http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2014/10/27/war-on-halloween-christmas-jesus-zombies/34765
A while back I wrote about the War On Christmas manufactured by Fox News, in which saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” was somehow taken as an insult to Christians. Then I wrote about the War on Thanksgiving, again manufactured by Fox News after President Obama gave a three-minute Thanksgiving Day speech without the word “God” in it. So now I’ll complete the hat trick by writing about the War on Halloween.
A while back I wrote about the War On Christmas manufactured by Fox News, in which saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” was somehow taken as an insult to Christians. Then I wrote about the War on Thanksgiving, again manufactured by Fox News after President Obama gave a three-minute Thanksgiving Day speech without the word “God” in it. So now I’ll complete the hat trick by writing about the War on Halloween.
Christian evangelist Pat Robertson is the most famous opponent of Halloween, which he calls “Satan’s night.” Robertson claimed, without any evidence, that the original practice of trick-or-treating came from the Druids, who went house to house asking for money and threatening to kill one of the owner’s sheep if he didn’t pony up. (Both October 31 and December 25 were initially celebrated by pagans and later adapted by Christians.)
Pat Robertson doesn’t like children dressing up as ghosts or zombies, which he doesn’t believe exist. However, he does believe in the Holy Ghost. And since a zombie is supposed to be a human who died, was raised from the dead, and once more walked among the living, the Gospels seem to imply that Jesus was a zombie. Furthermore, Zombie Jesus offers everyone the ultimate trick or treat: eternal torture or eternal bliss.
To Pat Robertson’s credit (I’ve never used that phrase before), he is merely spreading misinformation and advising Christians not to celebrate Halloween. This is a moderate position compared to some other groups.
The ministry of Christians against Halloween considers Halloween “the anti-Christ’s biggest nightly congregation of hell and damnation on earth.” And it’s just as bad to go to horror movies at Halloween or any other time because they are “created by disturbed and evil people, by the inspiration of the devil, for the purpose of manifesting demonic wickedness and evil in a tangible, visible and audible way.” Hey, I’ve learned from horror movies that you can protect yourself from demons by simply waving a cross or wearing a necklace of garlic cloves. This ministry would like Christians to “barricade their family in their home, with the doors locked and the shades closed, praying for Jesus Christ to protect them and stand guard around their home to keep them safe from all the wickedness (people and demons) that are crawling the neighborhoods.” This sounds a lot like a real-life horror scenario to me, not to mention child abuse.
And speaking of child abuse, some churches use “Hell House” evangelism on Halloween and other times to shock young people with graphic exhibits and frighten them into becoming Christians. They literally try to scare the hell out of children by promoting misinformation about the “gay lifestyle,” premarital sex, satanic rituals, and demonic possession.
All this reminds me of Carl Sagan’s insightful book, The Demon Haunted World, and H.L. Mencken’s comment that “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.”
I began celebrating Halloween early this year on October 25 with a 5K Zombie Run in my local county park. Some of us were runners and others were dressed as zombies who stalked the runners and tried to grab “flags” worn on the runners’ belts. I’m happy to report that we all had fun and survived this race for the “undead.”
The Tuesday after Halloween this year is another scary time for many — Election Day. A candidate in my home state of South Carolina seems to have conflated the two days. Anthony Culler, Republican nominee for Congress in the 6th District, refers to same sex couples as “Gremlins who will destroy our way of life.” Now that’s really scary, even for South Carolina Republicans.
Because of my tradition, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by so many holiday wars. A half-joking description of all Jewish holidays is: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!” This means latkes, gefilte fish, chicken soup, kugel, and hamentashen — not people.
Happy Halloween to all whose worldview doesn’t preclude a little harmless fun.
Pat Robertson doesn’t like children dressing up as ghosts or zombies, which he doesn’t believe exist. However, he does believe in the Holy Ghost. And since a zombie is supposed to be a human who died, was raised from the dead, and once more walked among the living, the Gospels seem to imply that Jesus was a zombie. Furthermore, Zombie Jesus offers everyone the ultimate trick or treat: eternal torture or eternal bliss.
To Pat Robertson’s credit (I’ve never used that phrase before), he is merely spreading misinformation and advising Christians not to celebrate Halloween. This is a moderate position compared to some other groups.
The ministry of Christians against Halloween considers Halloween “the anti-Christ’s biggest nightly congregation of hell and damnation on earth.” And it’s just as bad to go to horror movies at Halloween or any other time because they are “created by disturbed and evil people, by the inspiration of the devil, for the purpose of manifesting demonic wickedness and evil in a tangible, visible and audible way.” Hey, I’ve learned from horror movies that you can protect yourself from demons by simply waving a cross or wearing a necklace of garlic cloves. This ministry would like Christians to “barricade their family in their home, with the doors locked and the shades closed, praying for Jesus Christ to protect them and stand guard around their home to keep them safe from all the wickedness (people and demons) that are crawling the neighborhoods.” This sounds a lot like a real-life horror scenario to me, not to mention child abuse.
And speaking of child abuse, some churches use “Hell House” evangelism on Halloween and other times to shock young people with graphic exhibits and frighten them into becoming Christians. They literally try to scare the hell out of children by promoting misinformation about the “gay lifestyle,” premarital sex, satanic rituals, and demonic possession.
All this reminds me of Carl Sagan’s insightful book, The Demon Haunted World, and H.L. Mencken’s comment that “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.”
I began celebrating Halloween early this year on October 25 with a 5K Zombie Run in my local county park. Some of us were runners and others were dressed as zombies who stalked the runners and tried to grab “flags” worn on the runners’ belts. I’m happy to report that we all had fun and survived this race for the “undead.”
The Tuesday after Halloween this year is another scary time for many — Election Day. A candidate in my home state of South Carolina seems to have conflated the two days. Anthony Culler, Republican nominee for Congress in the 6th District, refers to same sex couples as “Gremlins who will destroy our way of life.” Now that’s really scary, even for South Carolina Republicans.
Because of my tradition, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by so many holiday wars. A half-joking description of all Jewish holidays is: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!” This means latkes, gefilte fish, chicken soup, kugel, and hamentashen — not people.
Happy Halloween to all whose worldview doesn’t preclude a little harmless fun.
