Originally published at the Steve Brown, Etc. Guest Room Blog. You also might enjoy “The Great Pumpkin Proposes a Toast,” from deep in the IM archives. Here’s a good post on “How to have a great Catholic Halloween.” No Protestants are harmed. It’s OK. The best article on Hallloween remains James Jordan’s “A Different View of Halloween.”
As October 31st looms, it’s time for true confessions.
I grew up among Southern Baptist fundamentalist Baptists. The KJV-only, women can’t wear pants, twenty verses of “Just As I Am,” Jerry Falwell, Jack Chick, twice a year revival kind of fundamentalist Baptists.
We were serious about things like beer. By sheer quantity of attention in sermons, drinking beer was the most evil act one could describe. We were serious about movies, cards, and something called “mixed bathing,” which normal people would call “swimming.”
We were serious about the Bible, Sunday School, suits and ties, and walking the aisle to get saved.
And we were big time into Halloween.
No, that’s not a typo. I said we were big time into Halloween.
From the late sixties into the early seventies, the churches I attended and worked for–all fundamentalist Baptists–were all over Halloween like ants on jam. It was a major social activity time in every youth group I was part of from elementary school through high school graduation in 1974.
We had haunted houses. Haunted hikes. Scary movies. (All the old Vincent Price duds.) As a youth minister in the mid to late seventies and early eighties, I created some haunted houses in church education buildings that would win stagecraft awards.
The kids loved it. The parents loved it. The pastors approved. The church paid for it!
No, this wasn’t “Judgment House” or “Hell House” or whatever else evangelicals have done with a similar skill set today. It was fun. Simple, old-fashioned, fun. No one tried to fly a broom or talk to the dead. Everyone tried to have fun. Innocent play in the name of an American custom.
And then, things changed.
Mike Warnke convinced evangelicals that participating in Halloween was worshiping the devil. Later, when we learned that Warnke may have been one of the most skillful of evangelical con-artists, lying about his entire Satanic high priest schtick, the faithful still believed his stories.
Evangelical media began to latch onto Halloween as some form of Satanism or witchcraft, and good Christians were warned that nothing made the other team happier than all those kids going door to door collecting M&Ms.
Evangelical parents decided that their own harmless and fun Halloween experiences were a fluke, and if their kid dressed up as a vampire, he’d probably try to become one. If there was a pumpkin on the porch, you were inviting demons into your home, just like it says in Hezekiah.
A general fear of the occult, manifesting itself in Satanic ritual abuse mythology, crept into evangelicalism and took a deep hold on many churches.
Occult ministries exploited these fears, and ministries like Bob Larson found it was profitable and powerful to make rock music, drug use, occult worship and Halloween one big package.
Today, if you want to split your church, divide your singles group, get a fight started with parents or see the youth minister fired, just find some way to have an old-fashioned Halloween event in your church.
In the ministry where I serve, we can’t have fall festivals. Putting out a pumpkin is risky. Any costume other than dressing up like Billy Graham is taboo.
Halloween experts have proliferated in evangelicalism. Where did these people learn all this stuff? Oh yes, The Onion. That’s right.
Those great, fun, harmless, safe, nostalgic, exciting, slightly scary and completely un-demonic Halloweens of the past? Gone, gone, gone with the evangelical hot air.
Does it bother me? You bet it does. It bothers me that we fall for such lame, ridiculous manipulators as the crowd that made all of those Halloweens past into satanic events.
It bothers me that any lie, exaggeration or fiction will find thousands of eager believers to pass it along.
It bothers me that the Biblical message about Satan would be co-opted by the fear-mongering and manipulation of the hucksters. (Read The Screwtape Letters for some real Satanism.)
It bothers me that such a wonderful part of my childhood and of American life has been turned into an example of evangelical paranoia and gullibility. We ruined something good, and everyone knows it but us.
I know all about the sophisticated responses thoughtful Christians have about Reformation day and All Saints Day. That’s fine, but it’s not the same. I just want my grandkids to be able to dress up in cute outfits and trick or treat without the local church designating them for exorcism.
Shame on those of us–evangelicals–who allowed Halloween to be taken away from families and many communities, all because we prefer to believe that life is a Frank Paretti novel.
Boo. I hope I scared you.
___________________
Michael Spencer, aka The Internet Monk (www.internetmonk.com), is a campus minister, communicator and inexplicably successful blogger living in Kentucky. When he was a kid, he would go trick or treating as a scarecrow, but now he wants to dress up like Steve Brown.
The Internet Monk Archives 
That thumping sound you hear is me banging my head against the nearest wall.
LikeLike
It’s very tempting to just brush off the voice telling you you’re mistaken, and instead, to rely on our “gut feeling†that somehow the Big Evil just *must* still be there, despite whatever evidence someone presents to the contrary.
That sounds frighteningly like a Permanent Floating Witch Hunt searching around for a target.
And partaking of Conspiracy Theory mentality. The Dwarfs are for The Dwarfs, and Won’t Be Taken In.
LikeLike
Thank you, thank you, thank you. So grateful for some common sense mixed with a little histroical perspective. Lies – like the ones propigated by Warnke – often have ripple effects for YEARS. And although I do believe there is power in the forces of darkness – real power – I am unafraid and unwilling to cower. Because greater is He who is in me…
Halloween is one day of the year my boys look forward to with GREAT anticipation. We downplay the creepy and yucky stuff. We celebrate family and community. It’s one of the best times of the year for us to get face to face time with the neighbors. And my kids light up like a Christmas Tree (I know, another pagan symbol…) when they get to dress up and fill their sacks with goodies. I’m a pastor and I wouldn’t miss it. Blogged about it here today >> http://bit.ly/4ddB3Z.
Let’s be about the business of REDEEMING culture, not stiff-arming it. Greater is HE who is IN US! Go have fun with your family – we are free. Let’s be a light in our neighborhoods!
I love your blog. Thanks so much.
-joshua
LikeLike
I said this when I linked to this post at my own site, but it bears repeating:
This is one of the reasons that I’m thankful to have grown up in a mainline protestant church.
LikeLike
“Seriously, does anyone REALLY believe that there’s some kind of supernatural conflict going on specifically on Halloween? ”
No! There is a spiritual conflict going on all the time!
“Somehow the evil spirits escape their bonds and run amok thru the world searching for innocent children dressed as vampires and werewolves whose souls they may devour.”
No! The evil spirits run amok thru the world searching for innocent children whose souls they may devour.
Some of them are religious spirits, some of them deceive people into think the spiritual world does not exists, but they all have only one object.
LikeLike
Respectfully giving you flack
LikeLike
I’m sure I’ll get flack for this, especially after seeing the large following you have in your camp, but I hope you’ll listen respectfully while I offer my viewpoint. I haven’t celebrated Halloween since I was 6 years old. It was my choice to give it up, as I decided it didn’t glorify God as a use of my time. I don’t think you are a Satanist if you decide to participate in Halloween, and I don’t expect other Christians to agree with me (Romans 14:3), but I’d appreciate it if you would be respectful and not shame me for my convictions.
The fact remains that Halloween does have the appearance of evil. Whether it started that way or not, doesn’t matter. I don’t know how anyone can argue this, just go into any store this time of year and look at the displays. The holiday is about being scary, and that’s what draws a lot of people to it. What does the Bible say about Christians and associating with evil? 3 John 11 says “do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.” Ephesians 5:11 says “have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness”, and isn’t that one of the things that some people like about Halloween, the scary, dark aspect of it?
1 Corinthians 10:23-24 says “‘Everything is permissible’- but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible’- but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” Abstinence from Halloween and the practices associated with it seems to be the better choice. A good analogy is movies that are rated R. They are not beneficial/good for us to watch, so we choose not to watch them (exceptions are made for movies like The Passion of the Christ). It is not a sin per se, and neither is celebrating Halloween, and it is not spelled out in the Bible, but it is a conviction we have and a standard that we hold to.
