Holidays

SFL Halloween Edition: Reality Confusion

172 Comments

Today marks Halloween, the only holiday of the year that fundamentalists hold in even lower regard than MLK or National No Pants Day. For on this day when people dress up in cheesy costumes and consume candy there is sure to be evil afoot. Just look at all the witches, and goblins, and monsters, and whatnot! Surely that can’t be biblical! (Although the cheap candy the day after is definitely a blessing. The rain falls on the just and unjust after all)

Halloween serves to highlight the difficulty that many fundamentalists have with distinguishing between fantasy and reality. A man in a devil costume may as well be the actual devil. Never mind that dressing up in a ridiculous caricature of Old Nick really serves to mock the devil rather than show support for him, the very fact that people are willing to acknowledge that darkness exists even in jest is enough to send a lot of fundamentalists into a tizzy.

When your entire religion is built on blurring the lines between the real and the make believe then it’s not surprising that even a facade of evil is enough to scare you silly. Perception is truth. And even pretending something “evil” will infect the unwary. Don a witch costume and you’re only half a step away from…whatever it is that witches do. If you really want to mess with a fundamentalist’s head, go to a “Harvest Party” dressed up as the Witch of Endor as your Bible character. I guarantee they won’t know how to handle it.

Of course they could celebrate Jesusween instead but I think even most fundamentalists will agree that’s a bit of a stretch.

172 thoughts on “SFL Halloween Edition: Reality Confusion”

    2. Shucks! I didn’t want to be first since in spite of no longer considering myself a fundy, I still don’t like halloween. But now instead of being dead set against it I just ignore it.

      However my favorite tv show of all time would fit right in with halloween, Dark Shadows which I watched as a kid, (ran home from school every day to watch it at 4:00 PM) and I still love, and own a yahoo group of many years dedicated to this show and possess all of the dvd’s from it’s near 5 year run. The fans of this show are for the most part very much into halloween, some of them even consider halloween their favorite holiday. This show, in case you haven’t heard of it, ran from 1966-1971 and had vampires (the famous Barnabas Collins and others), witches, warlocks, werewolves, zombies, a Frankenstein like monster, you name it. The effects were rather cheesy at times, and it’s filled with hilarious bloopers. But to those of us who love it, it has a cult like following and it’s a lot like fundamentalism, to those who love it, we’re like a family. BTW, there is a Dark Shadows movie coming out next year with Johnny Depp playing Barnabas!

      So in spite of not liking halloween I love this show which could be associated with it. To those who celebrate it, happy halloween! :mrgreen:

      1. What a funny thing, your Dark Shadows obsession. I was deathly afraid of that show as a kid, and that was before our family became fundies. Didn’t know about the movie coming out. Sounds awesome. Hope it’s good!

        1. Are you aware that the Collins family of Dark shaddows was based on the real life family of Lance Collins (aka Johnny Todd?) 😉

        2. Actually those of us who watched DS in the original run think they are going to make a mess of it because they are going to change too much. But we’re trying to keep an open mind. 😕

      2. I was like you…had to get my Dark Shadows fix after school every day! As a little girl, I thought Lara Parker (Angelique), Kathryn Leigh Scott (don’t remember her name on the show), and the actress who played Victoria Winters (Alexandra something?) were the most beautiful women on earth! I used to say if I ever had a little girl I’d name her Angelique (I didn’t:)). And didn’t Kate Jackson get her start on the show? Fun memories!

        1. Right on all counts. KLS as we fans affectionately call her played Maggie and in the past she was Josette, Barnabas’ love and Angelique cursed him as a vampire because he couldn’t get over Josette and love her. Vicki was played by Alexandra Moltke. They have festivals for this show every year but I have not been to one. Many of the actors have passed away now but those who are still alive and can make it come and meet the fans. 😀

  2. Is “jesusween” for real???? 😯 That is a FAR stretch of the imagination… how pathetic!

    My kids are going out on halloween tonight for the first time ever.

  3. Halloween must be viewed under the taint of evil.

    Hence, the “astronaut” is most likely a cosmonaut, subversively celebrating the vestiges of Communism, seeking to expunge God from Earth (and eventually the Moon).

