Ramblings on Halloween

After reading John Sanidopoulos blog about Halloween, my mind was stirred about the subject. I have already let my feelings on the subject be known in a post called “Halloween” on 25 October 2008
(http://chrisconjectures.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween.html). I am not going to rehash that post or try to improve upon John’s post. Rather, I just want to post some random thoughts on the subject.

I am at present a pastor of a Protestant church. Therefore, I am compelled to deal with this question much more frequently than I care to. When I was growing up, there were never any problems. We had our Church Halloween parties complete with costumes, apple bobbing, hayrides, and tons of candy. I even remember that one year our church had a haunted room (which was not very scary—more like haunted comedy).

Now the shocker, I have not turned into a devil-worshipper, an animal sacrificer, nor a child poisoner. I am not a Satanist, a Wiccan, a pagan, or a Druid. I do not associate with nor am I in league with Anton LaVey, Beelzebub, Samhain, nor any other pagan or neopagan deity, spirit, or practitioner. Wow, it is hard to believe, is it not?

I have often wondered why some of the folks that are the most opposed to Halloween are also opposed to Christmas and Easter celebrations. Then again, there is not much mystery there because they want to avoid all things pagan or with pagan origins. Nevertheless, they are strangely inconsistent in that they still call the days of the week and the months of the year by their pagan names.

Then there is the group that celebrates Easter and Christmas (ignoring the dire warnings from the aforementioned group about the pagan origins of said holidays) but won’t have anything to do with Halloween because it is pagan. This bunch celebrates Easter or the Resurrection on the Day of the Invincible Sun and avoids Halloween because of paganism.

This phenomenon highlights a contention that I have held for many years: logical consistency is not valued by religious right type folks. I could also point out the same odd inconsistency in them screaming for their “religious freedoms” and being more than willing to deprive others of theirs. They want to be able to pray to the Protestant God in schools but wouldn’t dare allow a Buddhist to offer prayers (but all that’s for another post).

Can we go too far? Of course. But I cannot see how it is different to desensitize kids to violence by allowing them to go to a spook house or watch a horror film and allowing them to be desensitized by visiting Hell House or the like. If the problem is desensitization both are equally problematic.

As far as horror films go, I will say there are some that should be avoided. Most of the older films, however, are almost preachy in that good triumphs over evil in the end. No matter how much success the monster or villain has in the course of the film, he/she is soundly defeated in the end. They can be viewed as parables of sorts (much as some see the Harry Potter movies). Even if the evil cannot be permanently stopped (or keeps coming back) that teaches that evil is always with us and even when it is defeated it must be defeated repeatedly. The real monsters are the ones that live in us and it’s for certain they have to be repeatedly vanquished.

I didn’t like Stephen King until I started viewing them as commentaries on social issues (The Shining as a commentary on alcoholism, Carrie on bullying and teenage angst, and Pet Sematary about the dangers of playing God with life and death). These stories are little different from morality plays of old when viewed like this.

In any case, these are my ramblings. Read, think, and react.