Our family has started a new tradition on Halloween, shopping for the Operation Christmas Child boxes, which I much prefer as a use of the night, as it is an activity that glorifies God in giving to others. Let me leave you with one final verse, Philippians 4:8–“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”
LikeLike
I guess Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny get pilloried too.
Our poor little ones don’t have much left in this fearful new world.
Except Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.
LikeLike
Dan, as you may recall I lived in San Francisco for several years and saw what “Halloween for adults” has come to mean; the S & M gear, the public nudity etc.
Its rather difficult to believe that in that very post Christian city that people are primarily reacting against Evangelical stereotypes, instead its clear that in at least in that environment people believe in the occult and intend to invoke it.
LikeLike
I tend to think that the reason the “Satanic panic” hangs around long after it’s been debunked is the same reason that so many other “urban legends” continue to hang around, despite the existence of Snopes.com and other careful researchers — who have been, IMHO, a voice of sanity and truth.
The reason, I think, is this: people get a thrill out of being scared. A BIG thrill.
And then, when you find out that something is really not the Big Evil you thought it was? You feel like you’ve made a fool of yourself.
It’s very hard for many of us to admit that in public. It’s very tempting to just brush off the voice telling you you’re mistaken, and instead, to rely on our “gut feeling” that somehow the Big Evil just *must* still be there, despite whatever evidence someone presents to the contrary.
LikeLike
as the youngest of three brothers, i always ended up in the witch costume. thanks for draggin’ (ex-rpger pun) up the memories
LikeLike
Obviously, that was pre-Mike Warnke.
LikeLike
Finally — now I know where that ridiculous rumor about Lewis comes from. I had a parent inform me in no uncertain terms that her son would NOT under any circumstances read ANYTHING by C.S. Lewis even though (and I quote) “I heard he may have become a Christian later on and I hope that’s true.”
LikeLike
I’ve been running D&D games (DMing in the jargon) for over 30 years now, going back to the dyas of the little paperback books with (mostly) bad drawings. I still do it about one day a month. My sons (the worship pastor, the part-time youth director and the boy scout leader) and a childhood friend of theirs get together to fight various forces of evil and weird critters. The friend ( non-Christian still) does use chaw when we play. On special occasions there’s beer. It’s a very serious game.
Most of those condemning the game I’ve heard and read over the decades give every indication of knowing next to nothing about it. I suspect that more spiritual problems result from overindulgence in watching football every weekend.
I’d probably be more likely to become a Mormon and hope to one day run my own world for real than become a Satanist because of the game. For whatever it’s worth, my wife and I are the go-to people for apologetics at our church, so I’m not likely to abandon the faith for the LDS; save your worry.
LikeLike
I’ve always seen Halloween as the perfect American holiday… People dress up, pretending they are something they are not, expecting to get something they don’t deserve, and setting them up for indulgence. hey, its no coincidence that Halloween and Election Day usually come in the same week!
LikeLike
Thanks for the rant! I feel you there.
In the words of the Baptist fundies, “amen brother!”
To be honest (and I hope no offense) your description of the Church you were raised in sounds LOT scarier than any Halloween event that I can remember. Those are were the real horror stories come from.
LikeLike
I hope you’re not drinking BEER while playing D&D. Someone might tell you there’s a special hell for those types! (j/k)
I played D&D before I became a Christian; it didn’t end up making me not accept the Lord when He came calling. I’ve had in-laws who grew up anti-D&D ask me about the game, if it’s as dangerous as it was made out. I tell them point-blank…”I don’t believe so. If a Christian plays the game and falls away because of it, then they probably didn’t have a faith strong enough to keep them from falling away because of some other reason.”
I view it a lot like money. It’s not money that’s bad, it’s the love of money. There’s no doubt…D&D is bad for some people. Perhaps many people. But it’s not D&D that’s the problem.
Same with Halloween. It’s what we DO with Halloween that’s the issue. I might blink twice at a Christian who chose to wear a Satan costume, but dressing up cute and going door-to-door….not so much.
LikeLike
That’s beautiful J!
LikeLike
This is funny. Coming out of (literally: I am out, and will never go back in) Orthodox Judaism, I can tell you there’s a holiday very much like this that the most religy-religious have no problem with. It’s called Purim.
Do you know what you’re giving up when you give up Halloween? Or Purim or Dia de los Muertos or Grave-Cleaning Day? That is, when you decide that the day of the year when you dress up in funny clothes to laugh at/shake hands with death/the dead? Easy: You give up your courage. You say, “No, I’d rather tremble in fear and shiver and shake in terror than laugh at the absurdity of life and death and for one day be superior to it behind my mask.”
LikeLike
This is good. Rather than declare Christians should or shouldn’t celebrate Halloween, she offers advice on how to act Christian that day.
http://preciousholidays.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/7-tips-for-christians-on-halloween/
LikeLike
I was laughing my head off reading this! I remember one of the biggest fund-raisers for our Campus Life ministry at our high school in the late seventies was ………..a haunted house! LOL
LikeLike
At the risk of creating opening ANOTHER can of worms, if only those who claim anything with remotely pagan roots is inherently evil understood how similar the religious rituals of ancient Israel (temple architecture, festivals, even sacrificial system) were to their pagan counterparts, it would trouble them even more than Halloween. (Oops, there we go down that slippery slope.) But God, in his grace and redemptive love, was able to ‘redirect’ those originally pagan things into something that honored him and displayed his grace. Now I’m not saying, with the liberal ‘history of religions’ folks, that Israel just copied the pagans and sanctified all that. It was God who told Israel how to worship him, but he did so in ways that (to use a modern buzzword) were ‘culturally relevant’ (another slippery slope, I know).
Whether something has pagan roots or not does not necessarily have anything to do with why or how that something is practiced or observed today. Christmas is a good example. To many, if not most, Americans Christmas has lost almost all its Christian meaning and is simply a time to spend lots of money we don’t have and feel good about it because of all the sentimentality we have been sold. What the Druids did or didn’t do hundreds of years ago doesn’t mean that the little kids across the street are doing the same thing when they come to my door in their ballerina and Superman costumes.
The Internet Monk hit the nail on the head – American evangelicals are paranoid and gullible – the perfect marks for religious hucksters of whatever stripe. That’s where anti-intellectual piety will take you.
LikeLike
Where can I get a Windows font large enough to say AMEN!!! to this?
LikeLike
Did I take this too far? I posted on the pagan roots of Halloween; and Easter and Christmas. This is what reading iMonk will does to people.
http://themasterstable.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/the-pagan-roots-of-halloween-and-easter-and-christmas/
LikeLike
Sheesh! That tract’s got me running for my fire insurance!
Love the image of the Satanic priest about to stab the heart of a woman. They gave this tract to children??
LikeLike
THANK YOU! 🙂
I was very surprised when a newly-converted (like maybe 5 years or more, but she feels new) friend shared that she is not comfortable sharing Halloween, that she just wants to avoid the appearance of evil. I hope that my shock didn’t make her feel bad- I was honestly so surprised when she said that she even approached her approach concerned because they described their Fall Festival as a “Halloween Alternative.” I understand that because she used to celebrate things like Halloween in the past (“It was a big, big deal for us”) that it can be uncomfortable for her. But I had similar thoughts to those in your post, just less well developed.
So it’s with no guilt whatsoever that I let my girls dress up as fairies and princesses and watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special and go trick or treating and get candy… it is all in good fun! 🙂 And I don’t think that they will fall away or be corrupted… but I know we’ll make some great memories.
LikeLike
Dragonraid?
And as for a “Crusades + Magic world setting”, have you snooped around for old copies of the orphan games Chivalry & Sorcery or Ars Magica? (C&S was a first-generation game of the late Seventies, so its organization owed a LOT to D&D.) Chaosium’s perennial 1980s money-sink Pendragon (King Arthur RPG, Chaosium BRP/ARP system) might also be helpful, and I’d be surprised if SJG hasn’t brought out a GURPS Sourcebook on the subject.
And for some mind-bending fun, check out another orphan game, one that has to be read through to be believed: Quintessal Mercy Productions’ Rapture: The Second Coming (later re-released in a D20 version). Setting is what the title says (as well as a pun on the “X: the Y” titles beloved of Dark Fantasy RPG publisher White Wolf), Played Absolutely Straight with ALL the angles well thought out. Much better done than any Official Christian (TM) Apocalyptic fiction.
