Halloween comes from the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain when the Celts believed the boundary between our world and the spirit world grew thin, allowing spirits, fairies, and disembodied souls to enter our realm. Consequently, they employed several strategies to appease and misdirect these nefarious ghosts from messing with them. However, in our secular age, most Americans who participate in Halloween neither believe in this ancient mythology nor are they even aware of it when they dress their children in costumes and ring doorbells for free candy. What’s a Christian to do? On one end, the purists refuse to participate and put signs on their doors alerting trick-or-treaters not to disturb them, and on the other, Christians decorate their lawns with grizzly scenes from horror movies and encourage their children to dress up as ghosts and monsters. Listen to this episode of Off-Script as we discuss this seasonal issue.
4 thoughts on “Off Script 15: Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?”
Guys Good Program.
.What I am not hearing is the Christian work ethic ie :getting something for nothing.Also I am created in the image of God I think he did a good job .I choose not to deface my body with a costume.
Tatoos are taboo as well.
Br Kent I must be a purest.
How are there not more comments on this episode. This was such a great conversation that I re-listened to this week as I prepped for a sermon on this topic. It’s not just a conversation for those with kids either – some of us will have kids, and should sort some of this out ahead of time. Others have kids that are grown, but have grandchild who will need help on this. Our role to influence and guide hasn’t ended. And lastly, some of us do not have children ourselves – but ought we not be involved in some children’s lives, some families’ lives as we are committed to make disciples of the nations and care for the orphan and widow?
Seems like in participating in Halloween in a Christian way, you’re trying to get good fruit from a bad tree. Allowing your children to participate shows them that you yourself don’t see anything harmful in it. As an alternative, how about teaching your children from the time they can speak, what glorifying God in the way you live consists of. How is there anything in Halloween that glorifies God? To me, there is no good reason to have anything to do with Halloween, or any other pagan festival. When I was a child I participated in Halloween with other children from the neighborhood. We were poor and couldn’t afford candy, so our parents allowed us to go out by ourselves. This was in the fifties and very few parents or relatives accompanied their children. They just told them how far they were allowed to go. We kids got into a lot of mischief that night, thinking it was OK because our parents approved and everyone was doing it. Is that what we want our children to learn? And we celebrated Christmas, too. If I had been told what a big lie Santa Claus was, I would not have wanted to have anything to do with the holiday. I remember feeling betrayed by my relatives for teaching me to believe that garbage. Children will believe just about anything that adults tell them unless their parents have taught them the truth. Maybe that would be a good substitute for Halloween. Stay home and teach your children everything you can find out about the holiday, and explain why followers of Jesus wouldn’t want to be part of that. Children are smarter than most adults give them credit for, but at the same time they are naive and need our guidance. I don’t think the fact that it’s possible to argue for ways that Christians can continue to observe pagan ways after they claim to be Christians cuts it at all. Just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.
Exodus 32:4 New American Standard Bible
He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
That didn’t make it so, but it allowed them to continue to participate in idolatry, while pretending it was a way of honoring the only true God. Just slap a new label on it? Really? People don’t want to give up their former beliefs or traditions or ways they are comfortable with, but if little children are taught the right way, they can understand and reject the bad and choose the good, which should be what we want….not to show them workarounds so they can be part of the world, and be accepted for acting like they aren’t Christians. Don’t confuse the children by mixing pagan with Christian values or traditions or whatever. Don’t think the children have to be all grown up before they can understand. I think the early Christian church, which became the Catholic church, was trying to increase their membership (translation: tithes and offerings), any way they could, and you may think it was genius, but I think it was intentionally dishonest, and continues to this day because of the same kind of thinking I heard on this podcast. I was very disappointed…shocked even to hear these ideas being supported here. sorry if I misunderstood anything, but it sounded to me that all were supportive of participating in Halloween, chiefly so the children wouldn’t be left out of something their friends enjoyed. People use the same excuse for Christmas observance, even in church. I remember how confusing it was for the Presbyterian church I attended from 1st grade through high school to have a Christmas pageant with decorated tree in the back of the room, while the pageant was teaching the true origin of Christmas. But they still were full participants, giving gifts, exchanging cards, singing carols, etc. Same with Valentine’s Day. It seemed harmless until I researched the holiday and then I wanted nothing to do with it. Parents worry that their children will be bullied or made fun of or just not be popular if they don’t act like all those around them. What they should worry about is their lack of proper parenting. We should be teaching our children how a Christian is supposed to live, from the earliest ages. If we don’t teach them that, somebody else will teach them something very different.
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Don’t call what is evil good or what is good evil. You seem to say the word purist as if it’s a bad thing. Doesn’t God want us to be pure?
1 John 3:3
All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. … And all who
have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. …
Really, I can’t believe anybody thinks Jesus would participate in such a thing. Sure, he would still care about the people even if they were deceived and misled, but he would not go along with their deception just so he could teach them the Gospel of the Kingdom. There are myriad better ways and times and places to do that. We should be going in the opposite direction of the world at large, not a parallel road with one foot on the narrow path and one foot on the wide path.