  4. Wow! I was actually 3rd…. first time for being that close. Congrats to me.

    And for the record, I never participated in or agreed with “harvest party” dressups at church either. Such a hypocritical cop-out! :mrgreen:

    1. AGREE! Pick a side! Either be FOR it and do it RIGHT and be considered AWESOME in your community, or be against it and shut off the lights in the santuary and go home. (and hope you don’t return to broken church signs and egg splatters all over the building)

      1. I always thought the replace things with a christian version was cheezy. I agree with either do it or don’t. Just my opinion though kids do look so cute in their costumes!! I saw an adorable little pirate this morning with his grandpa. 😀

      2. What’s ironic is that when I was growing up in the 70s, the IFB churches had some of the most awesome Halloween parties, haunted houses and spook trails!

        At some point along the way, it became frowned upon. Just like reading anything but the KJV became a sin. And songs that were CCM in the 80s and 90s…and thus were from the pits of hell…are now being sung as IFB church “specials.”

        And they say their standards never change.

    2. I guess it’s just fundy family’s way of the kids not being deprived. Since I’m still relatively new here I’m sure at some point Darrell has done a post on the replacement thing, where instead of doing something “evil” like halloween you replace it with the harvest party, or having a get together at church were the kids dress up as Bible characters or something like that. Or giving up rock music and replacing it with Christian music, things like that.

  5. Some churches have something called “Trunk or Treat” I guess it’s an alternative to having the kids go out trick or treating, instead they come to church and get candy there.

    1. From what I’ve seen, the “Trunk or Treat” concept is absolutely no different from Trick or Treating, except that it’s done in a safe context. At least at the Methodist church around the corner, kids still dressed up as scary things as well as astronauts (or cosmonauts.) There didn’t appear to be any overt religious messages – just a good, safe time for the kids.

      1. Ugh. I hate “Trunk or Treat.” Halloween is, statistically, one of the safest days of the year for kids. Trick or treating is a safe, wholesome, neighborly activity. “Trunk or Treat” is meh. /freerangerant

        1. I actually LIKE trunk or treat because many churches have them on a different night that Halloween so my kids do both! I took them to a friends’ church Saturday and the trunks were really imagination. One was a fake ATM machine. The attendant would give you a card which you’d insert in a slot and then a candy would fall out. The kids loved it. There was a huge scary spider in one, another one decked out like an ambulance, and a Wizard of Oz one complete with a live Toto and a man in a full lion costume and a doll house with pointy black boots sticking out from under it!

        2. Ours are also often during the allotted Trick or Treat time. I’d be so all about doing both just for MOAR CANDY, though. 😀 I might have a candy problem. I just get rankled at the attitude that Trick or Treating is super dangerous OH NO STRANGERS that contributes to a lot of Trunk or Treat programs. I might also have a ranting about paranoia problem. 😀

        3. I fully understand the Halloween paranoia rant, and if that were all this was, then I would agree, Renee. However, I see nothing wrong with Providing a safe venue for kids. We did the same thing at my elementary school many years ago when I was a teacher.

        5. Since I live in Detroit, one of the most dangerous cities in the US, I’m all for trunk or treats… it may be “the safest day of the year” for kids, but even the safest day in Detroit isn’t safe enough for me to let my kid go out in the neighborhoods by herself. I’m not anti-trick or treating, and we’re taking her this year, but we’ll both be there with her.

        6. Mag, I don’t believe I said anything of the sort. I personally have no problems with traditional trick-or-treating. I just don’t get bent out of shape when a church, school, or any other civic organization offers a controlled alternative.

          What does get my goat are the heavy religious edicts against Halloween.

        7. Sorry, maybe it’s just the way I took it that “providing a safe venue” implied that the other options aren’t safe.

        8. No worries, Mag. I’m all for free-range children, too. They taste better. 😉

          (And that’s meant to be a Halloween reference, and not some weird molester joke.)

    2. Some churches have something called “Trunk or Treat”…

      That anything like “Gimme candy or I’ll lock you in this trunk!”?

  6. “Jesusween” – I heard that term and I cringed. It sounds so lame! Why do Christians have to do things that sound so cheesy?

    When your entire religion is built on blurring the lines between the real and the make believe then it’s not surprising that even a facade of evil is enough to scare you silly.

    This. It all falls in with that old “flee the appearance of evil” business. As you said, perception (or “appearance”) is truth.

