Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Christians and Halloween

I always enjoyed Halloween as a child. My parents allowed us to trick-or-treat around the neighborhood, even by ourselves as we got older. We could pick out our own costumes-although nothing scary, grusome, or evil was aloud. There seems to be more of a debate out there among Christian now, rather than when I was a kid. Personally, Todd and I don't have a problem taking the kids out on Halloween night. But they will have the same rules that I had-no scary costumes, which means, no witches, ghosts, goblins, draculas, monsters, etc.

For a very interesting article on the subject, go to http://gty.org/resources.php?section=articles&aid=231305. It's a commentary by John MacArthur. Very well written and very interesting take on the whole debate.

8 comments:

Julie said...

FYI, I'm going to be a cow-girl for Halloween. Just in case you were wondering.

Melissa said...

What is Jeremy going to be? Are the two of you going trick-or-treating? :) As for me, I'm going as a regular person. I went as a very pregnant person last year, and I think it will be much more fun this way.

twiga92 said...

Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog! We're actually having a crop at my church this Saturday. We've started doing it the last Saturday of each month. It's in Plymouth if you're interested. Feel free to email me. What LSS do you work at?

Anonymous said...

That's a great article-do you mind if I borrow your idea and post it on my blog?! We have people in my church on both sides of the "camp" and I think his point is well taken concerning our own consciences and what God would have us do in our lives, but to always remember those who don't know him and extend mercy and grace to them.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting that, Melissa. He makes some very interesting points.
As a teacher in a little Christian school, where parents (and other teachers) have very strong views on this topic, I hear this topic being discussed as a touchy issue in our school at this time of year. For "political" reasons at school, I need to be very careful not to either condone or condemn the celebration of Halloween in front of my students. That's been a good thing for me, because I never knew which side to take. My parents never let us dress up or go out, but I've never understood what was so bad about it. It makes me glad I don't have children yet, so I don't need to decide right away.
It was a very good challenge of my perspective for him to point out what our treatment of the holiday says to the non-believers around us.
It also made me think about how our debate looks to the non-believers around us. We are called to be representatives of the Prince of Peace, but I've heard some pretty heated and ugly arguments about this issue....

Julie said...

Actually, this argument pertains to Jeremy. He was never allowed to trick-or-treat when he was younger. And now he hates holidays :P

Melissa said...

Wow! You guys are leaving some great comments! I guess it really is a heated debate. I've never really thought about not letting my kids trick-or-treat. But I did mention to a co-worker that Emma wanted to be a witch for Halloween and I wouldn't let her. My co-worker thought it wasn't a big deal-it's just pretend, after all. Well, my rules are still my rules. In my opinion, my girls can have fun and dress up and get candy. And that is all we will do to celebrate Halloween.

Thanks for the opinions!

Nikki said...

Hi Melissa! That's exactly how we do halloween too. Just fun for the kids and my daughter usually dresses as one of the disney princess', this year she is Ariel.

Welcome to Scrappy Chatters too! We are so glad to have you with us!!