Halloween on Sunday troubles some Southerners (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/15/halloween.sabbath.ap/index.html)

I think one should be lax (or flexible) on some religious issues, such as what day a holiday falls on.

Isn't this just over-reacting a tad? It is a kid's holiday, after all, not the Official

"Let's Worship Satan Day".

Quote from that article:

""You just don't do it on Sunday," said Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Georgia. "That's Christ's day. You go to church on Sunday, you don't go out and celebrate the devil. That'll confuse a child.""

It's not like Halloween falls on Sunday every year, people! The last time was 1999, I don't believe the kid is going to make a strong association between Halloween and the holy day of Sunday!

Thoughts?

Yeah it's over reacting. Halloween is mainly about fun and imagination. It's not like it brings out all of the worst qualities of everyone for a day.

Haha, the words "take a chill pill" come to mind http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)

I thought southern Christians used Halloween as a recruiting event, telling people how they will go to Hell for celebrating it and then showing them what to look forward to with Hell houses. Or at least some of the more zealous and twisted one did stuff like that.

Unless you concider trick or treating or handing out candy work I don't see what their point is. If Halloween was really a religious holiday why do people of so many diferent faiths observe it?

Its times like this im ashamed to be christian.

Ewch, it's not Christians that you need be ashamed of, it's idiots. All Halloween is based on is an amalgam of celebrations, most notably Samhain of the Druids and Pagans of yore, which is nothing more than a Harvest/New Year's celebration. The 'devil' had nothing to do with Halloween. The only reason this keeps up is because of two forms of idiots:

i) Idiot Christians, and by this I mean Christians that happen to be idiots or idiots who happen to be Christian, not that all Christians are idiots -- who insist it's a holiday for Satan, despite the fact history shows otherwise, and the Bible makes no mention of it, as far as I know (it'd be quite the feat if it did, since it was authored long before the Romans came to Caledonia, Britannia and Hibernia, as they knew them) and looked, in depth, into the Druid's customs, yes?

ii) Idiot teenagers and grotty assholes that decide they are "Satanists" or "Cultists" and thus decide to go out and mutilate cats and generally be assholes, thus feeding the flame of the former group. As usual, it's the few ruining it for the many, as is common in such cases.

Extremists exist in all walks of life and invariably, in all contentious issues.

So why are the religious extremists always the ones overly represented and why are the reasonable theists of the world expected to cover for them?

What about Election Day being on Day of the Dead? Scary thought huh?

quote:Originally posted by kafka:

Ewch, it's not Christians that you need be ashamed of, it's idiots. All Halloween is based on is an amalgam of celebrations, most notably Samhain of the Druids and Pagans of yore, which is nothing more than a Harvest/New Year's celebration. The 'devil' had nothing to do with Halloween. The only reason this keeps up is because of two forms of idiots:

i) Idiot Christians, and by this I mean Christians that happen to be idiots or idiots who happen to be Christian, not that all Christians are idiots -- who insist it's a holiday for Satan, despite the fact history shows otherwise, and the Bible makes no mention of it, as far as I know (it'd be quite the feat if it did, since it was authored long before the Romans came to Caledonia, Britannia and Hibernia, as they knew them) and looked, in depth, into the Druid's customs, yes?

ii) Idiot teenagers and grotty assholes that decide they are "Satanists" or "Cultists" and thus decide to go out and mutilate cats and generally be assholes, thus feeding the flame of the former group. As usual, it's the few ruining it for the many, as is common in such cases.

Haha, so true.

saw this on the news. its a perfect example of why christians like myself have a bad name with people right now. my fellow christians have decided to influence their communtiy with unfounded bullshit. nevermind the fact that real demons exist in the media. manson, slipknot, coal chamber. yet they worry about a time-honored tradition, instead of the retards that put highschool kids in straight black clothes wearing socks on their arms, while getting ideas that their minions of satan. how does the bible put it? "i think therefore i am". well they think, therefore they are.

but yes, lets attack the little kids' holiday, the time of the year where candy runs free. its god's will.

The original sabbath was saturday, not sunday, so don't worry about it.

quote:Originally posted by Acid Rocker:

how does the bible put it? "i think therefore i am".

