"Membership in the family of God is neither inconsequential or something to be casually ignored. The church is God's agenda for the world. Jesus said, "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it." The church is indestructable and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it."
- Rick Warren
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Kill the spirit of fear, that is.
Have you ever thought about what feelings and imagery are associated with Halloween? Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Christ and so with it are feelings of joy, victory, celebration and new life. Images that come to mind are the empty tomb, flowers and springtime. Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ and so with it are feelings of giving and of family. Images that come to mind are the nativity, Christmas trees, presents and poinsettias. The Fourth of July celebrates America’s Independence and so with it are feelings of happiness, freedom and celebration. Images that come to mind are the flag, fireworks and hot dogs.
When you think about Halloween what images and feelings leap to your mind? Kids and costumes? Candy and parties? Those are positive things. And so for that reason, I’m not one of those people who are opposed to all things Halloween. Every child loves to dress up and eat candy. (A lot of grownups do too, including me!)
But those aren’t the only images and feelings that are associated with Halloween. There’s another big one: fear. At their tamest, Halloween images are jack-o-lanterns and black cats. But normally it’s skeletons, bloody axes, ghosts and death. As a Christian and a parent I struggle with that. I know that some of you are thinking, “Hey, it’s all in fun.” Forgive me, but I just don’t see the fun in dressing up as an axe murderer or a corpse. Christmas movies are about family, love and giving. Halloween movies are about mass murder.
The point of this post is not to make a statement about whether or not your family ought to celebrate Halloween or how. That’s up to you. I just wanted to take the occasion of Halloween to remind you what God says about fear. There are a lot of scary things in this world. But responding in fear is not the way of the Christian. Please read the following messages from the God who created you:
“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship” (Romans 8:15).
“God did not give us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).
“God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
The LORD is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).
“When I am afraid, I will trust in you” (Psalm 56:3).
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-30).
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love” (I John 4:18).
These are the things we should be teaching our children all year round.
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Comments on "If The Spirit Of Halloween is Fear, Let's Kill It...":
4. Karl
- 09/29/2010 1:43 pm CDT
I agree with the statement: "there are a lot of scary things in this world. But responding in fear is not the way of the Christian."
But I don't know many non-Christians who are afraid of Halloween, or of people dressing up in the typical Halloween costumes.
He wasn't writing about Halloween, but this sentiment from C.S. Lewis seems somewhat apropos to me:
"Nor do most of us find that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer. Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Nothing will persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it wants to be a little frightened.”
5. t.smith
- 09/29/2010 2:23 pm CDT
http://www.featherlessbiped.com/halloween/hallows.htm
I think this link was from a Halloween post on your blog last year. I have been thinking how it would look to use Halloween to mock satan, and how he was defeated at the Cross, like the above link says children used to dress up to do.I carve several jack-o-lanterns each year, one being a cross. I ususally have at least one person I don't know comment on it.
6. Manders
- 09/29/2010 9:48 pm CDT
The practice of dressing up like corpses has Christian roots--for All Saints' Day, people used to dress up as their favorite martyrs, complete with depiction of how they died. Considering the martyrs usually died pretty hardcore deaths, this could get a little intense, to say the least. But it's both honoring to the people who suffered for Christ and a recognition of death as a defeated enemy. Of course, the culture has watered that meaning down, but why not do it with that intention?
Dry bones will rise again. The powers of evil will be defeated. Let's mock death while we can--not in denial, but in hope.
7. Evan
- 09/29/2010 9:49 pm CDT
Personally, I have always loved Halloween, and am glad I grew up in a small midwestern town totally oblivious to and guilt-free of any of the Christian objections to it.
And while I can support any parent's decision on the matter, I always feel a little sad that it's become such an annual issue among Christian churches here in the South.
8. Bird
- 09/29/2010 10:12 pm CDT
Of course, the culture has watered that meaning down, but why not do it with that intention?
If by "the meaning," you're saying the dress up as a martyr angle, then I'd say our culture hasn't watered that down, it's completely non-existent.
From my own perspective, I'm pretty ignorant to that angle. I simply have never looked into it. Manders, what is the context of that tradition? Who participated? Where? (Or you can point me to a Wikipedia article or something if you don't want to type a whole bunch. :-)
Let's mock death while we can--not in denial, but in hope.
While I don't begrudge any Christian the "I want to mock death" angle, I think to Shrode's overall post, the "spirit" of Halloween seems to be way more about glorifying fear and evil rather than mocking it. Honestly, I've never heard any one other than certain cerebral Christians say that they want to use Halloween as a chance to mock the devil.