    I wish I’d let my kids trick-or-treat when they were little, instead of insisting that the “Harvest Happening” was enough. (And you can probably guess which BJU orbital I went to by the name of the pseudo-Halloween celebration.)

    1. Yes, I also cringed at the term “Jesusween”. But then I clicked on the link that Darrell provided and discovered that it was very earnest and a lot of thought went into what they were trying to say.

      But seriously, Jesusween people. There’s such a thing as trying too hard. Just go back to the traditional Christian “All Hallow’s Eve” and you’ll accomplish the same thing without sounding vaguely inappropriate.

      1. I think that’s the thing that bugs me the most about “Jesus ween,” it’s like whoever made up the name doesn’t get that “Halloween” derived from “All Hallows Eve” – and it’s not like “Jesus” is the opposite of “Hallo” and you can just take off the end of the word (“ween”) and tack it on to Jesus and have a new thing. And dress in white and hand out Bibles? is ANYONE thinking at that church/organizaiton?

        1. Either because “All Hallow’s Eve” is Romish (TM) and/or they have no sense of Church history and HAVE to reinvent the wheel.

  7. My kids have just started talking about dressing up for Halloween for the first time ever. My eldest is nine. And no, it’s not because we’ve just come out of fundyland, although we have. It’s because we’re in Australia, and the holiday is only just coming in here. The shops have been encouraging it for the last few years purely to make some cash, and it is slowly starting to take on.

    I’m not sure what to think of it. Bear in mind I read chick tracks as a kid 😉 I don’t honestly believe it’s evil anymore but it sounds like a lot of hoohah for a holiday that I never celebrated myself. If everyone had been celebrating it already I don’t think I would want my kids to miss out, but it’s like do we start? Noone has ever come to my door trick or treating, it’s not that far gone.

    But yeah, I’m kind of regretting the introduction of this new holiday already. Especially since it’s so close to Christmas. *Sigh*

    1. It’s all about money. It is to the point that for the last several years it is common for stores to appear just to cater to Holloween and then they disapear. I don’t participate in it at all.

      1. When I was a kid, Halloween was the homemade holiday. Sure, you could buy a paper skeleton to put in the window or get a lousy plastic Halloween costume, but homemade paper ghosts and real fabric witch outfits were better. Now it’s another commercial foofarraw.

        1. Yes, that’s what I’m seeing here. We don’t have the traditions or the fond memories of the holiday here. It’s just the shops pushing it so that they can sell lollies and pumpkins.

          Lol – you can tell I’ve spent too much time on the internet chatting to Americans – I nearly wrote ‘candy’.

  8. i remember having “pumpkin patch” day at AWANA around Halloween. all the bus kids were sent home a lengthy memo the week before telling them all the costumes they weren’t allowed to wear. i distinctly remember that you could dress up as a pumpkin as long as it wasn’t “scary” like a jack o’ lantern.

  9. Our former pastor told the congregation to let kids be kids and dress up and beg for candy. The rest of it is silly to waste any time or energy over. I love letting my kids trick or treat and love watching the kids come to the door, scarey costumes and all. My oldest has never been a huge fan of the holiday, even when he was little he would rather stay home and pass out candy. This year (he’s 10) he decided to wear a red shirt with a piece of duct tape that says “costume.” I personally love it, plus the shirt only cost me $3!

  10. I’m with Macushlalondra – Halloween just isn’t on my radar. My fundy upbringing cast it as an evil holiday to celebrate Satanism or some such nonsense; I put that kind of teaching in the same category as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy – all things you kinda grow out of at some point. Now…I dunno. No one my age at church is really doing (or did) anything for Halloween, so it’s just another Monday for me. 😕

    1. When I was a kid we were like any other kids, we dressed up for halloween and went trick or treating. I was not raised fundy, did not become fundy til after I was married. I enjoyed halloween then, but then developed the fundy mindset about it. Now I think of it as mostly for the kids. 😉

    2. Good point!

      Of course, there are fundies who won’t celebrate the other holidays either. Easter bunnies and baskets are verboten and the day itself is called “Resurrection Sunday.” For some, Christmas trees are off limits; others eschew the holiday completely a la the Puritans.

      1. And of course they wouldn’t DREAM of celebrating any of the Jewish Holidays, or even being familiar with them at all. So really they are just pretty big party poopers all around.

