When I was a child, Halloween was my favorite holiday. I loved the spookiness of it, dressing up, and of course, the candy.
When I became a Christian, it became clear to me there was something wrong with this holiday.
Halloween is unlike other holidays. The entire point of it is to honor the dark forces of evil, or at least to minimize their danger. So how can we as Christians dress up our children and send them out solely to "celebrate" Satan and his demonic army?
I've had Christians argue with me, that it's harmless, and that if we adhered to this ethic, we'd have to give up Christmas and Easter too because ot their pagan origins. But no, I reply, Christmas and Easter, while certainly pagan in origin, have been completely co-opted by the Lord by substituting a celebration of his birth and Resurrection. We do struggle with the crass commercialization of both holidays, but most people understand the underpinnings of those holidays now as having a message about the gospel.
What "gospel message" does Halloween provide?
It can't, because it is all about the absence of Christ and the exaltation of Satan. It is deceptively clever in its charm, but make no mistake--that's the entire point.
So even though it took a while to get my family on board, we now use that night as a family night out. We go out to dinner and go shopping. Nothing big--just enough to let the kids know symbolically that there are bountiful rewards in remaining faithful to the Lord, even when the whole world doesn't understand.
I hate Halloween because I love the Lord.
