1. Roger Spendlove says:

    I don’t celebrate Halloween, nor participate in any aspect of it, simply because it is a religious holiday for a religion I do not believe in nor follow. I don’t participate in it for the same reason I don’t do Kwanzaa or Ramadan.
    Some might argue that it is no longer a ~religious~ holiday, but I would counter that so long as even one human being knows its pagan religious roots, it will continue to be a day belonging to that pagan religion. And even if every living human forgot its roots, would the spiritual forces of evil conveniently relinquish their hold on what was always theirs?
    As a follower of Jesus Christ, participation in such a blatantly non-/anti-Christian celebration is wrong and harmful, not only to our “weaker brothers” but also to our non-believing brothers. The parallel to eating meat sacrificed to idols that Paul discussed in 1 Corinthians 8 (also in Acts 15:29 and 21:25, reinforcing the fact that this was a serious issue), is a near-perfect comparison.
    Although our freedom in Christ sets us free to do anything not directly immoral and forbidden by God, we are not to let our exercise of freedom cause a weaker brother to stumble. Participation in the things of Halloween sends a mixed message that could cause a less-mature Christian, and certainly a non-believer, to stumble.

    • Roger, thanks for sharing your conviction and the rationale behind it. You are certainly not alone in taking this approach. I do hope you understand that other Christian brothers and sisters don’t see it that way, and that the difference isn’t cause to break fellowship.

      BTW, I have sort of a “thing” about the meat sacrificed to idols issue. As the verses you noted from Acts indicate, this issue was by no means a “follow your conscience” kind of thing. Those early church leaders discussed and prayed and sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The issue is also something that came up to the letter to the church in Pergamum (Rev. 2:14)—“But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who … put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.”

      Far from being a matter that is unclear, eating meat offered to idols was a definite NO. What was at issue in Paul’s letters—first in the one you mentioned, and also in Romans is a) why the Christians were to abstain and b) how to look at a situation of someone who was so concerned with not eating meat to idols that he chose not to eat meat at all, or to investigate where every piece of meat came from, and even passed along his findings to other.

      The last scenario would be the closest to the debate over celebrating Halloween, I think, except we have no Scriptural directive not to participate in cultural activities. I think what we as believers do here really is up to each one of us to let the Holy Spirit lead us. And I think it’s good for us to think it out, to have reasons for what we do, not just to be blown along by the wind of what everyone else is doing.

      Becky

What do you think?