9. Dave
- 09/30/2010 8:23 am CDT
Is the "fear" I experience on a roller coaster acceptable? What about the "fear" I experience when one of my kids hides behind the door and "gotchas" me, laughing hysterically at my expense? And the time I went to a haunted house with friends and we made it through the "fear" laughing together as one? But then there was the time my daughter fell off some monkey bars and didn't move. I was about a hundred yards away. I ran towards her. I felt real "fear" until she started to move. Ended up she was fine, but I don't want to ever feel that again. --- all this to say: "fear" is a complex emotion. All fear is not the same. And we need to consider what it is we are afraid of, not just that we are afraid. I think God is concerned about what I am afraid of. (Luke 12:4-5).
10. Shrode
- 09/30/2010 9:46 am CDT
Karl,
I know, I just haven't gotten around to that final HP post. I finished the book some time ago....
And I think that final book proved what a masterpiece the whole series was.
But I don't know many non-Christians who are afraid of Halloween, or of people dressing up in the typical Halloween costumes.
Hmmm. I just reread this statement for the third time and finally got it. That's a good point, Karl. What I was trying to do was transition from talking about fear at Halloween to fear in general, so that I could share those Bible verses.
However, just applied to Halloween it does seem like my statement isn't totally true....
With the non-christian celebration of halloween I see the glorification of fear. Maybe you're right that they don't experience it, but they sure do like to inflict it on others. To me there's a difference between sneaking up behind a family member and saying, "boo!" as a harmless prank, and hanging decapitated heads outside your front door.
As far as experiencing fear, I think the children of non-christians (and christian) celebrants of the gory/fearful/horror side of Halloween, experience more fear than the grownups recognize. How many of us were traumatized by an early experience with such things? Teenagers can handle lots more than 5 year olds. But the 5 year old follows the teenager around and experiences a lot of the same things. I'm glad we don't take our kids trick or treating, because I don't like having to hide my three year old's eyes when we walk by a bloody corpse with a knife coming out of its skull.
I'm not opposed to halloween or trick-or-treating in and of itself. I just want my kids to experience the happy side of it - dressing up like superman, and eating reeses peanut butter cups.
The C.S. Lewis quote is interesting...it is definitely apropos. I'm not sure I agree with it though...
He has a good point, but I think there is something about "age appropriate". I think he'd probably agree with me on that...of course his opinion there is suspect, because he never had a three year old. And I don't know if he wrote that before or after his stepsons moved in with him.
But when a child comes to a parent's bedroom in the middle of the night because they are having nightmares clearly caused by something the parent allowed them to read or watch on TV the night before, that's a real wake-up call...both literally and figuratively!
There's a difference between a twelve year old reading about the bad guy being beheaded and a 5 year old watching a bad guy behead an innocent person in a haunted house or in a movie.
11. Bill
- 09/30/2010 10:10 am CDT
The C.S. Lewis quote is interesting...it is definitely apropos. I'm not sure I agree with it though...
There's more to the quote, in fact I think the best part got left out! :-) - I need to find it, but I believe he goes on to say that kids need to see the dragon defeated, so that they know dragons can be defeated. Something to that effect (although about infinity times more well said than my flimsy paraphrase)
12. Shrode
- 09/30/2010 10:44 am CDT
Manders:
The practice of dressing up like corpses has Christian roots--for All Saints' Day, people used to dress up as their favorite martyrs, complete with depiction of how they died. Considering the martyrs usually died pretty hardcore deaths, this could get a little intense, to say the least. But it's both honoring to the people who suffered for Christ and a recognition of death as a defeated enemy. Of course, the culture has watered that meaning down, but why not do it with that intention?
Manders,
First of all, I love you. You're awesome and I think of you as part of the Thinklings family. And because you are part of the family, let me just say....
What?!!?!? 
When and where did people dress up as beheaded, charred, mauled or bloody saints? You may not have a reference for that, and I'll understand...please don't take offense to this, but people I know, love and respect have told me things before about the origins of some thing or some historical precedent for something, and I found out later it wasn't true. And the dear person was just passing along what they had heard from someone they respected and trusted.
The best of us pass along info that isn't true...
Again, no offense, but I've gotten really picky. Unless someone can show me a historical source for something, I don't believe it...or I'll remain officially agnostic about it.
