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The American Tradition – Halloween

I must admit that I do love Halloween.  Although my church (First Assembly of God) does not believe that we should celebrate or participate in such activities (at least according to my pastor) I cannot subscribe to such.  I, and my family, are independent Christians and do not subscribe to any real specific church and/or all of their customs.  We know that me must obey the 10 commandments, believe that Jesus Christ is our true savior, and that God Almighty was, is, and always will be and those truths are enough for us to be with God for eternity.

I found an article on the First Assembly of God website that speaks specifically to this holiday and I thought I would post it here for those interested in learning what their thoughts are on the subject.  You can find the article in its entirety here.

Halloween causes a greatly magnified problem for Assemblies of God members and adherents. Many of the holiday’s nonreligious symbols and practices are not just neutral, they seem pagan or anti-Christian. On the other hand, certain symbols and activities appear to be neutral, such as pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns, grade school parties, bobbing for apples, and neighborhood "trick or treat," with no tricks whatsoever.

Many symbols and activities, however, hold potential problems for Christian families. Focusing on witches, ghosts of departed persons, evil monsters, devils, and other characters associated with the satanic should never be allowed in Christian social activities, even in innocent play. Young children and even adolescents may, through a light treatment of evil, lose some of their sensitivity to the realities of right and wrong.

Christian parents face a major problem when their young children get caught up in the excitement that friends and playmates express about Halloween parties and wearing bright costumes for a "trick or treat" visit to the homes of trusted neighbors and friends. Circumstances may vary and require different decisions by parents according to the local situation. One or two generations ago, Halloween pranks like soaping windows and overturning sheds seldom turned to breaking windows and destroying property. But in many communities, behavior has changed drastically for the worse. What parents as children once felt to be innocent fun may be something more sinister in today’s society.

There is good reason for exercising extreme caution, even when a parent may feel there is no immediate danger. Involvement in the occult usually begins with something seemingly very innocent and non-threatening. Some game pieces, like the Ouija board, can begin as child’s play but end up as flirtation with demonic powers. A curious reading of horoscopes can move into curiosity about one’s future in a way contrary to Scripture. We are to consult with no one except God about the future, yielding to His silence if He chooses not to answer. A dabbler in the mysterious and unknown can become easy prey to invasion by Satan. Inasmuch as any of these elements are a part of Halloween, the Christian must flee unwholesome curiosity, making God and His Word the source of answers about the spirit world.

Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian Christians about eating meat that had been offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8 ) seems to have an appropriate application to the Christian’s involvement in Halloween activities. As we abide in close fellowship with Jesus, we need never fear being overtaken by evil powers, just as the Corinthians didn’t have to fear the power of the idols to whom the meat had been sacrificed. God has already defeated Satan. But there are other considerations to be observed. The “weak” apparently thought of those who ate the meat as actually worshipping the idols to whom it had been sacrificed. For Paul, it was the concern for the “weak” that was paramount. He thought nothing of eating the meat. Some Corinthian Christians couldn’t eat the sacrificed meat without thinking about the idols. For them it was better not to eat the meat. And if some had difficulty eating the meat with a clear conscience, those for whom the meat caused no problem were to be considerate of those who had difficulty. The bottom line in all of our choices, and particularly when we wish to exercise our Christian liberty, is to be concerned about the spiritual welfare of everyone and to make our choices accordingly. We should especially be concerned about the children and youth who may not have the maturity of adult Christians.

Halloween cannot, by any stretch, be called a Christian holiday. But just as Christians in pagan societies in centuries past found reasons for Christian celebrations at the same time as the pagans were celebrating non-Christian traditions, so the church can have harvest festivals and wholesome autumn activities for its youth and children. Paul’s admonition applies to all our activities, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3:17).

While some Christians are adamantly opposed to allowing children to participate in trick or treat activities, others see nothing wrong with parents accompanying little children to the door of friendly neighbors. In many ways, participation is a matter of conscience since there is no biblical injunction against visiting neighbors for friendly contact. And a Christian witness can be shared with children and parents who come to the believer’s door on Halloween. The Christian response in both instances—opposed to or in favor of “trick or treat” activity—is a matter of personal conscience. Parents who do not want their children to participate in such activity should be able to take their stand without criticism, but neither should they criticize those whose conscience sees the activity as harmless if properly controlled. Likewise, the family that chooses to exercise its liberty of conscience should not find fault with those who choose not to participate. Because “trick or treating” is a matter of personal conscience, the local church should not dictate or sponsor what its members should do as Halloween activity. In all such choices, our relationship with Jesus should have priority and impact our choice on matters of conscience.

As you can no doubt see from the statement made by the church it is technically up to the parents to decide what is right or wrong and to use our judgement in such cases, though the tone is obviously against such activities if only to be on the safe side of the matter.

