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Blogroll on Halloween





I feel quite a bit of ambiguity over Halloween. The annoying, practical part of me says it's foolish to spend money on a costume that will have to be covered by a winter coat just to wander around in the cold, begging for candy no one in the family needs. Then there's the vague legalistic side that doesn't see the point in making the effort to celebrate something that involves so many unbiblical aspects. But I really like to dress in a costume, even though I usually don't. To add the cherry to the sundae, Dev's birthday is Halloween, and he has been personally wounded by friends in the Christian community saying the day of his birth is evil.

So Halloween is usually a hodge-podge of taking JT trick-or-treating, catching a birthday dinner, and trying to figure out what to do with all that candy.

The whole thing made me wonder what the word on the street is this year.

Jeffrey Totey of Writer of Pop ran through his options and came up with one I find interesting: pass out regular-sized candy bars in an effort to be known as the generous, friendly neighbor. Then parlay that into conversations about Jesus. As my step-grandpa used to say, "When in doubt, err on the side of love."

Eric Eckert says they're going to skip their church's trunk or treat this year and host a Halloween after-party. I like this idea. Invariably, the kids are hopped up on sugar and no good for sleep, anyway. Why not hang out with friends and neighbors for a bowl of chili?

Austin Brown seems to accept that Halloween will happen, but wants people to be aware of the implications of costumes. Specifically, what should someone consider before dressing as a member of another ethnicity? This hit home a little because after seeing The Lone Ranger for the third time, JT jumped up and said, "For Halloween, I want to be King Wasabi!" Then he changed it to a combination of the Lone Ranger and Tonto—"King Wa-Tonto!" Since "King Wasabi" basically just wears a suit and Tonto's costume is much too bare for a climate where it very well may snow on Halloween, we're spared the conundrum. But it's still a good idea to think about honoring both God and others with our costume choice.

Finally, I was charged to write a couple of articles on Halloween for our apologetics site. Researching the history of Halloween and All Saints' Day was interesting—not least of which because the facts appear to contradict the argument that Halloween originated as a Christian holiday. As far as what Christians should do with Halloween, I had to stick with the facts. Halloween is not Christian, but many aspects of it are not unbiblical. Do with it as you will.

What do you plan on doing this Halloween?


Photo credit: Dominicp; Some rights reserved.


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Published 10-11-13