive, a van drove up and emptied a load of costumed children.
They were wearing bathrobes, flowing gowns, and one had shepherd’s crook hanging from his saxophone case. I pointed out the costumes to the mom I was sitting with, and she told me what was behind the costumes. She’d had a conversation with their mom the day before, and learned that, “Halloween is Satan’s birthday. The children are going to dress as Bible characters to make Satan angry.”
On how many levels is that wrong?
First of all, I am pretty sure that Halloween has nothing to do with Satan at all. Those who believe it does are cordially invited to let me know where to find the passage in the Bible that even mentions Halloween.
And as a homeschooling parent, does one not have a responsibility to teach the truth to their children?
And okay, I’ll go there. If you believe that your children wearing a costume will make your biggest adversary angry, what the hell are you doing? Using your children as bait to draw his attention away from you???
People like that are part of the reason homeschooling families are labeled as wackos.
And people like Pastor Morgan up there are part of the reason I see a lot of Christianity as bullshit.
Because of course if you *really* believe your bible, you can’t be both a woman and a pastor.
Silly twat.
What Ami said!
Halloween was originally a Celtic holiday Samhain celebrating the new year on November 1. People dressed in costumes on October 31, made bonfires, offered sacrifices for protection in the new year, and Druud priests made prophecies for the year to come. No Satan included. The Catholic church co-opted Samhain with All Saints Day and All Souls Day celebrations.
My evangelical youth group had Halloween parties in the 80’s. I don’t recall nearly as much hand-wringing back then.
A church-sponsored ‘Fall Festival’ is still a Halloween party (a rose by any other name….) Of course, I assume folks like these would probably agree. I suspect Pastor Morgan is also one of the those we-don’t-celebrate-Christmas-because-Saturnalia christians. And Easter is a pagan fertility ritual, so that one is out too. Oh well, if someone wants to suck the fun out of their own lives, who am I to stop them. Too bad they also ruin it for their kids.
I commented 4 years ago and will comment again. Christians sure are afraid of things despite all their talk of “hedges of protection” and being “washed in the blood”. Their whole “spiritual warfare” belief is more ridiculous than a bunch of kids dressing up in costumes to get candy and have some fun. In the 80s my mom started getting weird about Halloween and whether Christians should celebrate it – so stupid – I ended up taking my little brother trick-or-treating so that he coukd have some fun and so my mom couldn’t squash a little boy’s childhood due to her getting weird about whether Halloween was Satanic….. (during my teens, my mom got scared of me because I can be quite passionate about things I consider important – like letting my brother experience Halloween, getting my little brother evaluated for learning disabilities instead of labeling him as unintelligent or a lost cause, etc…..)
and christians wonder why people think most of them are assholes.
I was re-reading Jude the Obscure last month (yeah, I’m that guy) and it quoted this immortal line from Algernon Swinburne:
“Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean;
the world has grown grey from thy breath.”
Perfect description of the Christian quoted.
Jamie asks if she should participate in a holiday whose foundation is fear. Really??. She hasn’t looked lately at the fear her religion is based on. Do something that’s called wrong and god’s gonna getcha. Don’t do something that’s called right and again god’s gonna getcha. That break down with the car?? Because you shorted god on sunday’s tithe and so he took it from you. That missed opportunity?? You skipped prayer meeting so god skipped you. And so on and so on. Her religion is a constant fear monger. Not a one day holiday.for fun.
I remember my mother’s church did a “Holy House” one Halloween. I know it was sometime in the late 1980s after Dave Benoit (one of the big proponents that satan was infiltrating heavy metal, pop and country music as a recruitment tool, do you recall him Bruce? Anyone else see his dog and pony show?) had a paid visit to the church. Everyone was expected to participate in the spectacle. I begged my mother to not force me as I knew it would just lead to further mockery of me at school, which it did. She blathered on the typical don’t be a part of the world, christians should expect to be persecuted – all the greatest bullshit hits! I did manage to score a low key, nonvisible part – I was responsible for pulling away the papier mache rock which sealed the tomb but my name was in the recruitment…err…pamphlet and tract goody bag handed out at the end of the maze. At least my hubby is laughing his ass off as I describe the “Holy House” to him.
Benoit held a two day meeting for me in the 80s at the IFB church I pastored in southeast Ohio. Crazy stuff, but that would have been normal for me, at the time.
After the second night of the meeting, I gave Benoit the love ❤️ offering and he drove away. Fifteen or so minutes later, Benoit returned to the church. He got out of his car and handed me the check I had given him. “Brother, God told me you and your family need this more than ‘I do!” And with that, he drove away. I have no idea if God told him anything. 🤣 I did appreciate his kindness.
Now that I think about it I also think it was a two day crazyfest – Saturday night was the heavy metal satanic panic presentation with a discussion afterward – all the nearby towns were plastered with fliers so the church was packed to standing room only. And Sunday morning service Dave preached about the evils of 80s pop music (which he may be right, there were some awful one hit wonders 🙂 ) Sunday night was his country music spiel. I also remember one other time the church had a guest speaker on the evils of pornography. I can not recall his name and the only thing that really stuck with me was his cryin’ Tammy Faye routine as he discussed his satan temptation of porn. Glad Dave returned the offering, Bruce, I can’t recall any of the guests doing that where I attended.