pt8
Praise Parties. As Hallowe’en as opposed to samhain was originally a time of prayer and celebration within the church consider reclaiming it with a praise party and honour God. Many young people have vibrant ideas on ways of worshipping God and can be very creative if given opportunity and encouragement to become more involved in their churches life. Perhaps younger children would appreciate a party in which they celebrate the awe and wonder of God. Older teens might prefer a worship celebration they have organised with opportunity to socialise during and afterwards so they could invite their friends.
Remember most teens would far rather have somewhere warm and safe to have fun and meet their friends away from home than be cold and bored on a dark wet street.
Building relations with schools.
There are many teachers who welcome the chance to enliven their teaching sessions with seasonal activities. In recent years thanks to the commercial hard sell of Halloween goodies by businesses awareness of Halloween has been raised. There are certainly plenty of books aimed at children with themes of ghosts, witches, fairies, dragons, monsters and the like.
If Christians choose not to partake of school life for the rest of the year and only go in to complain and demand that Halloween activities are evil and should not take place they will appear as fanatics. Its far better to gradually build up a relationship with the school over a period of time so that those involved in teaching and administration at the school appreciate you share their concerns in providing a safe environment for their children. Even pagan teachers will appreciate that concern if you are known and your views are considered, reasonable, thought out and motivated by compassion.
T
his will then allow you to explain with reason your concerns about Halloween activities and request that it would be sensible to advise youngsters not to experiment with occult activities.
There will always be some who despite warnings from Christians and mature pagans alike do try and experiment so consider also suggesting that if any child is or becomes worried or scared by activities they do over Halloween they can always speak to their parent, teacher or even ChildlineUK. ChildlineUK is there for any child who has worries; has difficulties at school and so on it is not just those who suffer abuse.
*NB Kathi will happily provide details of similar oranisations in the states just ask her*
Trick or treat
Christian children and the children of Christians should not be involved in this activity. In the UK more so than the USA the tricks can be rather malicious and frightening. It is not honouring to Christ to partake of an activity that in essence is pure blackmail to prevent vandalism and reprise attacks.
Encourage children to consider how this activity can frighten the very young and the very old if they were to turn up unexpectedly wearing scary costumes and latex masks. Enter into debate to consider the impact of being repeatedly woken up and disturbed on the frail and elderly. Most young people do have a sense of justice and once they begin to explore an idea they can see injustice and cruelty. Even pagans urge their children to think and act responsibly and take care for their elderly neighbours at this time of year.
Encourage you friends and neighbours to talk to their children into declining to take part in trick or treat and explain the reasons why in a way that allows for debate. You never know you might build a bridge to be able to share about Christ.
If your church fellowship is having an open Praise Party why not extend an invitation to your friends and neighbours inviting their children to that instead.
Please be aware that how you act and react at this time of year can produce or destroy opportunities to building a bridge to share the gospel of Christ with others. Pray that God guides you to act responsibly compassionately and with care for others as Christ Himself had.
For our own children?
Most of our young people will have friends at school who are wiccan; some will be exploring assorted pagan beliefs and a few will perhaps have blown pocket money on Lavey’s satanic bible. Our children are less likely to have our hang-ups about being friends with and discussing beliefs with such people. It is important that we as Christian parents provide our children with the most accurate information we can. If we do not they will know we do not know what we are talking about regarding the occult and that could lead them to wonder if we know what we are talking about when it comes to Christ.
Many teens do feel the pressure that wanting to be part of a group they can identify with brings. Pray that your Children know Gods peace and strength about their own convictions so that they feel able to make a stand when they feel they are being pressurised into decisions that concern them or they feel are morally wrong.
As young people grow they appreciate even if they do not like explanations as to why you view something as wrong or evil and would prefer them to refrain from doing something. Allowing discussions on ‘sticky’ subjects keeps open the door for your child to communicate on your part. As children become teenagers and begin to explore their own morality, belief and faith and yes rebellion this becomes even more important.
If you are banning Halloween parties with friends outright it can help if you are able to offer an alternative. Check if your church or a neighbouring church has any youth activities planned they could attend instead. Perhaps you could allow them to invite friends back to your home maybe with a take away or other favourite foods on offer. There are a range of DVDs they could share watching that do allow a wide debate on the nature of God ranging from ‘Raiders of The lost Arc’ well would you steal Gods box?’ to ‘Bruce Almighty’ what happens when man tries to be God’ and for those stronger parents of older teens ‘Dogma’ When angels go Bad and God makes better than new’.
