Banish Dark Side of Halloween Say Frightened Christians
“Banish Dark Side of Halloween” is the headline emblazoned on the front page of my local paper. When I saw the headline I had that ominous feeling of inevitability, the sinking feeling that it would be an article based on comments from a local church.
I was of course correct.
This is the second time this year my local rag has featured ‘churchy’ stuff on their front page and last time was cringy enough, surely this would be better.
Here’s some excerpts for you:
“Worried about children’s safety and the ‘dark side’ of Halloween.”
[.....]
“We have become increasingly concerned about the increased prominence given to Halloween and how people celebrate it,” church secretary said.
[.....]
“As Christians, we are also concerned about some of the sinister and dark sides of Halloween.”
Yep cringy and extremist fear mongering as last time.
They’re going to combat this night of darkness with a ‘crazy colours’ party to celebrate ‘brightness and light’ and they say:
“In this way we hope that a positive message might shine through rather than allowing children to be dragged down by darkness and fear”
I’m all for the church putting on alternative activities, but to celebrate brightness and light? To stop children being dragged down by darkness and fear?
I’ll be honest, I’m no fan of trick-or-treating and if the church spoke on just this element of Halloween it might resonate a little better with readers, but harping on about the ‘dark side’ makes them look like frightened little poppets, yet again.
I wonder if they’ll ever be a positive, hopeful, encouraging, moderate, spunky church piece on the front page of my local rag……nah.
Tags: Church Life, Media, Religion Society
October 21st, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Totally agree, webmaster. Some people seem to get the whole thing totally out of proportion, as though the kids are seriously directing their attention to the dark side, instead of just fooling about.
We’ve got quite a good system where I live concerning trick or treating, though in fact it’s pretty much all treat. The streets round me are packed with children of all ages. Any family who wants to take part puts something relevant on display – a pumpkin in the window, for example. The children know only to go to those houses. My kids are past the door to door stage, but I lay on sweeties and dress up for the younger locals to visit me – just as other families did here when mine were small. It’s a pleasant evening and neighbourly.
October 21st, 2010 at 6:39 pm
I think this is a fair comment. The “lighter side of Halloween” thing is a good opportunity for churches to get the message out – we do it at my church – and parents seem to appreciate an alternative activity that gets the kids away from ‘trick or treat’. But it lacks credibility if people exaggerate the situation to try and score publicity points.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:27 am
Excellent! Love this blog post. Why can’t Christians just do what they’re going to do, make it available to the community and leave out the preaching against the dark side?
Here’s an ironic one for you… This guy sends his kids to school with Jack Chick tracts about the satanism of Halloween. And supposedly these tracts are against the violence and dark side of Halloween. Guess what happened? A parent complained about the violent pamphlet her kid brought home! And it’s true! Jack Chick’s Halloween tracts are scary, violent and gruesome even though they are supposedly trying to attribute these things to Halloween!
I got into an intense debate with the parent who loves Jack Chick tracts!