      2. Research the origin of Groundhog Day sometime.
        “To me, every day is groundog day.” — Jimmy Dean.

        1. I hope you mean every day was ground hog day to Jimmy Dean. I used to eat that Jimmy Dean sausage.

      4. Would be “Most Interesting” to see the IFB Churches reaction if you told them that “Resurrection Sunday” is actually “Feast Day of the Resurrection” in those “Evil Liturgical Churches”!!! (Bwahahahahahah!!!!!!) :mrgreen:

  12. We didn’t take the kids trick or treating when they were small because we live in too rural an area. We don’t get small visitors on Holloween either. We used to have candy just in case, and that would upset our fundy friends. I could never convince them therewas no difference in trick or treat candy as opposed to trunk or treat. We had no problem with them dressing up to shakedown tbe local mall merchants, though.

    Maybe the fundy’s candy is in tbe candy offered to idols/liberty to eat category. Somehow it is different.

  13. Kudos to your former pastor, Wifeofbill. Sounds like he’s one of the rare ones who is actually willing to think intelligently about this subject.

    I also love your little boy’s idea for his costume! That’s really clever.

  14. “‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
    When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
    Contagion to this world.”
    ~~ William Shakespeare

    Ah, the Bard. How I love him. 😈

  15. I love, love, love Halloween! Maybe it is because I was denied the opportunity as a child, but I think it is so much fun to pass out candy to the little witches and goblins. I have a big party for my older teens and their friends at my house, coplete with all the fun and gross looking food. I was in charge of the party at our church. Which, by the way, was an absolutely free community event filled with lots of food games, mazes, giants slides and more. There were almost 200 children at our event and plenty of them were vampires, devils, witches, and ghosts with not one Bible costume to be seen.

  16. The fear of Halloween epitomizes what I hate about fundamentalism. You’re so brainwashed into thinking that the “other side” is so awfully wicked, and then when you’re out of the cult and see the truth, you realize that people are nice and non-threatening, and Halloween is innocent. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I saw way more sin while in fundyland than in any secular setting I’ve been part of.

  17. My 15 year old is going with his friend are going out as Edward Cullen and Bella Swan (Twilight). We have come a looooooong way, baby!

    1. My 17 year old son is going out as Edward Cullen with his friend who is the werewolf. (don’t remember his name) They both look eerily like them anyway, so they are pretty excited to make the girls all swoon.

    2. I am definitely against anyone going out as twilight characters, but that is just cuz I like to hate twilight.

        1. Have you tried watching it with RiffTrax? That makes it SO much more bearable (as it does with all horrible movies)

        2. “Harry Potter is all about confronting fears, finding inner strength, and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.”
          ~Stephen King

      1. Yesterday on my facebook page, I tried to write “Gorgeous” and I wrote “Georgeous” instead. I knew George was messing with me!! haha

  20. A LOT of Christian denominations seem not to celebrate Halloween in my area. I don’t really understand why not. My family did even when we were small, and my parents were incredibly strict. It was great fun. I am loving carrying on the tradition with my own kids.

    1. PLEASE! I will have nightmares for WEEKS! That is the ugliest thing EVER! So skeletal, and phony, with that cheesy grin hiding that evil heart… gruesome! Give me Chuckie ANY DAY! 👿

    2. I couldn’t go as a self-promoting fundy preacher. The beard is hard to hide. And I wouldn’t want to traumatize the kids that badly.

    4. For people who don’t know who that is, you’ll just look like a vampire. I hate Schaap’s smile, his teeth definitely look like fangs! 😀 :mrgreen: 😈 😉

      1. I hate to say it but there is something really creepy about his looks… 😯

      1. Hall’s cough drop shoots out of Seen Enough’s mouth and hits monitor as she GUFFAWS waaay too loudly for being in a library…. 😆 😆 😆 😆

  22. I don’t celebrate Halloween because I do not like how things that are dark are celebrated. But that said, I think that almost everyone who celebrates Halloween is just trying to have a good time. Give them a break. If you want to cut Halloween out of your life go right ahead. But don’t think you are doing God any favors.

    Besides, I like seeing the looks on my fundy friends faces when I tell them I am going to a Halloween party as Adam before the fall. 😯

    1. I am going to a Halloween party as Adam before the fall.

      I once heard a fundy preacher claim that Adam and Eve weren’t naked before the fall. They were clothed in the Shekinah Glory.