‘I celebrate LIFE! Halloween has been forsaken by a lot of (ignorant) Christian who believe (falsely) that if they dress up and go get some candy that they are participating in the pagan and/or occult celebration. Hogwash!
Yep, I said it! Hogwash.
Christians can be some of the most ignorant, well meaning sheep that walk the planet. I do not accept the view that if I purchase my products at Wal Mart that I will become ‘possessed’ with the spirit of Sam Walton; Greed. Okay poor illustration, but come on the church needs to come to a place that fear isn’t the reason that we do/don’t do something in relation to observation of sabbaths, holidays etc.
If a person knowingly observes Halloween with its pagan/occult background, then that person is observing Halloween as a pagan/occult holiday. But, to put on someone else that they shouldn’t have fun and go get some candy…………PHEW!
Ralph Ex-Satanist.
One final word of caution.
Despite all that has been said there will remain a small group of people who for whatever reasons will attempt occult explorations for the first time this Halloween simply because it’s the 31st October. The majority of such people are going to be disappointed but given the unpredictable nature of the spiritual domain some with get a lot more than they ever anticipated possible.
If you have concerns about someone you care about or if you feel you have got out of your depth and want to know more about Christ then please contact Exwitch or Refuge Ministries
If we can help we will.
I wish to thank all those pagans who have so willingly shared their time, resources and thoughts with me regarding this article.
My most grateful thanks must go to Cern and Veritas.
To Cern thank you for understanding the need for an updated article that would provide insight to allow for constructive dialogue to begin. His comments and suggestions from the point of view as a pagan, a parent and a teacher were most helpful.
Veritas whose willingness to share his scholarly knowledge and resources of early historical achieve resources and social history allowed this article to be complied so quickly.
It would have taken me far longer to source material without his help.
I also wish to thank those ex-occultists ex-wiccans and ex-Satanists and those practising who read through commented and made suggestions.
Thank you all.
Lottie
— Footnotes —
1: 2 Cor. 6:14. All Bible quotations taken from the King James Bible.
2: A translated version of the Tain is available at
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/cool/
3: A translated version of The Mabinogion is available at
The Mabinogion Index
4: A translation of The Annals of Tacitus is available at
The Internet Classics Archive | The Annals by Tacitus
5: A translation of Caesar’s The Gallic War is available at
The Internet Classics Archive | The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar
6: British Archelogy No38 October 1998 ‘Human Sacrifice in Iron Age Europe. Miranda Aldhouse Green
7: British Archaeology No 13 April 1996 ‘Plastic Pete and Lindow Man’
8: Ross, Anne and Don Robins. The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, An Archaeological Sensation. For the opposing view, please see Ellis, Peter Berresford. The Druids.
9: Sharpe, Richard, transl. Adomnan of Ionia: Life of St. Columba.
10: Ellis, op cit.
11: Ibid.
12:
http://users.rcn.com/tlclcms/saintori.htm
13: For the definition of vigils within the Catholic Church, see
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Eve of a Feast. For feasts, see
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ecclesiastical Feasts.
14:
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibi…hallowmas.html It should be noted that the earlier part of the document engages in some rather irresponsible speculation concerning the “Celtic connection” to Halloween.
15: Bethancourt, W. J. Halloween: Myths, Monsters, and Devils.
illusions.com
16: History Channel, op cit.
17: Examples include Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder, authors of Michelle Remembers; Mike Warnke, author of The Satan Seller; Lauren Stratford, author of Satan’s Underground; and Dr. Rebecca Brown and “Elaine,” authors of He Came To Set the Captives Free. Please see
RELIGIOUS BOOK FRAUDS: for more information. However, it should be noted that the Religious Tolerance is a “religiously neutral” website: while their research is first rate, they do not solely adhere to Christian standards, and many Christians may disagree with some of their conclusions.
18: Please see
Misinformation and
CHRISTIAN HATE RADIO TARGETING WICCANS[bless and do not curse] AND OTHER NEOPAGANS. However, it should be noted that the Religious Tolerance is a “religiously neutral” website: while their research is first rate, they do not solely adhere to Christian standards, and many Christians may disagree with some of their conclusions.
19: The Truth about Satanism by Lance King.
The Truth About Satanism One of the best-researched articles on Satanism by Christians available on the web.
20: Quoted from
http://logosresourcepages.org/halloween.html
21: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints2 Ephesians 6 v18 KJV
22: Matthew 6 5-15
23: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” Ephesians 6 v12 KJV
24: “Yet Michael the archangel when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said, ‘The Lord rebuke thee’” Jude 1 v9 KJV