Checkmate Christians
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I’ve never met a Christian in person who cares about Halloween except for Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they don’t approve of Christmas or Easter either.
Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christians. They're non-Trinitarian charlatans.
Hell, Jehovah's Witnesses don't approve of Sunday worship.
I'm pretty sure they don't approve of anything.
Are Christians that against Halloween that much? It feels like it was just adopted by them as a fun event than anything of relevance like Christmas or Easter.
This feels like trying to start a fight with Christians because they're less likely to punch you in the face like other religions, even the Buddhists.
Many Christians don’t care, but the ones that do aren’t so concerned about the origins but rather the substance of what is being celebrated.
Fear, horror, violence, murder, suicide, resentment, revenge, paganism, witchcraft, sorcery, superstition, the occult, demons, monsters… these things are all associated with Halloween. For a non-believer these are just silly bits of fanciful fiction but for a Christian these things are very real and very evil.
For a Christian, seeing these things celebrated is like grandparents who escaped from Stalinist Russia seeing their grandchildren supporting communism. You know they’re doing it out of naive ignorance and they don’t actually have a clue what they’re supporting, but it grieves your heart to see them supporting it nonetheless.
My understanding is that the festival tradition of dressing up originally developed as a way to scare away any evil spirits and hide behind masks to avoid them, not to celebrate them. Now it's been taken over by non-Christians, so no one remembers the original festival.
One Halloween in the early 2000's I was at Lake Como in Italy and the Halloween parade consisted of people largely dressed normally, carrying candles through the town while distributing candy to the kids, and ended up in the church itself for midnight mass. Some people in costume joined in, but the main thing was the walk to the church.
After all it is All Hallows' Eve. It's not a super important day for Catholics. The next day and the day after that are far more important days to them. November 1st, which is All Saints Day and especially November 2nd, which is The Feast of All Souls. The three days together are known as Allhallowtide and all three are holy days of obligation.
All Souls is such an important feast in Catholicism that one of the early colleges at Oxford, for example, was called All Souls, founded in the 1438 (its full name is The College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed). Back when they named organisations and institutions they valued in ways they thought would bless all who would be involved with it.
Even then, I think there's something to making light of such imagery so it doesn't control us. A Skeleton is a fairly morbid thing, when you really think about what it is. But nowadays, we associate them with goofy monsters and cartoony rattling. It takes some of the bite out of mortality and helps you relax.
That's not to say that you should treat darkness and evil like a toy, but a designated time of year to think about spooky things and defang them seems like a healthy thing overall. Especially going into the winter months when life was at it's most dangerous back in the day.
Fair point. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to have lighthearted fun with spooky stuff, but most people have no idea what they’re dealing with so they can take it way too far.
Gruesome stories of murder and torture, spirits of the dead, demons, witchcraft. These aren’t things that should be taken lightly like skeletons or the typical depiction of ghosts (essentially flying bed sheets). People who feel at ease with or even fascinated by such things may find no problem engaging with them further.
Like many things, girls are particularly susceptible to these things. Many young girls and even women find witchcraft and curses and all types of superstitions fascinating and exciting. There’s a reason why there’s a cottage industry of astrology, fortune telling and mediums all oriented towards women. More women than you would expect get into paganism and witchcraft these days. Unfortunately, when it comes to many slippery slopes, women are the first to begin sliding.
Back to your point though, I don’t think spooky fun is necessarily bad, but as a Christian I just want to avoid anything that glorifies such things, especially to children.
When I was growing up, there was some kerfuffle over it, the same way some tried to make a big deal out of DnD and Pokemon cards. Of course, it tended to vary from family to family. My pastoral family just saw it as a chance to make fun costumes and get candy.
Honestly, just like the other examples, I think it was mostly busybodies throwing their weight around for the thrill of authority. Same thing we're seeing now with the Left, just attuned to the culture of the day.
I think it's also people who are just prone to being too sensitive to content that's not 90% "wholesome". Whether it be scary things, violence, vulgarity, or even the mildest of sexual references, they just have an severe and instant aversion and sensitivity to it.
I find a good majority of people who develop such issues turn out to to be women. Though ironically, there's a lot of women who have the opposite response and have an almost grotesque level of interest in horror.
I have seen a bunch of them sharing on social media this idea that it's not ok "to let the devil in, even for 1 night" or that it's "celebrating Satan."
That might be social media bias and you're seeing the smallest group of idiots being broadcasted to represent the majority. Like those pricks that used to harass soldiers funerals with signs.
Me being off most social media, haven't heard a thing about any Christians saying Halloween is evil, the most I see about it is either advise on how to celebrate safely and annoyance Christmas stuff is ALREADY in stores and its not even November.
Only certain Protestant churches, mainly ones in America, claim this. Largely the same ones who claim the foundation of the Catholic Church is in itself "evil".
Not really but some Christians get upset about it.
The same ones that complain about the paganization or secularization of Xmas.
The straw man is just implausible.
If I were to play devil's advocate (pun intended), and allow that Christians just totally hate Halloween...well, one big difference is, Halloween isn't a Christian holiday, whereas Easter and Christmas are, regardless of their origin. So in that respect Halloween retains more paganism than the other two. So if one were the type to care about such things...there's an answer?