Dry bones will rise again. The powers of evil will be defeated. Let's mock death while we can--not in denial, but in hope.
OK, that's cool. I like that sentence a lot. But just as many of us protestants don't like the crucifix, because we feel like it focuses on the death of christ to the detriment of the resurrection, I would rather mock death in hope, by showing a glorified, heaven-dwelling martyr, than what they looked like after their head was chopped off.
So let's dress up like Paul, Peter, Polycarp, Telemachus etc...but do it as their whole, victory in Jesus selves...
13. Karl
- 09/30/2010 1:19 pm CDT
Bill, here is the quote at greater length. The part you like most is toward the beginning, in front of the part that I quoted above (and I agree it's key to Lewis's thought here though I don't think it undermines his separate, standalone reference to the delicious thrill of being a little frightned that he refers to at the end, either)
“Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can’t bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the Ogpu [State Police in the USSR] and the atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker. Nor do most of us find that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer. Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Nothing will persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it wants to be a little frightened.”
14. Shrode
- 09/30/2010 1:39 pm CDT
OK, Now I'm much closer to agreeing with Lewis!
Because the kind of thing I'm partially talking about is what he describes as #1.
And I'm also talking about the glorification of murder. Of course, I guess I need to check the plank in my own eye because I like a good action movie.
Evan wrote:
Personally, I have always loved Halloween, and am glad I grew up in a small midwestern town totally oblivious to and guilt-free of any of the Christian objections to it.
Me too. I grew up in a east coast town as a youngster, and then a midwestern town as a pre-teen, early teenager. And I was oblivious too...
Of course I still remember being taken into a dark room as a second grader and putting my hand into bowls and being told it was intestines and stuff. Those are memories I could live without. :-)
And just so we're clear. I'm not objecting to Halloween. I'm objecting to the "horror movie" side of it.
And while I can support any parent's decision on the matter, I always feel a little sad that it's become such an annual issue among Christian churches here in the South.
And to be doubly clear, it's not an issue in my church, and I'm the pastor. I don't preach against it...and I encourage people to participate in their communities on Halloween night.
This is the first time I've really published my objections to the fear aspect. I've kept it as a personal issue. When my wife and I are walking through a grocery store, and there are bloody eyeballs being displayed in the center aisle, I'll turn to her and say, "I hate halloween." And what I mean by that is the gory stuff.
I love costumes and candy. I say we throw out the bloody murder and keep all the good stuff.
15. Shrode
- 09/30/2010 1:41 pm CDT
Dave,
I agree with you. I think those are good and valid questions, and points.
I think that's worthy of a whole nother comment thread. Is the Bible really forbidding all kinds of fear? If not, what kinds? And yes, what objects should we be afraid of. I think these are questions we need to ask the text.
Great comment!
16. Karl
- 09/30/2010 3:38 pm CDT
I agree there is now definitely a "bloody murder" and "really freaky monster/demon costume" aspect to halloween that didn't seem to be quite as much in the forefront when I was a kid. I mean, there were werewolf and vampire costumes and such, but they were more campy or "stock monster" fare, not the super-realistic looking stuff you see now. I'm not a fan of the worst of that stuff. But I still really enjoy halloween, and don't let the fear/blood side win by robbing me of the enjoyment of the rest of it.
17. Shrode
- 09/30/2010 9:03 pm CDT
Karl,
OK! :-)
You know, this post really wasn't supposed to be about Halloween...it was supposed to be about fear in general. Halloween was just my intro to the subject.
I think I messed up. Poor writing on my part. :-)
18. Karl
- 10/02/2010 7:34 am CDT
Shrode, I thought the primary message of the post was good, and I agree. But notwithstanding the disclaimers, you can't expect there to be no discussion around the leadoff premise "if the spirit of Halloween is fear" when there are so many people, Christians included, whose primary associations with Halloween are different than that and who would use Lewis' words to speak of their own and their children's experience of Halloween:
"Nothing will persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it wants to be a little frightened.”
As frequently happens, I think we mostly agree but are kind of coming at it from different directions.
19. Abby
- 10/18/2011 5:15 pm CDT
Thanks for this. I wrote a contemplative post about Halloween and the Christian this year.
I'm going to use the verses above as a tool to make Trick or Treating to my home different than the usual just candy fare. Thanks
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Good post. I too don't have a problem with believers who want to partake in certain aspects of Halloween, but my family and I abstain in joy. I've never liked the fear culture of Halloween (or, to be fair, the material culture of Christmas). To hell with fear.