      And he knew this because…well that part wasn’t really clear, actually.

      2. OMG Haven’t heard the term “Shekinah Glory” in years and years. TOO funny! I remember hearing that from a preacher too! Wow. I’m gonna be laughing all day!

        1. As a kid I used to sing:
          “Hallelujah! Shekinah Glory!
          Hallelujah! Ah-men!
          Hallelujah! Shekinah Glory!
          Revive us again.”

          Which was probably more doctrinly right than singing the actual words to the pulpit dweller. 🙄

          (btw, sorry for getting that stuck in everyone’s head this morning)

        2. Don! You sang “ah-men” like those Catholics and Anglicans instead of that old fashioned and biblically correct “aay-man”? My pastor would have had a fit! 😯

      4. I read a commentary that suggested that it may be possible that Adam and Eve were clothed with light; based most upon the statement that after Adam ate the forbidden fruit, they “saw” that they were naked. The commentator was not dogmatic about it; I thought the concept was fascinating.

  23. Not a Halloween fan. It is a very personal thing. I practiced/was facinated with witchcraft/wicca when I was a teen. I believe it is serious business. OTOH I feel the decision belongs to each family. My kid didn’t go out but liked to give out the candy. Now she is in college and attended several parties this weekend. I was fine with that and I think she is old enough to form her own beliefs and ideas about it.

    But I am a closet Dark Shadows fan. 😎

    1. I totally respect that. The Bible says for each of us to be persuaded in our own mind, thus allowing for differences of opinion and practice (something the IFB often didn’t allow).

      God bless!

    2. Yeayyyy! I was hoping to find some more DS fans here when I brought that up. But do you think I ever told anyone at my fundy church about my addiction to that wonderful show? Nooooo. I saved myself a lot of grief that way. They’d have gotten all sanctimonious on me like the “reverend” Trask from the show (who I always call a sanctimonious prig and is so much like a lot of fundys I know) and preached to me about how eeeeevvvvviiiilllll that show was! Though they never saw it, and can’t really form an opinion based on knowledge, they would still preach on it being bad and wicked etc. Fundys are great for preaching negatively about stuff they don’t really understand. I’ve heard so many negative sermons regarding Harry Potter for instance. 👿

      1. I remember when the “Mars and Venus” relationship books came out and how some christians were afraid of them like they might be new age or whatever and when I finally read them they were great. I couldn’t get any of my then christian friends to read them though. Judging something by the name only, oh so fundy… 🙄 🙄

  25. I grew up in England, and my parents didn’t like Halloween. This was partly for religious reasons I didn’t fully understand, but partly because in England the kids go round and make ‘trick or treat’ a serious choice. That is, if you don’t give them treats, they’ll TP, silly spray and/or egg your house, among other things. I still think of it as a horrible, threatening, nasty holiday, and can’t stand it, even though I know things happen differently here. And even as a little kid, I worried terribly about all the old people those other children were scaring that night…

    1. I understand this. We have some questionable neighbors and their lateteen teenagers are quite “angst-filled”. When they showed up at our door dressed as a Playbor bunny and a banana we gave them candy just to avoid a possible shakedown! However when the door shut my husband said if you’re old enough to dress like a Playboy bunny it might be time to give up on TorT! Of course since it snowed on Saturday here on the East Coast the joke was on her since she froze her little bunny butt off! Guess God does have a sense of humor!

      1. I remember someone once saying, “What is it about Halloween that makes all the girls dress slutty? Like, not just a nurse, but a slutty nurse, or a playboy bunny or some other thing that is designed to dress in an inappropriate way.” Just because it is Halloween the costume makes it ok to show off the goodies? (And no, this is not being said because of my inner fundie voice, it is being said because I am 53 years old and am practicing to sound like a disgruntled crotchety old woman.

  27. Answer to hover text:
    It’s a celebration of evil technology. The lie that man went to the moon that promotes space travel which in turn gave us the evil that Hellywood produced..”Star Wars.” Hey-men?!

    Tecnology gives us such evil as computers, projection screens and power-point.