LikeLike
So I suppose all the ‘negative’ is about feeling powerful by causing people to fear and to kow-tow to whatever the hate-monger calls ‘truth’.
Susan, your story about your teaching experience is very disturbing.
But what causes people to be so vulnerable to the darkness that they see evil everywhere? Or is it just a ‘power trip’?
And what do you make of someone who teaches that many passages of scripture show that the teaching of the Gospel ‘is inherently negative’? I find this kind of thing very disturbing. But I honestly don’t understand what is behind it.
LikeLike
That’s the one. I saw that video when it first came out on MTV in ’84. The Golden Age of Concept Music Videos, when they approached them as short musical art films.
LikeLike
Glorifying gore is not very Christian. And that’s what a lot of folks do these days. Personal experience, not information gleaned from a tract.
LikeLike
Heretic
LikeLike
A Gator fan doesn’t scare me. 🙂
LikeLike
I can’t help thinking that November 5 is oddly close to Halloween & Guy Fawkes effigies to Wicker Men! In fact, as the Equinoxes & Solstices have gradually shifted over the centuries, Nov 5-6 is the actual Cross-quarter Day.
LikeLike
In 1985, one of my college profs told of a study that was done about Halloween candy tampering. The study found no verified incidents of it by strangers. Either the kids had put things in the candy to freak out their parents & get more attention, OR parents had done so in order
to freak out their kids & cause them to cling more to them. In a few rare incidents, parents had actually tampered with candy to sicken their children, and there were a couple of cases in which parents had killed their kids & tried to use “poisoned Halloween candy” as an alibi.
That was back in 1985. Real incidents MAY have happened since then.
LikeLike
I want to go trick-or-treating dressed up as a Gator fan–complete with the obligatory jean shorts, flip-flops, and mullet wig. Does that scare you?
LikeLike
One of the best times I ever had in college was going door to door in full costume during Halloween singing Christmas Carols. Given that so many of them are in the trick-or-treat tradition (Bring us some figgy pudding and bring it right now!) it worked wonderfully.
We eventually ran out of carols and went home. But I highly recommend the tradition for all. Adds a bit of benign surreality to the day.
LikeLike
I can’t remember where I saw it, but I ran into a RPG that was designed for Fundamentalist Christians. You played holy warriors back in the middle ages and you spent all your time killing demons and other horrible fantasy creatures. Not too different from D&D, except that the elves are evil and the only magic is divine prayers. It actually looked like a half decent system for those who are paranoid about that sort of thing.
That said, my 12th century D&D campaign is almost ready to roll. (How I found them in the first place- was looking for a Crusadeds + Magic world setting. Couldn’t find one, have been making my own.)
LikeLike
I never thought about the hate-mongers being ‘satanic plants’, but , you know, it makes sense now that I think about it. I wonder though, do the ‘hate-mongers’ realize that they might be agents of Satan?
LikeLike
Jack Chic is crazy and I’ve suspected (often) a satanic plant himself. He was sent to distract and confuse the well meaning but silly.
LikeLike
And they call that path “Salvation”.
Is it any wonder that anyone not raised “Saved” like that wants to get as far away from that kind of “Salvation” as they can?
This goes well beyond wanting to romp and play with the critters in Aslan’s Land or listen in awe to the Great Music in Iluvatar’s Timeless Halls instead of becoming doubleplusgood worship-bots in a Neverending Compulsory Bible Study.
LikeLike
What was that Lewis said (in the preface to Screwtape)? About the two kinds of errors we can make in regards to devils?
LikeLike
“Aslan IS The Antichrist!” Syndrome, on steroids. Like to see them explain that to the Cosmic Lion of Narnia. He gets kind of touchy when you call him Tash.
And believe me, among fantasy fans and gamers, the feeling is mutual. Total “Take Your God And Shove It!” reactions that continue to this day.
LikeLike
Baseball
LikeLike
We used to use turnips (I’m British) before pumkins started coming in the shops at halloween. I can’t recommend them, they’re a nightmare to hollow out, no wonder they never really caught on!. Pumpkins are a lot easier to carve.
But in England, halloween was pretty minor. “Harvest festival” was the main thing, and what my fond memories are made of. In our village that meant a church full of fruit and veg and gorgeous displays, and a big barn-dance with hot soup and fresh baked bread.
Of course the Harvest festivities probably have far worse “pagan” roots than Halloween, rivalling Christmas & Evil for pagan wickedness. For that matter, maybe the only truly pure, non-pagan tainted festival we had was Guy-Fawkes night when we celebrated Christian unity by burning catholics in effigy? Hmm…
LikeLike
Very well said. I am one of those kids who participated in Halloween. I did not have quaint experiences. For some reason I was extremely sensitive to any costume that was gory even then. As a parent I did not allow my children to participate in Halloween. They are adults now and to date, they do not think they missed out on anything but then again, how would they know. It will be interesting to see how each of them handles the issue with their children when they become parents.
As for the future of Halloween it is a concern and should be a concern for all Christians. I have had coworkers who were Wiccan. One of those coworkers became a friend. Halloween is celebrated with rituals by them. My coworkers have told me it is their favorite holiday.
Being involved in drama I shop occasionally at the local costume shop. Those costumes are gory and sexual. I do not want to support any of that.
LikeLike
Chick Tracts are still going strong in the fundy circles. *shudder*
LikeLike
That’s the one I’m talking about Unicorn Guy. Christianity Today wrote and exposé on him I was in an IFB church, teaching at their school in the late seventies when he showed up, freaked out everyone who went to hear him speak (I didn’t go) and the repercussions went on after he left. My dad and I listened to the tapes of his “sermons” and both of us had the sense that something was not right, but no one listened.
The crazy kept on building. I had been reading The Chronicles of Narnia to my fourth grade class at the time, and the principal’s wife subbed for me when I was sick. She was shocked and horrified that I was reading books by C.S. Lewis (whom Todd designated a warlock) and reported me to the principal. He went to the pastor. The word came back down that (even though I was three chapters from the end of the last book) I had to cease and desist reading those awful books. Of course, most of the students had their own copies by the time that happened. The follow up on that was that they went through the school library, culled any and all books that had witches or occult content, and had a bonfire. I’m not making this up. That was my last year teaching there.
The worst of it, imho, was that even after Todd had been exposed as a fraud, not ONE word came down from the leadership that he was a flim-flam man. Not one apology came forth from the pastor, or anyone else. A few months ago, out of curiosity, I checked out the school’s web site. One of their rules states that any kind of fantasy literature is banned from the school.
And, last time I checked, Jack Chick still carries his little comic books that Todd wrote about the occult.
LikeLike
Oh, I like flying reindeer, RonP. It was the flying monkey things in Wizard of Oz that scared me! (I love that movie, though.)
LikeLike
Yeah, that’s quite the tract, Amber. I know Christiane stopped by to read that one too.
LikeLike
Personally, I think Christmas is a much scarier holiday than Halloween. I can take ghouls and goblins, but flying reindeer scare the crap out of me. And the mere thought of going into Wal-Mart any time after Thanksgiving gives me heart palpatations.
LikeLike
“We were serious about things like beer.â€
My best Halloween costume ever was as a baseball game beer vendor. I came to a Halloween party with a metal box strapped to my back with a case of Bud, plastic cups, a bottle opener, and yelled, “cold beer!â€, sold them at ballpark prices, everybody loved it, and I made a lot of money. This year my kids are going to be 1) a white ninja, 2) a yellow transformer and 3) Elmo.
Yeah, we’re Satan worshippers, fer shure.
LikeLike
+10000000.
Dio > everybody, forever. And you brought a smile to my face for that Last In Line reference – that video is awesome. For you who haven’t seen it in all its ridiculous, awesome glory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjiNtlZB5HI&feature=PlayList&p=13F8FD5EF2CA2261&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1
LikeLike
What DOESN’T attempt to fill some deep human longing?
