One thing about blogging is that it gives one an opportunity to be completely opinionated--actually I think that is expected in a blog. I find it easy to be opinionated, but have tried to temper my comments as it is not my intent to offend or alieante, but time has come to make an exception.'Why now you say?", because today is October 31 and I am finding it increasingly difficult to remain silent on a subject about which I do have such strong feelings.
Most who know me already know--we don't celebrate Halloween, we try to be very consistent and to our knowledge do not celebrate any occultic holidays--but it is very hard to ignore this one. From mid August through the end of October, one cannot go into any retail store without being bombarded with jack-o lanterns, tombstones, black bats, spiders with webs, and of course, witches. Most of my family and friends do celebrate this holiday, "innocently" with thier children--how it is possible for any of this to be innocent is beyond my understanding, but I think I know what is meant. I "innocently" celebrated it for years. When Rachel was very young, a Godly Christian teacher began to lovingly challenge me to learn more about Halloween--not just its origins but how it is celebrated today. Her real challenge was to me as a new mother and what I would do to protect my child. So I began to read more and what I found is that Halloween is a celebration of death that is sacred to modern day witches.
Now let me slow down as I know that some of you reading this now are becoming defensive. The fact that we do not celebrate this is not to say that I condemn anyone else who does. What I do believe is that this is a personal, spiritual conviction and I know many strong Christians who do not share this conviction. The fact is that in our culture witchcraft is becoming more and more popular and Wicca is recognized religion that is spreading like wildfire. As a religion, it is having a stong, be it subtle impact on our culture. As a mother, I am concerned that my children are taught that Halloween is simply a harmless and fun holiday. I certainly do not have a problem with costumes or pretending, my issue lies in the problem of association. A friend of mine many years ago stated it this way--"there is nothing wrong with draping oneself in bedsheets and marching down the middle of the street, unless of course the Klu Klux Klan is active in your community."
Last week I asked Ryan's school if the children wore costumes to school or if they had Halloween parties, because if they did he could have stayed home. I was told they did not; however, when he came home today, he had language and math papers with Halloween themes, a spider from the cupcakes a classmate brought to share, and an orange and black necklace he made in art class. (Of course Ryan was so proud that he made a tiger necklace--orange and black :)!!). I am not so niave as to believe he has been scared for life, but I do believe we Christians have accepted a double standard--Halloween is a religous holiday and all the symbols of this holiday are widely accepted. Why is is a nativity or a cross is banned when witches and bats are welcomed?
If you celebrated Halloween tonight, we prayed for your safety, we think no less of you, and we hope you think no less of us. Should you desire to read a little more about my conviction, I will share two good websites. (Someone please show me how to reference these in my blog so you can just click on them): www.theselittleones.com/evenachild/editorials/htm and www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract10.html
Great news--tomorrow is All Saints Day--Let's Celebrate!
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