  28. Growing up fundy was very frustrating. It was hard enough we had to dress like pilgrims all the time, but then on an actual day of where we could dress up…we couldn’t. Further, to ensure everyone in our neighborhood knew our stance; my parents would put a sign on the door saying “We do not celebrate Halloween because it’s the devil’s holiday.” I always wondered why leaving the light off on the porch never sufficed. Just one more way to show how separated we really are!! 😕

    1. That’s an excellent way to spread the love of Christ, didn’t you know??

      We always handed out candy even though we weren’t allowed to go out ourselves. I think it was the common sense part of my parents, since we were already looked at at the “weird” family that home-schooled.

  29. I’m against Halloween because of the history of the holiday. Plus, I don’t think it’s cute to joke about death and witchcraft.

    I don’t say anything to my friends who choose to celebrate it, though. That’s their decision. I just silently disagree. 🙂

    1. There’s no such thing as witchcraft. There just isn’t. Death is a part of life, Gods
      Very design, why not celebrate it?

    2. For some people, the most effective way to cope with deep, potentially depressing subjects like mortality is to turn them into jokes. But I understand that others don’t feel this way, and I try to be respectful of them.

    3. I agree Imabutterfly, I hate death, it is the enemy and should not be glorified. I hate abortion, genocide, murder, dropping bombs on the innocent. etc. etc. The good news is that death has been defeated. The death of death in the death of Christ.

      I now view Halloween as a celebration of life. You should see the life in my 9 year old right now. She is so excited that she got up at 2am, got dressed and was shaking the bed wanting us to get up. She is dressed as wonder woman and will go with her friends to get enough candy to stuff her candy hole for days to come. Good times.

      My older children know none of this because when they were young we were correct fundies and would turn our lights off and hide from the very neighbors we were called to be salt and light to.

      No more….bring em on, I got more candy than candy holes!

    2. Oh, I know what you mean! I spent my whole life in the bunker, hiding away, thinking I was more spiritual for doing so. What a waste.

      I love how you expressed this: “live joyfully and victoriously in the power of God!!”

    1. BABTUSTS ain’t protestant. Protestants is children of there momma, the Catholiks– Th 😈 e great whore of Revelations 17.

      2. Which reminds me how much I used to hate not knowing how to answer the question in the hospital: Check one: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Other. So I’d put “Christian” in the “Other” category, feeling smug but angry/embarrassed at the same time (yes it’s possible for fundies).

        1. I remember once vascillating over whether or not to check “Baptist” on a form. It felt funny to self-identify as a generic Baptist when all my life it had been emphasized to separate from those liberals at First Baptist downtown or those Southern Baptists with their contemporary music and NIVs!

    2. My best friend is an organist at a Lutheran church and every year he tries to combine Halloween and Reformation Sunday in either the prelude or postlude (by doing a Halloween-sounding piece by a Lutheran-or at least Protestant-composer). Last year he spent hours practicing Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The congregation loved it!

  32. When I canidated for a pastorate, I was asked about my views on trick or treating. My reply was that it was a great opportunity to teach your kids about tithing– preacher gets 10% of the take.

    3. Scccreeeeching halt: did you graduate from HAC in 84, or are you a mere babe, BORN in 84???

    1. My mom always celebrated THIS, for which we kids were thankful, even if we didn’t get to dress up in fun costumes. Same thing for Easter – no baskets or egg hunts but marked-down candy afterwards.

  34. Personally, I’m excited to take “my kids” (we are trying to adopt them out of foster care-we had them for almost two years now) out trick or treating! We have a puppy, a chicken, a piggy and a pumpkin. Plus I’m preggo with twin boys who will be properly evicted on 11-11-11 if they don’t come sooner! 😉 My husband wanted me to paint my belly as a pumpkin and I would If I knew people would actually give me candy. (I have no shame) However, with all my hormones going crazy due to the pregnancy…. the Witch of Endor would probably be more fitting! 😆

    1. How exciting! Congratulations on the new children – the twins plus the new adoptions. I bet they all look adorable tonight!

      1. Thank you!!! I wish I could post a pic of them, but since they are in Foster Care it’s not allowed!

      1. You are so nice pastor’s wife! We made quite the haul last night! Reason #56 why it’s great to have a lot of children: Halloween Candy. LOL! My husband and I have to ‘inspect’ it for defective candies that are not safe for children. Specifically Snickers and Reese Cups. :mrgreen:

  35. I don’t like halloween much because it was not a joke during Pagan days. But I’m not going to kick up a stink about it. If I did go to a halloween party, I’d dress as an angel.