LikeLike
I wouldn’t be going up to Camp Basil Bub next weekend, or your high school reunion will include a crude cat sacrifice and a Satan chainsaw massacre. Just warning y’all…
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0058/0058_01.asp?Store=True
LikeLike
Actually, for all the stories of people poisoning candy, there has only been one confirmed case which was from a father who gave his son a cyanide-laced pixy stick in order to murder him for the insurance money. The boy died and the father was later executed. There have been a few cases of children tampering with their own candy to scare their parents and a case where a 5 year old died from eating his uncle’s heroine stash and the family claimed it was poisoned Halloween candy to cover it up. The tampered candy scare is a good example of people abandoning their rationality at the first hint of a threat even if it turns out to be nothing.
LikeLike
Yes! Yes! Yes! Give the trick-or-treaters something to remember!
LikeLike
“I am 48 and I still dress up. I occasionally wear a fleece Monk’s robe that my wife made for me that has a huge gothic cross on it. I go door to door and hand things out.”
That is VERY scary…hope you don’t know where I live!
LikeLike
‘I guess you catch more flies with honey than mean-spirited hatred. ”
Christiane, How is what you wrote a few comments above about me and Paula not mean spirited and hateful to bring to another blog?
LikeLike
…I meant Warnke, I think 😉
LikeLike
Sad to say, it’s no joke; at least not when I was in highschool…back when we all rode dinosaurs to school. Everyone was a little over the edge back then. Look up some of Keith Green’s tracts from the day. I think the only tracts from the 70’s/80’s worth reading were those published by JPUSA, esp. anything by John Trott. (Cornerstone magazine exposed both John Todd and Mike Wanke).
As you have demonstrated, I don’t think many know who Jack Chic is anymore, but plenty have taken his place. Tracts are a bit old school. Blogs and talking-head TV and radio shows may have taken their place. As long as people are motivated by fear and conspiracy, someone will be making a buck off of them. It is strange that getting scared for fun is sinful, but scaring people in the name of religion is somehow justifiable. I think back to a quote from Tony Campolo, where he said that religious leaders paint devil horns on opponents in order to rally the troops and raise funds.
So, I say learn how to be scared for fun. Then, when people try to manipulate you with fear, you can laugh at them, too.
LikeLike
As a Christian living in a largely non-Christian neighborhood, we use Halloween as a time to get to know our neighbors, their kids AND their pets. Our kids love dressing the pets up often coordinating outfits with neighbors’ pets. Its about building relationships with neighbors and not being the uptight Christian family providing the “trick” of pretending you’re not home.
The best costume a few years back was an eight-year old boy in the bloodiest goriest outfit you’ve ever seen. As each neighbor saw him, they couldn’t help but laugh out loud. You see, he was the most accident prone childweI’ve ever known and the whole neighborhood has provided bandages for him since the time he learned to walk. So, context is key and when you get to know the people around you, even gore can be fun!
LikeLike
I guess Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny get pilloried too.
Our poor little ones don’t have much left in this fearful new world.
And as for the Great Pumpkin and the Easter Beagle of ‘Peanuts’ fame, well, we won’t even go there.
LikeLike
When Spawn was little my church did Hallelujah Nights that absolutely rocked. The kids (and parents) got to dress up, they got candy, and had a good time. The only restriction on costumes was that you couldn’t be a witch, devil, or anything like that.
LikeLike
Christiane… these are real. It’s legitimate. Check out the Wikipedia article on it.
Now, you want parody? If Landover Baptist is still up and running, they’re parody – just like The Onion.
LikeLike
A few anecdotes.
My wife and I wed in 1997 and bought our first house in early fall of 1998. We had originally planned on not doing the Halloween thing. However… it happened that the day of Halloween, I was installing a storm door out front. Perfect way to meet neighbors was to sit with my wife on the front porch (raised rambler) and distribute candy to the neighbor kids and meet their parents. I think God used it to help our neighbors welcome us to the neighborhood.
I get turned off with Christianizing stuff. We (the faithful) don’t want our kids to do Halloween, so we change the name of the party to the Harvest Party, but allow them to wear costumes and get candy anyway. Because we don’t want them to feel like being Christians means we miss out on worldly fun… 😦
We still don’t celebrate Halloween and the mass-marketed holiday. We’d rather just sit in the house and turn off the front light and watch a movie as a family. Before we had kids, we’d just read and hang out with each other (with the exception of the anecdote above).
LikeLike
They scared then sh*@ out of us years ago. Churches used to pass them out for parishioners to hand out to unsuspecting children. Fortunately they have dissapeared of late. A wee bit of sanity has re-emerged around Halloween.
LikeLike
Jean, that is so sad.
LikeLike
I once read Michael’s Essay on ‘Why They Hate Us’ and I learned that not all Baptists practice a need to be obnoxious and hateful towards others. Very few would, I imagine. How could they? i now believe that there are those in all kinds of fundamentalist religions who ‘use God’ as a means of excusing their own anger and intolerance to their fellow human beings. Sometimes that anger and rage ignites into something more.
Michael’s essay can be found by clicking on ‘Essays’ at the top of his imonk site.
I would like to quote a part of Michael’s Essay that I particularly loved and am grateful to have read:
EXCERPT FROM MICHAEL’S ESSAY “Why They Hate Us”:
“It is easy to say that people’s dislike of Christians is the dislike of the Christian message, but that simply doesn’t hold up in the real world. It may be true of the Christian you don’t know, but the Christians you do know have it in their power to either make it easy or difficult for you to dislike them. For example, the Christian in your car pool may believe what others refuse to believe, but his life provides a powerful antidote to any prejudice against him. Thousands of missionaries have been opposed for simply being Christians. But hundreds of thousands have lived lives that adorned the Gospel with attractive, winsome and loving behavior. A past president of our school was revered by Muslims during and after 6 years of Peace Corps service in Iran, years where he talked about the Gospel to Muslims every day and saw many trust Christ. The fact that the Gospel has penetrated into many hostile environments is evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit, but it is also evidence that one way the Spirit works is by making Christians a display of the fruits of love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control.”
Thanks to Michael for this teaching.
I guess you catch more flies with honey than mean-spirited hatred.
And now, I’m going shopping with my daughter for our Holloween costumes.
Maybe I’ll dress up as a monk this year. 🙂
LikeLike
That… sounds AWESOME.
LikeLike
I think you’re on to something there. I was raised in fundamental charismatic churches, and all my life my mother has spent WAY more time talking about Satan and demons and spiritual warfare than about Jesus.
LikeLike
LOL, I wanted to find out what a ‘chick tract’ was so I clicked on the chick tract web site,
and on ‘tracts’
and on “Boo !’
It shows a cartoon with the fundie version of Holloween. I can’t stop laughing.
They don’t really believe this mess, do they?
Please tell me all this ‘chick tract’ stuff is a joke. Too funny.
LikeLike
Yeah, I was wondering where all of these extremes of debauchery and mock black sabbaths and inappropriately gorey child costumes are happening, too. Apart from getting assaulted by online ads for “sexy” exploitive hooker-style costumes for women, in my corner of the world Halloween is still primarily about pumpkins, candy, playing dress-up and the good, clean fun of a safe scare. That, and a great excuse to wear my PJs to the office once a year. 😉
LikeLike
This is beside the point, but the original TCM is actually surprisingly devoid of blood and gore, relying much more heavily (and effectively) on suggestion and atmosphere than any of the remakes or sequels.
LikeLike
Although the Fundies may profess the view that the sacraments are purely symbolic, I bet they believe in their heart of hearts that Communion is Papist black magic and that that is the REAL reason the avoid it as much as they can get away with.
LikeLike
Lydia,
I’ll tell you what is worse than a darkened house. These same people passing out religious tracts (even Chic tracts) that scare the hell out of kids instead of candy. Rotting the brains of our kids vs. their teeth…tough choice to make.
LikeLike
Well, thats fine, as long as your characters are all lawful good, and you can only be paladins, warriors, and priests (the good kind, mind you).