Wasn't that Descartes? Did he get that from the Bible?

Yeah it was in the Bible check proverbs.

yeah, my kid's school is having a dress-up day and a parade, but God-forbid they don't call it anything even remotely close to Halloween. It's "character dress-up day", where they have to pick a character from their favorite book and bring the book with them to school. Bullshit. No ghouls, ghosts, or goblins in that parade... I should drop him off to school that morning, and show up in my Grim Reaper costume.

Them zealots are getting ridiculous.

Oh, no peanuts in any snacks they bring in. Nothing containing peanuts, peanut oil, or anything else, because 1 kid in the school is allergic. No homemade goodies either.

You know, my kid has been in school for a whopping 2 months, and they already sent shit home for us to sell twice, they hit us up for supplies for the class, paper plates, cups, etc etc. What the fuck? He's in kindergarten for shit's sake.

Goddamn money hungry schools.

I better stop before I get into more of a rant than I'm in already. I'm so ticked I can't even type and am constantly fixing typos.

quote:Originally posted by LutherX:

It's "character dress-up day"

Gee, and I thought it was bad at my school when they changed Easter and Christmas (those names being too 'religious") break to "Spring" and "Winter" break.

The funny thing is my sister's school having a winter concert where the chioir sing about Jesus and stuff. It is pretty funny because it is a public school and even the rest of the year they have a few religious type songs in the works. I guess nobody writes secular music for choir.

Here's how my church perceives Halloween, and how it should be handled:

"At the mention of Halloween, many people conjure up memories of mom helping them put on their costumes; going out into the chill evening under a full moon for trick-or-treating; soaping a few windows; kicking over a few jack-o’ lanterns; and wearily returning home with bags, mouths and stomachs stuffed with sweet prizes.

Not everybody gets that warm, nostalgic feeling however. “I think it is the most abhorrent thing in the world,” says Texan Tom Sanguinet.

Sanguinet is not Ebenezer Scrooge come two months early. His contempt for Halloween rises out of his familiarity with its origins. Until about two years ago, Sanguinet was a leader of the Newbern, N.C., -based Church of Wicca. He left that organization shortly after his conversion to Christianity.

“Christmas, we’ve kind of overtoned the pagan thing (the Roman Saturnalia, for instance),” Sanguinet said. “Easter, well we still greatly honor (the Middle Eastern pagan goddess) Astarte with her silly little eggs.”

“But Halloween is purely and absolutely nothing but Satanic. It in no way glorifies God. It in no way deifies God. It in no way recognizes God. It’s so absolutely evil that there’s nothing we’ve ever been able to do that would bring it into acceptability,” Sanguinet added.

The modern holiday we call Halloween - the name is a contracted form of “All Hallows’ Evening,” the night before the Roman Catholic holiday of All Saints Day - has its origins in the pagan holiday of “Samhain,” which, according to Sanguinet, is the night of the full moon closest to November 1, the witches’ New Year.

In the Dark Ages, Christian missionaries evangelizing pagans in northern Europe and Britain tried to ease the religious transition by blending church holidays with pagan observances. In the case of Halloween - or Samhain - the pagan observances were particularly frightening.

“Samhain is the time that the Druids (pagans who lived in northern France) used to demand their yearly sacrifice from the countryside. This sacrifice was actually to be a communicating link between the spirit realm and the earthbound realm,” Sanguinet said.

The Druids would go to a castle or a house and would demand a female for sacrifice,” Sanguinet said, “and upon receiving their demand would leave a jack-o’ lantern there as a sign of good luck for the year.”

The price of refusing to give in to the Druids’ demands was high, Sanguinet said. “They (the Druids) would leave a hexagram on the door and usually someone would die. It was either give up a common female or lose your firstborn son,” he said.

That tradition is carried on in present Halloween practices. “The candy is replacing the sacrifice. You are giving out candy - in essence you are still giving out an appeasement: trick or treat, sacrifice, be blessed or be hexed. “When they give out Halloween candy, they are in essence giving sacrifice to false gods. They are participators in idolatry,” Sanguinet said.