It always cracks me up when lefties think they have some big dunk. "Why do you care (and you do, because I said so!) about Halloween being pagan, but not your Christian holidays?" Uhm.
Pretty much what I was going to say. The early churches syncretized Easter with Christianity so that the Christian tradition would dominate. We don't celebrate the equinox, rabbits, and the fertility festival on that day. We celebrate Christ, incorporating the symbols of the old festivals. Are they arguing we should coopt Halloween too? In that case I'll point to Kaarous's comment about All Hallows Eve.
All Hallows Eve. Day one of Hallowmas (think in terms of Christmas, Michaelmas, Candlemas, etc).
It is a Christian day of obligation, as are the two following days.
I'm not against either, I happily celebrate All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day, because I'm not a Protestant heretic who got my religious beliefs off the back of a cereal box.
Not only that but I learned how to play Dungeons and Dragons from a Catholic priest.
Sucks to suck, liberal morons.
Even some of us Protestant Heretics did just fine without any crazy Christian oppression game attacking holidays or hobbies from our youth.
Honestly if it wasn't for Fox News hyping up some new mass hysteria each time, I doubt most of our parents would even know what Pokemon or Harry Potter was. Because that was the source each time, not the Church itself.
I’m Lutheran and we celebrate all Saints Day. Granted my Catholic friends call me Catholic lite
Because Christmas and Resurrection Day celebrate the birth and resurrection of Christ. The fact that the Catholic church has a habit of incorporating indigenous religious/cultural practices has nothing to do with how/why most Christians celebrate those holidays. In fact, I know several that specifically eschew pagan Easter traditions.
Oh no, my entire faith is a lie! Guess I’ll convert to Islam and brutally murder anyone who makes fun of it.
Answer: they're not. The vast majority of Christians don't give a shit about the holiday's pagan roots or all the spooky imagery that goes with it because they're well aware that it's all harmless fun. The most you have are your obnoxious fundamentalist types from extreme fringe sects who have problems with everything. And you know what? I hardly hear a damn thing from them every Halloween. Unlike the antitheist lefties, who every year update their list of costumes you're not allowed to wear.
Hey leftists, why are you against the supposed racist roots of America but not the actual racist roots of the Democratic party, founders of the KKK?
The whole reason Christmas happened was to help the former pagans adjust to the new religion.
Shows how ignorant these fools are.
Wait till they hear about "Fasnacht" in traditionally very Christian southern Germany. We laugh at your pathetic pumpkins and plastic skeletons.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
You'll learn the fear of god when a demon starts charging you swinging inflated pig bladders on a stick!
Snow demons! It's great to see them again. My wife thinks I am joking about them.
Pretty sure that the Halloween is Anglo exclusive. Most Christian countries (even protestant ones) traditionally celebrate the Carnival, something of their own (like Mexico does) or nothing at all. The Halloween has only been popularized during the past few decades due to American media and this popularization is almost entirely secular.
Yeah, here in Germany (so Lutheran Protestant/Catholic split) Halloween is not celebrated at all. We have Carnival for that (celebrating the end of fasting).
Only in recent years (think 10-15) trick & treating and dressing up in costumes have become a thing. But that is due to American influence and mostly commercial interest driven.
None of those holidays have pagan roots.
Wow - you're a super kind of retard.
Neither Christmas nor Easter celebrate those "pagan roots" - they're literally celebrations of Christ' birth and resurrection.
The argument isn't that Halloween has pagan roots, the argument is that Halloween celebrates paganism.
Now tell me why Atheists condemn Christianity but never Paganism or Islam?
Halloween's pagan roots we suffer to see the smiles of our children, Easter, the resurrection of Christ, and Christmas, the birth of Christ, have roots in both paganism and MOSTLY Christianity, the DATE on which we celebrate is pagan in origin, but only the DATE; that were mixed just to make life easier for everyone because unlike you Christians can come to compromises, because we "love thy neighbor"
Because His birthday and resurrection have to be celebrated at some day.
Inertia is a powerful force. Too much momentum to change them now.
The planets are named for Greco-Roman gods and the days of the week are named for Norse gods (Tiw's Day, Woden's Day, Thor's Day, Frig's Day) and for some reason Saturn. We don't care.
TL;DR: Because all things adapt for the benefit of Christ and His Church.
Wtf leftist atheist edglord projection bullshit in my kotakuinaction2??
Some Christians are. But halloween as a secular day is not an issue really
No intelligent statement has ever been preceded by "hey GROUP".
a strawman if I ever saw one. I've never met a single Christian who was adverse to the pagan traditions of Halloween, Yule, or Easter
Halloween isn't related to Christianity. It's just a tradition and it's meant to be fun instead of some solemn day of reflection. It's as far removed from paganism by now as Christmas is from the birth of christ. It's harmless.
Hmm… who’s banning Halloween again?
https://www.joannejacobs.com/post/scared-of-halloween-ghoulies-ghosties-and-dei-beasties
The funniest part about Christianity is its literally the Pagan parts of it that are actually good and all the non-Pagan aspects of Christianity tends to suck.
Ludicrous sentiment.