LikeLike
But that’s it ! They want a reaction. They want to keep the attention on themselves and therein is the problem, I think. If they get us to ‘react’ to them, they have won one for the Dark Side.
They don’t ‘mean well’. We react because something within us recognizes that.
LikeLike
Christiane, this is below the belt. I know whom you are are speaking of and you know that. Why not post this on her blog?
Her problem was that Jimmy Carter has stated several times that Mormons are Christians.
LikeLike
Thank you for this. I did not grow up fundy but mainstream SBC. Of course we dressed up and went trick or treating! But the best was the youth group parties. Bobbing for apples and all that stuff. My mom thought it was the greatest witnessing opportunity ever, people having fun, relaxed and open to meeting their neighbors. Is there anything worse than a known Christian having a dark house that is closed and unapproachable on Halloween?
Shhh…don’t tell the SBC but our current SBC church youth group had a huge bash this past Wed complete with bobbing for apples, broom races and costumes.
LikeLike
I don’t think we should demonize those who participate in Halloween. (He says with a straight face.)
LikeLike
We had one commenting on a blog who got mad when Jimmy Carter was called a Chrisitan man. She was irate and left the blog. Her own blog is filled with all the hatred you could possibly want to avoid, and she proudly says that people will ‘reject’ her because she ‘speaks the truth’. Bizarre does not even begin to describe her blog. And she has her followers, one of whom has said she does not believe in following a conscience.
But what is it that causes someone to be like that? I know it is not ‘normal’. What on earth is wrong? There is always a cause. It’s strange, to say the least.
Can you imagine innocent children coming to the door of such a person on Holloween night?
Now that IS SCARY !
LikeLike
All the more reasons for Christians to participate and reclaim it and create something positive. Things always fall flat and tasteless without salt and light and leavenning.
LikeLike
Yeah, boxing at shadows while the real problems skate on by.
LikeLike
Ok, that came out a little more hostile than I intended :). Its just so distressing to me. Halloween used to be such a fun thing and now its been ruined. Maybe the station means well but I really think they’re shooting themselves (and all of us) in the foot here. Its not a dark day! Its my birthday 😦
LikeLike
Whats really annoying is when the Christian radio station goes bonkers about Halloween. I’ve tuned in and heard them yammer on about being ‘a light on this dark day’ and other nonsense. It made me want to lose my lunch. But now they’ve taken to playing Christmas music to Counteract the Evil. Sheesh. When they were just making inane comments, that was bad enough. But on Christmas music day, if some poor non believer happens to be flipping through the dial.. yikes. I can just picture it. What? Christmas music? Isn’t it a little early? And then the music ends and they get the ‘light on a dark day’ stuff and roll their eyes. “Those psycho Christians are at it again!”. Seems like they’d do better to ™ just shut up.
LikeLike
Amen, brother!
LikeLike
I’ve met a few Christians like this. The kind who get paranoid about Halloween, Harry Potter and the devil around every corner. Fortunately never had that in my own family, nor did I foist it on my kids. We always have a great time at Halloween.
To me the whole thing is just bizzare and sad. I don’t get it and I don’t want to. These people are all over Halloween like a fashion critic going on about a bad suit, but most of ’em won’t touch really destructive issues like domestic abuse with a 10-foot pole. Surely something is amiss.
LikeLike
“Warnke may have been one of the most skillful of evangelical con-artists, lying about his entire Satanic high priest schtick, the faithful still believed his stories.”
I find it amusing that the same groups who buy into this stuff are also the staunched believers in “sola scriptura”. I have read some stories about the lives of saints that I find hard to believe, or that Loretto was really miraculously transported from Palestine to Italy. But when schmucks like Bob Larson, Peters Brothers, John Todd or Mike Warnke are exposed as frauds, but we keep accepting what they said as gospel truth…sheez. Time to quit picking on Catholics and take a long, reflective look in the mirror. I find no harm in some traditons that border on myth, but protestant mythology seems to lead one down a dark, negative path.
LikeLike
Then you’re way too young to remember the Three Little Books (plus Greyhawk). In a brown box instead of a white one. No “official” campaign backgrounds or published scenarios in those days, so every DM had to homebrew their own — literally “anything goes”. (In between puzzling out ambiguous/inconsistent rules that Gygax & Arneson had obviously made up as they went along.) Result was “the Burgess Shale of Gaming”, a variety of imagination and weirdness not seen since.
Oh, and back then Dr Pepper was THE drink of gamers, not Mountain Dew.
LikeLike
More like anything that is not SCRIPTURE SCRIPTURE SCRIPTURE (TM — preferably the Kynge Jaymes Version) is SAY-TANN-IC. (Try explaining that one to the Fae.)
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. And the scars.
And Evangelicals wonder why NOBODY in their right mind wants to join them?
LikeLike
Some people see ‘evil’ where others do not see it.
I wonder if these people are ‘projecting’ their own evil onto externals.
There is something about all that hate and fear and shame that does not point to Christ.
Fundamentalism celebrates the darkness too much. By contrast, Christianity is a religion of light and peacefulness, and of joyful hope.
LikeLike
Don’t you think there is a difference between gore that makes you go “Yeah!” and gore that causes you to recoil? I don’t think I want to compare favourably the gore of the cross and the gore of Texas Chainsaw, or even UFC.
LikeLike
John Todd who was later exposed as as big a fraud as Mike Warnke? Wasn’t he the one who got into blows with Warnke backstage at Melodyland over “You Stole MY Shtick!”?
My writing partner swallowed John Todd’s Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory kool-aid back in the Seventies and Eighties (before burning out on Edgar Whisenhant restored him to his senses in ’89); he showed me Todd’s literature once when I visited him. I recognized it from Cornerstone‘s expose on Todd. You know the one. The one about Jimmy Carter proclaiming himself dictator on orders from the Illuminati and releasing Charles Manson from prison to lead an army of millions of convicts in Helter Skelter to give him a Reichstag Fire. About nothing remaining standing in America higher than your ankle. All planned and orchestrated by word-for-word instructions from Satan himself. (i.e. ” IT’S COMING! EVERYTHING IS READY! THERE’S *NOTHING* YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! IT’S ALL OVER BUT THE SCREAMING! DON’T TAKE THE MARK!”) Oh,yeah, and instructions for building and stocking a fortified Survival refuge including what weaponry to stockpile (before it’s banned by Government Fiat) and how to arrange the Survival refuge to maximize fields of fire.
LikeLike
We talking the Dio whose “Last in Line” (video of a delivery boy taking an elevator ride to Heavy Metal Hell) is basically about The Last Judgment?
And Ozzy as in the burned-out father figure on The Osbornes?
LikeLike
You left out Johnny Todd who helped write a bunch of Chick Tracts about the Illuminati, Witchcraft, and the Catholic Church.
LikeLike
I’ve got a three manual Johannus digital at home and I HAVE done Halloween concerts complete with cape with red interior! Go for it!
LikeLike
“The hard, drab, grey, joyless path of Salvation.”
— James Michener, Hawaii, profiling his New England Puritan Missionary character
LikeLike
Not much to say on this one – I just don’t care for Halloween myself anymore. My subdivision gets 300-400 kids (droping them off by the van loads) such to where one can’t get in and out from 5:00 p.m til about 10:00 p.m. and probably later this year since it’s on a Saturday. I’m pretty content to let this one pass without incident at my house though I have considered moving my theatre organ over in front of the large living room window and placing the speakers out on the porch and blasting phantom of the opera music out across the subdivision. Could use black lights and a nice cape with red silk interior and the phantom mask and I’m set – would be fun but don’t know that I’m into it this year. The organ, btw, is not granny’s little spinet from 1950 it’s a full spec “horseshoe” console just like the mighty Wurlizter at the local movie palace in town (if you still have one in town) only mine is a mighty Allen Digital Computer theatre organ….. liked the Wurlizter pipe organs better and hope to have one of those some day as well.
Ah, who knows, after typing all that I may have just talked myself into it…… wife will have some say on that though since I would be moving the living room around. Now if I only had pit and lift for that console so it would rise up out of the floor………………… lol!