  36. Fundamentalism in a nutshell with this one. After all, fighting dime store demons is the least you can do. Really, there’s not much to it.

  37. A man in a devil costume may as well be the actual devil.

    The deep and delicious irony of this view is that it is a type of sympathetic magic.

  38. Ugh the whole Halloween/Harvest Festival thing gets my goat.

    Here’s an article on the origins of the holiday:
    http://bit.ly/sCrVSw

    Basically, there was a pagan holiday celebrating the harvest — a “Harvest Festival” if you would.

    Then the ol’ Catholic Church took over the pagan holiday and replaced it with the Christian “All Hallow’s Eve” or “Halloween”. I suppose it would’ve been like ye olde mideval trunk or treat.

    Now, we have some really confused folks taking the Christian holiday of “Halloween” and instead of taking it back to it’s origins, they’re turning it into a pagan “Harvest Festival” in an effort to somehow make it more Christian. Go figure.

  43. Oh, shoot, I remember at my fundy u, we were all convinced that the Wiccans and the satanists were going to use Halloween night to open the portals or something or do something HORRIBLE. We really didn’t know exactly what would happen, but apparently we were convinced that it’s a big night for demons (you know, as if demons didn’t exist on any other night).

    We would spend all Halloween evening praying…

    And, I SO wish I was joking.

    See, and that’s why I love SFL. I can say that here and ya’ll can relate. Say that in my real life and they’d ask me if I have a history of mental illness.

    Which, I’m not exactly sure how I’d answer. 😉

    1. Oh this post made me giggle! Oh Natalie, I am so sorry the Fundies messed with you. However, I did chuckle as I now have a mental picture of all these fundie college kids fervently praying for the portals of Hell not to be opened that night.

  44. Over 100 comments and not one to say how cute the kids are in the picture.

    But that is the evilness of Halloween. Yes, the kids look cute now, but after they fill their bags with candy, they will be sacrificing cats at the altar of Hershey’s.

    1. “they will be sacrificing cats at the altar of Hershey’s”

      You say that like it’s a bad thing.

      😉

  45. I did not get a chance to dress up for Halloween (next year!). However, I am proud to say that I enjoyed a piece of Halloween candy without guilt for celebrating a pagan holiday for the first time in 10 years.

    1. I did errands today and had a mini candy bar at each stop, now my teeth hurt! 😕

  46. We were Southern Baptists (complete with drum set and back up singers) before our church left the convention. I was 11 at the time, so I had a lot of good trick or treat memories. I never was convinced that it was suddenly wrong to celebrate Halloween when it was fine the year before.

  47. I love Halloween, my birthday was yesterday so always got a Halloween cake. We have a Trunk or Treat party at our church the Wed. before Halloween. Our men’s group grilled hot dogs and we took donations for UNICEF. Raised &126. I remember being taught that UNICEF was evil. Our 5th and 6th grader and youth group went Trick or Treating for UNICEF last night and $273.

    1. UNICEF is part of the UN. In the Last Days™ the UN is going to team up with the Catholic Church, the Wiccans and the Illuminati to exterminate Independent Baptists/Christians. I could be wrong on some of the details but that is the gist. 🙄

  48. So, right now, I am listening to “The War of the Worlds,” which NPR plays every Halloween, have had a yum dinner, and every few minutes, cute little trick or treaters come to the door.. My two doglets go nuts, the kids love it, and it is one big Good Time. What a good and gracious God we serve, to give us such good times! 😀

  49. I have to say I have had the most adorable groups of kiddies this year.

    Even though we did not do Halloween when the kid was little we never turned off the lights and pretended not to be home. That is just tacky. Plus there was all that candy that needed a home. :mrgreen:

  50. We never got into Halloween. My parents disliked it because it was too much like us kids going out to beg for candy from the neighbors because we were too poor to buy our own candy. Then, after going to four or five houses (if we did that), 👿 that was enough. Disappointed, my sister and I then proceeded to argue over the candy (who gets what and how much) because Mom would intervene, confiscate it all, and then make us share and share alike regardless that my sister always got more because she was cuter and a thief.

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