Halloween comes from the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain when the Celts believed the boundary between our world and the spirit world grew thin, allowing spirits, fairies, and disembodied souls to enter our realm. Consequently, they employed several strategies to appease and misdirect these nefarious ghosts from messing with them. However, in our secular age, most Americans who participate in Halloween neither believe in this ancient mythology nor are they even aware of it when they dress their children in costumes and ring doorbells for free candy. What’s a Christian to do? On one end, the purists refuse to participate and put signs on their doors alerting trick-or-treaters not to disturb them, and on the other, Christians decorate their lawns with grizzly scenes from horror movies and encourage their children to dress up as ghosts and monsters. Listen to this episode of Off-Script as we discuss this seasonal issue.
Guys Good Program.
.What I am not hearing is the Christian work ethic ie :getting something for nothing.Also I am created in the image of God I think he did a good job .I choose not to deface my body with a costume.
Tatoos are taboo as well.
Br Kent I must be a purest.
How are there not more comments on this episode. This was such a great conversation that I re-listened to this week as I prepped for a sermon on this topic. It’s not just a conversation for those with kids either – some of us will have kids, and should sort some of this out ahead of time. Others have kids that are grown, but have grandchild who will need help on this. Our role to influence and guide hasn’t ended. And lastly, some of us do not have children ourselves – but ought we not be involved in some children’s lives, some families’ lives as we are committed to make disciples of the nations and care for the orphan and widow?
Side note…we need more off script. Bring it back!
Seems like in participating in Halloween in a Christian way, you’re trying to get good fruit from a bad tree. Allowing your children to participate shows them that you yourself don’t see anything harmful in it. As an alternative, how about teaching your children from the time they can speak, what glorifying God in the way you live consists of. How is there anything in Halloween that glorifies God? To me, there is no good reason to have anything to do with Halloween, or any other pagan festival. When I was a child I participated in Halloween with other children from the neighborhood. We were poor and couldn’t afford candy, so our parents allowed us to go out by ourselves. This was in the fifties and very few parents or relatives accompanied their children. They just told them how far they were allowed to go. We kids got into a lot of mischief that night, thinking it was OK because our parents approved and everyone was doing it. Is that what we want our children to learn? And we celebrated Christmas, too. If I had been told what a big lie Santa Claus was, I would not have wanted to have anything to do with the holiday. I remember feeling betrayed by my relatives for teaching me to believe that garbage. Children will believe just about anything that adults tell them unless their parents have taught them the truth. Maybe that would be a good substitute for Halloween. Stay home and teach your children everything you can find out about the holiday, and explain why followers of Jesus wouldn’t want to be part of that. Children are smarter than most adults give them credit for, but at the same time they are naive and need our guidance. I don’t think the fact that it’s possible to argue for ways that Christians can continue to observe pagan ways after they claim to be Christians cuts it at all. Just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.
Exodus 32:4 New American Standard Bible
He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
That didn’t make it so, but it allowed them to continue to participate in idolatry, while pretending it was a way of honoring the only true God. Just slap a new label on it? Really? People don’t want to give up their former beliefs or traditions or ways they are comfortable with, but if little children are taught the right way, they can understand and reject the bad and choose the good, which should be what we want….not to show them workarounds so they can be part of the world, and be accepted for acting like they aren’t Christians. Don’t confuse the children by mixing pagan with Christian values or traditions or whatever. Don’t think the children have to be all grown up before they can understand. I think the early Christian church, which became the Catholic church, was trying to increase their membership (translation: tithes and offerings), any way they could, and you may think it was genius, but I think it was intentionally dishonest, and continues to this day because of the same kind of thinking I heard on this podcast. I was very disappointed…shocked even to hear these ideas being supported here. sorry if I misunderstood anything, but it sounded to me that all were supportive of participating in Halloween, chiefly so the children wouldn’t be left out of something their friends enjoyed. People use the same excuse for Christmas observance, even in church. I remember how confusing it was for the Presbyterian church I attended from 1st grade through high school to have a Christmas pageant with decorated tree in the back of the room, while the pageant was teaching the true origin of Christmas. But they still were full participants, giving gifts, exchanging cards, singing carols, etc. Same with Valentine’s Day. It seemed harmless until I researched the holiday and then I wanted nothing to do with it. Parents worry that their children will be bullied or made fun of or just not be popular if they don’t act like all those around them. What they should worry about is their lack of proper parenting. We should be teaching our children how a Christian is supposed to live, from the earliest ages. If we don’t teach them that, somebody else will teach them something very different.
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Don’t call what is evil good or what is good evil. You seem to say the word purist as if it’s a bad thing. Doesn’t God want us to be pure?
1 John 3:3
All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. … And all who
have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. …
Really, I can’t believe anybody thinks Jesus would participate in such a thing. Sure, he would still care about the people even if they were deceived and misled, but he would not go along with their deception just so he could teach them the Gospel of the Kingdom. There are myriad better ways and times and places to do that. We should be going in the opposite direction of the world at large, not a parallel road with one foot on the narrow path and one foot on the wide path.
Please watch: Ex-Witch Warns Christians About Halloween https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7nP5w_E-a8