LikeLike
Martha in the minds of many evangelicals anything that is not explicitly Christian is satanic – therefore faeries are satanic. Get it?
LikeLike
I too really miss good ole Halloween. As a kid we dressed as our favorite patriots, the ones that started this country. I was Thomas Jefferson,(long red hair). But it seems as if the evangelical business needed the money, so they invented a means of getting on the lecture circuit to spread this wonderful news, Halloween is Satan. relying on the most accurate Roman history to prove their point. They tortured me, anyone who could read would that Roman’s were propagandists declaring that it was an undisputed fact that Christians ate their own young. Now that is the kind of factual basis I want all my doctrine to be based on;)
LikeLike
I missed out on D&D in it’s heyday because of the whole D&D Is EVIL thing, but oddly enough my son got into it, and I discovered that D&D is awesome!
LikeLike
D&D4Life!
Some of the mania I encountered surrounding D&D reminded me of some of the mania surrounding Doom. “Experts” thought that playing Doom got you into Satanism and Devil worship, but apparently no one reminded them that the point of the whole game was to actually fight Satan.
LikeLike
I’m a much younger D&D guy ‘cuz I was just a little kid in the 80’s during the height of the panic. I didn’t play my first RPG until the mid-90’s and my first D&D until 3.5 edition had come out. So, while I definitely pick my battles on this one, I never felt that I had to hide it. Some of my gaming buddies, however, are still very paranoid!
LikeLike
I loved Holloween as a kid. Being able to go out at night, playing ‘dress up’ , and collecting treats was fun and joyful.
Then came the change. But the fundamentalists got it wrong. It wasn’t the fun and the joy that was evil: it was the hatred of a few sick people who put razor blades inside of apples, and who poisoned candy or put pins in it to hurt children. These people were very, very sick. Yes, some were ‘evil’.
But the fundamentalists got on their band wagon. They didn’t poison the candy, or put razor blades in the apples. No. They did something worse. They made people afraid to be joyful. They took away something of innocence and replaced it with fear and shame.
For many many children, they poisoned Holloween.
LikeLike
When I want to see some kick-ass costuming, I just go to Further Confusion or AnthroCon and interact with the fursuiters.
LikeLike
Superstition. Rank superstition with a Christian coat of paint.
Somebody tell me again how the Roman Empire went after the Christians for “Atheism” because they weren’t “Religious”(i.e. Superstitious) enough?
LikeLike
How many of us lined up to watch Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ? Hard to get gorier than that.
As my old DM said to me once about some similarly graphic Mexican portrayals of the Passion: “One look at that crucifix, and you have no doubt it was carved by descendants of the Aztecs.”
LikeLike
Yes DLE,
Well said. But to T. Freeman, it is no longer a weekend. At least not where I am at. It is Halloween month or Halloween season. I am 48 and I still dress up. I occasionally wear a fleece Monk’s robe that my wife made for me that has a huge gothic cross on it. I go door to door and hand things out. I use Halloween as an opportunity to visit neighbors who normally don’t come outside very much. I have an old Newt Gingrich rubber mask, but no one knows who he is anymore. If he runs for president I can wear it again. lol. People actually like me to wear my “Baptist Boy” outfit. WHile it is fun I have found it disturbing as the years go by that the “halloween season” has gotten very evil in so many ways. Unlike imonk I am not so quick to blame everything that goes bad in society as the fault of the evangelical church. Sometimes the enemy establishes a stronghold. Instead of pointing fingers of blame and scorn at the church we should discuss ways to take advantage of the “season” to advance the kingdom, which is what many are doing.
LikeLike
I know. I was active in D&D when the Satanic Panic rolled through. Bad craziness. And the hardened attitudes from that Jihad continue to this day. On both sides.
P.S. My real name’s Ken, too.
LikeLike
I also grew up like iMonk, in an independent Baptist school. We had great fun with a Halloween dress-up parade every year, until the late ’70’s, when Halloween was declared evil and we had to have a “Harvest Festival” and everyone could only dress as Pilgrims or Indians. Oh, what a non-politically correct bloodbath we became then.
There will always be those people (Christian or not) who think extreme gore is cool–and not just on Halloween, but also in the video games they play on a regular basis. And you know what? Jesus didn’t give me the right to judge any of them or tell them how they should live–unless they are my own underage children.
A few people have mentioned that 6-year-olds are dressing as bloody zombies and Christian parents are walking around chewing on fake bloody arms. Huh?? In 35 years of trick-or-treating, this has never been my experience with parents and children, Christian or not. What neighborhood do you live in? If this is happening, it’s the RARE exception, and I won’t live my life based on the rare exception. That is bondage.
I take my kids trick-or-treating just as I did as a child. We are celebrating our community, we’re having fun playing dress-up, and it’s a time to spread some love around the neighborhood. I get to see your cute little angels and you get to see mine! We choose costumes that are fun and not gory. That’s how I do “As for me and my house . . .”
LikeLike
I love that “I-say-ah”, I’m going to have to file that one away for future use.
LikeLike
What I find odd is that most of the Halloween destroyers are coming from Fundamentalist churches who are frequently non-sacramental, or nearly so. It seems odd to say that Communion is just symbolic and doesn’t actually do anything but then get worried that their soul is going to be corrupted by wearing a witches mask or putting out a jack-o-lantern. Apparently Satan gets to do magic but God doesn’t.
disclaimer: I’m actually pretty non-sacramental myself, I’m just pointing out the discrepancy.
LikeLike
So should we play clips from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre during communion to help remind us of our Lord’s suffering? Of course, that’s a ridiculous statement but what I would ask honestly is if it is possible for us to see a difference between blood and violence that happens in the world and which should shock and sadden us as opposed to blood and violence deliberately placed before us in a way that glorifies it and leads us to want more? Christianity put an end to the Roman gladiatorial and other bloody amusements because they fed an innate human sense of bloodlust that we would do better to starve. Our modern bloody amusements seem to me to have brought us back to the Roman way—only it’s available now 24/7.
LikeLike
Imonk, someone (like you) should take a look someday at how the pop culture side of our big religious holidays keeps them afloat. I grew up in an evangelical climate very similar to yours. Remember how big Easter was back then in church? But we also had eggs and bunnies and all that. But that part seems to have faded somewhat, at least where I live, and so has Easter for Christians. Now it is connected often to Spring Break and so becomes just another chance to blast away to Disneyland. But notice that the culture has hung on to Christmas. If we get rid of Santa, the tree, and presents, will Christians begin to de-emphasize Christmas?
LikeLike
Does Halloween attempt to fill some deep human longing? Not sure. I wonder if maybe it is a just a fun cultural tradition fed by marketing.
LikeLike
Bash one for me as well. D&D is another thing that got thrown into the “rock music, drug use, occult worship and Halloween” package.
LikeLike
I hate to correct the Imonk, but it is in II Hezekiah.
LikeLike
Is it wrong to admit I enjoy old Black Sabbath music? Especially with Ozzie. Dio’s not bad but Ozzie, well, he’s Ozzie. Oops sorry, got distracted with all that devil talk.
LikeLike
As a Christian who enjoys the heck out of a good slasher or zombie flick… thank you. It’s hard to out-gore the Bible, and its gore is even more disturbing for having actually happened. Kind of puts latex knife wounds and fake blood into perspective, doesn’t it?
LikeLike
In my view, there’s a big distinction between those who try to make out virtually everything to be a satanic ritual of some sort and those who are just saying, “hey, let’s not get out of control.” The jack-o-lantern, regardless of its past history, no longer has anything remotely to do with paganism or satanism today—-noone of any religious or secular bent thinks you are supporting pagan ideals in any way today because you put out a jack-o-lantern. Any past association is completely gone.
But should a Christian (along with his kids) put on a devil costume, participate in fake Black Sabbath mass rituals, walk around praising the dark lord while fake blood drips from his mouth as he holds up the fake arm he’s pretending to eat? It’s all just entertainment, right? The fact is people of all ages really are doing such things and they come out in force to glory in in at Halloween—that’s what concerns me. In my opinion, it’s just important to focus on the more real issues of open satanism and/or violent gore and not get distracted with meaningless rants against non-issues like jack-o-lanterns.