In fact, Sanguinet even sees the fruits of the tradition manifested in the recent trend of Halloween tragedies - poisoned candy, razor blades in apples, drugs slipped into youngsters’ bags.

“It’s always been a day of death and revelry. It’s always been a day of death for the common people.”

The Christian response to Halloween is simple, Sanguinet said. He recommends witnessing to trick-or-treating children and parents who might be supervising them. “It’s a good night to be in church or Bible study, too,” Sanguinet added."

However, I disagree.

Not with what Halloween means, but how it is handled.

I am ok with my kids dressing up, and getting candy.

My reasoning is that they are educated about what Halloween stands for, and are secure in knowing that what they are doing is NOT supporting the ceremonies and desires of those participating in sacrifices, or "Samhain".

It is simply for fun, and means nothing more than that.

I am not convicted that this is a negative thing for my children to participate in.

Belief is integral, and there really are no references in the Bible in regards to not allowing our children to eat candy in large quantities. http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif)

[This message has been edited by Digital_Savior (edited 10-19-2004).]

quote:Originally posted by madamwench:

Yeah it was in the Bible check proverbs.

Wrong. "I think therefore I am" is not uttered in Proverbs.

He's right.

Nor it is uttered anywhere else in the bible... am I correct?

Right again.

quote:Originally posted by LutherX:

yeah, my kid's school is having a dress-up day and a parade, but God-forbid they don't call it anything even remotely close to Halloween. It's "character dress-up day", where they have to pick a character from their favorite book and bring the book with them to school. Bullshit. No ghouls, ghosts, or goblins in that parade.



Sure you can! Send him as a devil, with his favorite book being the bible! NO administrator would have the balls to touch this, and it would be a nightmare for them, as any decision, or lack of, would simaltanously offend christans and non-christans.

Digital, for once you said something that no-one can say is overtly stereotypical-Christian. I am proud of you. I've been trying to say for a while that you weren't some crazy nut.

quote:Originally posted by tibberous:

Sure you can! Send him as a devil, with his favorite book being the bible! NO administrator would have the balls to touch this, and it would be a nightmare for them, as any decision, or lack of, would simaltanously offend christans and non-christans.

I laughed myself sick at that one. That is ballzy. I'm from a strongly religious corner of Iowa. If I sent my kid to school that way...I can't stop laughing...its the non-conformist in me.

who cares? I read an article somewhere that said that christmas might not have been in the winter but on september 29 (@ least jesus' birthday). Same with haloween, the feast of lupericus (valentines day) in ancient roman times the teenage kids would draw names of the oppisite gender outof a box and it would be literally a fuckfest. Who cares if they want to celebrate wicca let em just dont take any chicks beacuse thats just wrong.

quote:Originally posted by NightVision:

who cares? I read an article somewhere that said that christmas might not have been in the winter but on september 29 (@ least jesus' birthday). Same with haloween, the feast of lupericus (valentines day) in ancient roman times the teenage kids would draw names of the oppisite gender outof a box and it would be literally a fuckfest. Who cares if they want to celebrate wicca let em just dont take any chicks beacuse thats just wrong.

Jesus was born in June.

Or so theologians have stated time and again.

quote:Originally posted by Gorloche:

Digital, for once you said something that no-one can say is overtly stereotypical-Christian. I am proud of you. I've been trying to say for a while that you weren't some crazy nut.

Do I seem like a crazy nut ?

I have convictions, and they are directly related to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

I don't see how that makes me a zealot.

You say you've been trying to say I am not a nutcase for a while now, yet this is the first time I have ever seen you post. (not that you haven't before, I have just never seen you)

If most people knew me in the real world, they would think very differently of me.

I am actually quite likeable (from what I hear http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif) ), and I don't go around spouting scriptures all day.

When it is relevant, I speak about it.

I try to model my life after the example of Christ, but fail miserably everyday.

Here in MGCBTSOOYG, it is ALWAYS relevant to talk about God, thus creating the illusion that I am fanatical.



But thank you.

I think there was a compliment in there somwhere. http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/biggrin.gif)