Our family is one, that I believe, can eat the meat offered to idols and think nothing of it except that we love double-cheese burgers and that we thank God for the food he has provided to us at that moment.  We are strong and faithful Christians who walk through the fire each day knowing that Satan, though defeated, still whispers into our ears and begs us to look away from Him who we love so dearly.

Our children, at this point in their lives, believe nothing of the devils, ghosts, and other "creatures" walking the night during trick-or-treat times and as they grow older we will remind them that the activity is one of enjoyment for only the fact that our gracious neighbors have spent their time and money on providing them with a night of fun at the cost of putting on a silly costume that really means nothing.  We remind them to pray each night, thank God constantly for all things, and to always ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?".

For fun, I thought I would finish this article by providing a Libertarian prospective to the issue.  I guess I would kind of have to considering this is a political blog after all.  So enjoy the following article provided by LewRockwell.com and Happy Halloween!

Damien Thompson, writing in the UK’s telegraph, recently noted that "This is the only time of year when I become seriously anti-American." The reason? He hates Halloween.

Apparently, Halloween is one of "America’s worst exports" according to Thompson, and he is at least the second British writer just this year that I’ve noticed going on a tirade against this venerable American holiday.

Now, I don’t fault Thompson (who is one of my favorite religion writers) and his fellow Brits for hating Halloween at all. The dreary streets of London suburbs simply don’t mesh with the spirit of Halloween, and I’m reminded of the one Halloween I spent in Rome where tiny children wandered through the streets (all dressed in identical witch or ghost costumes) and begged shopkeepers and restaurateurs for some kind of treat that I couldn’t identify.

So no, Europeans don’t know a good Halloween any more than they know a decent hot dog, so I don’t begrudge Thompson or his brethren on the continent who also apparently have their own reservations about Halloween.

But what a magnificent American festival it is. The smell of candles burning inside pumpkins, the sound of crunching leaves beneath our feet, and the chance to dress up and beg for free candy are all a recipe for childhood memories that easily rival the fun of even Christmas.

It’s the trick-or-treating that the Brits seem to hate the most, but in America, the act of going door to door to beg for treats is as American as candied apples and pumpkin pie. Indeed, going door to door for treats was once considered the thing to do on numerous holidays. Thanksgiving especially was once considered a day for treat-hunting throughout the neighborhood, as were impromptu and raucous parades of strangely dressed citizens looking for a fun time.

Over time, these door-to-door parades were quashed by the guardians of the respectable middle classes who thought such activities too working-class and too un-bourgeois to be tolerated. Thus, they invented the Thanksgiving turkey dinner and the Thanksgiving football game rituals out of nothing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in an attempt to replace the more spontaneous celebrations of the common folk.

But Thanksgiving was a cynical creation of government, and Halloween has never been a government-sanctioned holiday, so it is all the more encouraging that trick-or-treating thankfully survives in spite of all the efforts of fear-mongering suburbanites and crazed religious devil-fighters who do their best to ruin the holiday every year.

And what a testament to the inherent goodness of humankind that trick-or-treating survives. Every year, millions of Americans go out and drop quite a bit of money on treats for children, and then give it away for free. And, in all these years of trick-or-treating there are no documented cases of poisonings of children by strangers. Yes, some sick people have poisoned the Halloween candy of their own children, but the risk of being poisoned by some nut in your neighborhood is just about zero.

In spite of what the guardians of decency may have us believe, most people simply aren’t interested in poisoning children. Instead, we Americans take great joy in handing out free stuff to people who ring our doorbells and demand candy.

If foreigners can’t appreciate the sheer fun and exhilaration of such a festival, so be it. I can’t stand it when Americans act like there’s no such thing as a uniquely American culture. Maybe the average American has become too ignorant and classless to know it, but American civilization is simply among the best in both music and in English-language literature. And it’s been that way for well over a century.

And it’s some of that excellent literature that informs what we think of our best secular holiday. The entire mise-en-scène of Halloween comes to us from Americans.

While the idea of the jack-o-lantern may come from an Irish version made from turnips, the modern jack-o-lantern, made from pumpkins, which are native to the Americas, is as American as they come.

And when we think of the elements of Halloween with its dark forests and headless horsemen and gothic freaks and menacing ravens, we are taking a page from the works of writers like Washington Irving and the inimitable Edgar Allen Poe who is the undisputed father of the American horror movie, the ghost story, and the American folklore behind haunted houses and masquerade balls.

Yes, tales of werewolves and monsters, and even Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster come to us from Europeans, but that unique feel of Poe-ish gothic creepiness within a chilly North American autumn is what we all strive to re-create every 31st of October.

What Halloween is complete without a recitation of "The Raven?" And who would let a Halloween go by with out carving a jack-o-lantern? Hopefully few of us would be so thankless as to let such a great American opportunity pass.

What do you think about the Halloween?  How does your faith feel about it and do your feelings differ?