LikeLike
Is that in Hezekiah, or is it in I-say-ah? I get those two confused.
Funny, just last night I was explaining to my husband who Mike Warnke is and how he ruined Halloween. He didn’t grow up in the same evangelical circles I did and so he missed out the trauma of having his parents terrorized by the Satanic Panic. Lucky him. I had more nightmares from being told my mother how Satan could use all of the games, music and movies I enjoyed to get me than I ever would have had from the games, music and movies themselves.
LikeLike
What, exactly, is Satanic about gore?
We worship a tortured and crucified God!
LikeLike
“Got my 20-sided dice and I’m ready to roll
With my Wizard and my Goblin crew;
Friends coming over to Mom’s basement
Bringing Funyuns and Mountain Dew;
I’ve got a big broadsword — it’s made of cardboard —
And the stereo’s pumpin’ Zeppelin;
It’s that time of night — turn on the black light —
LET THE DUNGEONS AND THE DRAGONS BEGIN!”
(Full-time D&Der from the “Burgess Shale Period” 1976-80, part-time since. Bash a Balrog for me.)
LikeLike
With FRP Gamers, that was literally true. As in a “Stick it to those Xians” reaction to The Satanic Panic.
LikeLike
Mike Warnke, Bob Larson, and Jack Chick…now there’s a group that really is scary.
LikeLike
I don’t know about y’all, but unless it’s raining, I’m going to dress up as a witch–black dress, black cape, pointy hat, bat earrings, and a cauldron for candy–and go sit outside with a bunch of my neighbors in our townhouse neighborhood and hand out goodies to several hundred vampires, princesses, zombies, ghosts, fairies, etc. and several sullen-looking older teens who just want candy. Every kid will say “Trick or treat!” and most of them will say “Thank you!” Halloween seems to be alive and well around here. Of course, there will be some houses all closed up with their porch lights off and the inhabitants ignoring the goings-on outside. Too bad. They’re missing a harmless good time.
LikeLike
As was said in last year’s Halloween comment threads:
“Trunk or Treat”? As in “Give me candy or I’ll stuff you in this trunk”?
LikeLike
TAKE BACK AMERICA AND FINALLY MAKE AMERICA A CHRISTIAN (TM) NATION!
— Rayford LaHaye Steele, after recieving a New Heavens and New Earth from the hand of God Himself (Left Behind, Volume 12)
LikeLike
IMonk always rants on Halloween.
Ever since Mike Warnke, Constance Cumby, Johanna Michaelson, & Co wrecked it for everybody.
Back in the Eighties (during the peak of The Satanic Panic), radio talk-show host Rich Buhler said he could tell when October started because that’s when all the worried calls about “Halloween being Satanic” would start pouring in.
LikeLike
I have a sermon on Halloween that I want to preach one day.
Halloween has become more and more of an adult holiday in the last decade or so, than a children’s holiday. Evangelicals should be asking why, but they are too worried about the Satanism nonsense.
We all wear masks, often every day. We have to fit into some role, some function. The first question you ask people when you meet them (after asking for their name) is: “What do you do?” We hide ourselves from each other, we hide ourselves from God, and we hide God from ourselves. And these masks chafe after a while.
Thus Halloween. Halloween is the one day a year that people get to put on a different mask. Halloween is the one day a year that people get to ‘be’ someone else, to get out of the role and function that society has given them.
The gospel however does something far more powerful. It unmasks God. It pulls back the curtain, and reveals a human face: the face of Jesus. And in unmasking God, the gospel invites us to take off all of our masks as well. The gospel invites us to trust that he loves us so we don’t have to put up the front that we put up to everyone else.
In other words, the longing that Halloween tries to fill, the gospel actually does.
LikeLike
I heard they used turnips. European turnips apparently grow large enough.
And that the custom originated among the Celtic peoples of the British Isles.
LikeLike
My wife still bears some of the scars from Trick-or-Treating as a child and being required to say “Treat Please” and then repay the candy bar she received with a tract. She was also in private Christian School that allowed the students to dress up in a costume… but it had to be of a Biblical character. We’ve had great fun thinking of Biblical characters she should have dressed up as for Halloween back then, such as John the Baptist (beheaded) or a leper. All tongue-in-cheek of course – poking fun at their sterilized picture of the Bible and their Halloween-phobia. 🙂
What happened to the days when we believers were the ones looking for cultural traditions (or even gods) that could be hijacked to advance the gospel??? My wife and I look forward to Halloween because we meet more of our neighbors then and easily bond over watching our kids run around together with sugar-highs!
LikeLike
As I said, I’m no anti-Halloween “kook”, as you put it. I put up spiderweb decorations, little monsters with blinking eyes in the bushes, etc. I look forward to haunted hayrides out in farm country at night. However, it concerns me that every year, the ads, the decorations, the costumes—everything—-appears to have more openly satanic symbols, more emphasis on dismembered bodies and cruel torture displayed in explicit detail, more kids with blood dripping from their mouths, etc. Would I tell Christians (or anyone) not to put up a jack-o-lantern or let their kids dress up as princesses or pirates and trick or treat in the neighborhood? Definitely not. But I don’t think we’re being Christian kooks by saying that there are appropriate limits.
I love old “horror” movies like the original Frankenstein, but of course that’s almost laughable as a “horror” movie by today’s standards. Is it wrong to say that our culture has lost a certain innocence that was worth something and whose loss should cause us grief? When the scariest costumes were plasticy Frankenstein masks and kids could watch Charlie Brown and think it was great, doesn’t that kind of environment we lived in seem worth something other than just as an historical amusement in these days when the scariest costumes worn by 6 year olds actually make me afraid and when explicit dismemberment and cannibalism are more common themes than bobbing for apples?
LikeLike
I imagine there was probably a cultural reaction to the growth of the New Age, but on the other hand, I wonder how many Wiccans et al started pushing the “pagan origins” of various holidays and feastdays in reaction to the ‘Satanic panic’?
LikeLike
Michael, BTW, your willingness to do posts like that apology re: the SoM post is what makes this blog real. It encouraged me more towards Christ than 10 sermons.
LikeLike
Seriously, does anyone REALLY believe that there’s some kind of supernatural conflict going on specifically on Halloween? Somehow the evil spirits escape their bonds and run amok thru the world searching for innocent children dressed as vampires and werewolves whose souls they may devour. Seriously?
Eventually even sheltered kids grow up. When they do, and they discover how benign this holiday really is, will they look back and think, “Gee, I sure appreciate the Christians trying to keep me from being corrupted by this,” or will they think ,”What a bunch of paranoid kooks! Can I take anything they say seriously?”
Let’s wait and see.
LikeLike
I fully agree. And let me add to your point….Sex isn’t what it used to be. Now people go willy nilly on the internet and have taken porn to an all time high in popularity. As God fearing Christians, we need to create our own subculture and stop having sex. By us continuing to have sex, whether in the proper confines of marriage or not, we are encouraging sex to continue – which in turn allows pornography to continue.
And the internet….Maybe if we start a petition we can get the internet unplugged.
LikeLike
Well said.
LikeLike
I was pleased with the way the Methodist church/school where my daughter goes to pre-school handles this. First, they have the biggest pumpkin patch in the area. Huge, and it’s been going for a week or so already. The students (in pre-K, anyway) get to dress up one day soon for school, but they’ve asked that no one come as a witch, or anything gory, which I was glad for (even if I thought it would be fun to get a picture of a 4-ft witch or two in front of the church or sitting in a pew. I know, horrible).
LikeLike
Or the Creation “Museum”. 🙂
LikeLike
If you want really scary, you could always go visit Dinosaur Adventure Land.
LikeLike
DLE,
You could make the same argument about the weekend. It gets used for debauchery; celebrated more and more as a chance to throw off restraint, get drunk or high, have some cheap sex, etc. “Each [week], [the weekend] gets cruder, . . . raunchier, and more aligned with stuff we Christians should avoid.” And yet, I’m still going to be excited about the weekend. I might even have a party at my house that looks very similar in many ways to something sinister, but it won’t be. Despite the downward slide of “the weekend” in the larger culture, I’m still going to enjoy it, and thank God for it. This can be done even if other folks use it as an opportunity for evil.
LikeLike
Amen. That aspect of the season seems to be completely forgotten. It’s not exciting enough or appealing enough to our senses is my guess.
LikeLike
Very well said. I’ve never been anti-Halloween but that’s just because it represents to me “Charlie Brown getting a rock” and “bedsheet ghosts”, as you put it. The reality today is far different and I would agree that we need to ask, “what are we indeed celebrating on this day?” Has it gotten to the point where it’s like “food sacrificed to idols” and our participation as Christians can legitimately be seen as participation in paganism? I personally wouldn’t say yes under all circumstances, but that we should be selective about what aspects of Halloween we do participate in and how we participate.
LikeLike
What I find interesting is that many church’s focus on October 31 (Reformation Day for us Lutheran folks) and not on November 1, All Saints Day. In the Lutheran tradition, this day we give thanks and praise to God for those who have died in faith during the last year and how it points to the resurrection of the dead.
LikeLike
All is not lost. Our church will have our 2nd annual Trunk or Treat. Last year was very successful, so much so that another church in our tiny town decided to do it as well. And no, we have not “christianized” it. We just park our cars in the lot, open up our trunks, and hand out candy and have a good time. Last year parents thanked us for doing it. Some said they prefer this over the door to door trick or treating.
LikeLike
Nicotine-stained fingers and all, eh?
LikeLike
That Hezekiah line always kills me.
LikeLike
I wrote a post a couple years ago that the increasing entrance of neopaganism into Halloween is a concern. One can argue, as you do, that we Evangelicals were the ones that turned Halloween to that direction. Still, our folly or not, the neopagans and bacchantes increasingly own the day.
Which is why the future matters. The trend in Halloween is decidedly downward. The days of Charley Brown getting a rock in his bag at every house seem like the Victorian Era. Each year, Halloween gets cruder, gorier, raunchier, and more aligned with stuff we Christians should avoid. A 6-year old in a zombie outfit drenched in blood is not the same as the “bedsheet ghost” of yesteryear. And what that 6-year old takes as “normal” today only serves as a starting point for the downward spiral.
If Evangelicals lubed the slippery slope on this, then bad on us. But the combo of a revived neopaganism and the inevitable downward angle of our culture has turned Halloween into an increasingly bothersome “holiday” that makes the article you linked to from 1996 on your Facebook page seem downright quaint. With the average Halloween store looking more and more like it’s being stocked by H.R. Giger and Larry Flynt, what are we indeed celebrating on this day?
LikeLike
Mike-
Good stuff! I’ll never forget the day a coupl’a years ago when I “went seminary” (the phrase my 15-y.o. son uses for when I go on a righteously indignant semi-rant 😉 ) on a friend because she expressed concern that the PTA at our Christian school had used scarecrows to decorate a fall event, and that she felt this display was tantamount to heresy. I had to remind her that a scare-crow was a common autumn symbol- known for SCARING CROWS- and that there was simply no connection to Satanism, etc. Sadly, she was not convinced by my argument and staunchly stuck to her original moral indignation…
Isn’t that so typical of us? We get so distracted by the moral minutiae that we fail to see the enormous moral cancers that our society produces. (I seem to remember someone else saying something like that- but using the analogy of a ‘speck’ and a ‘log’…) Personally, I think that the moral complacency, and general covetousness that is a deeply imbedded thread in the tapestry of our culture is a far worse threat to out spiritual health.
Dear Lord, I pray that you will make our hearts burn to see justice and mercy ‘roll down like waters’ in our communities of influence with the same (or greater) passion that we display for these other pointless things. Amen.
Thanks for letting me “go (a little) seminary†in your space…
Tracy
LikeLike
Just yesterday, I was driving down the road thinking about Halloween and the surprised look on the face of one of our church ladies when my wife informed her that we did in fact trick-or-treat with our kids and thought it was great fun. I began wondering if the iMonk was going to rant this year. I’m glad to see that there are things you can still count on in this world.
LikeLike
I feel the same way and had similar experiences growing up (as others above have also said). I looked forward to trick or treating and also to the Halloween festivities like haunted houses and various games (with chances for more candy) right in the church fellowship hall or on the grounds.
Is it the secular culture that shifted and made Halloween darker and more openly satanic so that it’s the right thing to do for Christians to avoid it? The time frame when things started to shift is the same time frame that gave us The Exorcist and a whole list of other things that represented, in my opinion, the opening of Pandora’s box with respect to unashamed evil, glorification of the occult, intense, disturbing gore, etc.
Or was the church’s shunning of Halloween just leapt upon by the secular world as an opportunity to celebrate Halloween more and ramp up the evil aspects of it in order to create a distinction from the church? Would the holiday have remained more under control and balanced if church people had continued to celebrate it as they always had?
For me, I do regret the loss of a “kinder, gentler” Halloween that was just about mild spookiness and fun without the disturbing demonic and gore aspects prevalent today.
LikeLike
Great rant! I have lived out the same history. My wife and I laughed after hearing one of my brother-in-law’s sermons where he blasted the jack-o-lantern. The funniest thing was his insistence that the custom dated back to the middle ages. I just wondered where Europeans in the middle ages got their pumpkins!
LikeLike
Imonk,
I’m so glad you reposted this. I also can’t believe how similar our upbrinings were. There might be hope for me yet. You know I had the exact same experiences. My dad who was sort of a golden boy up and coming preacher of the type of churches you talked about when I was young loved Halloween. In fact one of our favorite things on H-ween was to get home early to watch whatever somewhat cleaned up version of horror movies was on the networks.
I still to this day have a Frite Nite at my house, tonight actually, where my closest friends will all get sitters come over eat snacks, pizza, watch a horror movie, and go to a haunted maze or something.
I had no idea why things changed. But I remember being about 11 and everybody just went crazy about H-ween being bad. My folks never did.
I’ve seen some bad attempts to co-opt H-ween. We have a H-ween party at my church where I pastor the Wendesday night before H-ween every year. Some folks ask if we should just call it a fall festival? I said, duh no, we have it right before H-ween, we all dress up, why lie about it.
Good post Monk.
LikeLike
It would be useful to enquire more deeply into why things changed? Was it simply that some evangelicals, who had been ignoring the excluded middle suddenly became aware of it? Was it exponential growth of therapeutic spiritualism (self referentially described by practitioners as New Age until the charasmatics made the term imprecise)? Could it have been completely unconnected to the synthesis of new religions such as Wika? If the changing cultural meaning of horror, witches and the like produced non-believers who rejected scientific rationalism for faith in the occult would it not have affected evangelicals?
None of this is to suggest that Evangelicals reacted well or even rationally to these wider changes but that shouldn’t preclude analysis of the larger social context of the Evangelical reaction.
LikeLike
As a member of the cultural background which created Hallowe’en (it’s an Irish and Scottish thing more than an English or Welsh one), and observing how the American version of Hallowe’en has become very big over here – pumpkins are now part of the stock in supermarkets, where there was never a pumpkin heard of before – this kind of “Ahhh! Satanism!” panic makes me roll my eyes.
We were way closer to the pagan roots of Hallowe’en than any American ever was, yet I never encountered any thing of this nature. And just for information, it was all about the fairies and not the Devil 🙂 Yes, there were superstitions and divinatory games and charms and all the rest of it, but honestly, we were not secretly worshipping Satan.
OÃche Shamhna maith dhibh go léir! If you can get your hands on one, enjoy a nice thick slice of barmbrack:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmbrack
LikeLike
Now THAT’S a scary mental image!
So among my Christian friends, we’re trying to get a D&D game going on Halloween… mostly because it’s the 5th Saturday night of the month, and that’s what we do (providing the married guys have proper dispensation from their wives). I wonder what some of our pastors would say about that?
LikeLike