The Halloween Culture War

[Samhain]

Which Church are we talking about here, because let me tell ya, it's not the just the Christians who have a problem with Halloween. In fact, most of the Christians I know DO celebrate the holiday. True, there are some people who look down on it, but it's not fair to single one religion out for that. In fact, a group of wiccans have gotten Halloween banned in at least one school.
http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4136266.html
I'm pretty sure there are groups of muslims and jewish people who don't like Halloween, either.

[iHaunt]

I really do not like "Halloween War" at all myself because I don't like to cause any fightings, flamings, threatenings, and against anyone who dislikes Halloween holidays!

I have to avoid any Halloween War here. Thanks for understanding.

[LivingDeadGrl666]

Which Church are we talking about here, because let me tell ya, it's not the just the Christians who have a problem with Halloween. In fact, most of the Christians I know DO celebrate the holiday. True, there are some people who look down on it, but it's not fair to single one religion out for that. In fact, a group of wiccans have gotten Halloween banned in at least one school.
http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4136266.html
I'm pretty sure there are groups of muslims and jewish people who don't like Halloween, either.

I'm sorry for singleing a certain religion out like that. I know that it's not fair to seperate people out because of religion, many people who have many different religiouns dislike halloween because of the fact that teenagers and other people ruin it for them. I love the spirit of the day/night. Hopefully my neihbors won't ruin it for us.

[Samhain]

Which Church are we talking about here, because let me tell ya, it's not the just the Christians who have a problem with Halloween. In fact, most of the Christians I know DO celebrate the holiday. True, there are some people who look down on it, but it's not fair to single one religion out for that. In fact, a group of wiccans have gotten Halloween banned in at least one school.
http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4136266.html
I'm pretty sure there are groups of muslims and jewish people who don't like Halloween, either.

I'm sorry for singleing a certain religion out like that. I know that it's not fair to seperate people out because of religion, many people who have many different religiouns dislike halloween because of the fact that teenagers and other people ruin it for them. I love the spirit of the day/night. Hopefully my neihbors won't ruin it for us.

I wasn't trying to chew anybody out, so please don't take what I said the wrong way.
Christians seem to take the brunt of it when it comes to backlash over the culture war nowadays, but that's not really fair. There are plenty of religions out there whose believers frown on Halloween. But like I said earlier, most of the Christians I know around here (Southern Indiana), DO celebrate Halloween. They take their children trick or treating and party just like the rest of us. To them it's just a fun holiday, not anything to be taken seriously.
There are some who object, of course, and they get all the attention.

[Pumpkin_Man]

For some reason, when you have a highly vocal group of people who take a negative attitude towards something, they get all the attention. I do know of a few Christian Fundamentalists who are against Hallloween. I also ahve met people from various non Christian belief systems who are equaly against Halloween. But the BIGGEST ENEMY of Halloween is not religion. It's fear mongering. Just think about it. How many of you on this forum live in towns where TOTing is limited to certain hours? My town allows for 3 or 4 hours of TOT, and that law is very strictly enforced. Why? Because people are afraid that their kids are going to ring the wrong door bell and meet up with the wrong sort of person. Because elderly people are afraid that if they answer the door, they might be broken in on and robbed. Because parents are worried about apples with razor blades in them, or candy that's tainted with various poisens.

Halloween is a night for a good scare, but there is a difference between a good Halloween scare in good fun, and living in fear. Every time you turn on the news, you hear about a child that was kidnapped, a drive by shooting, or some other horible event that causes people to live in fear. Our governent uses that fear to pass laws that limit our freedoms as a result. Too many people were injured by fireworks, so let's have a law against fireworks. Criminals use guns to committ crimes so let's take guns away from the law abiding people. Trick or Treating on Halloween is dangerous, so let's limit the hours, or ban it out right. Let's pass laws against putting up a real Christmas tree, because it's a fire hazzard. The condo where my nephew lives has such a rule. Thanks to the Condo association and the insurance company, my nephew is only allowed to put up an artificial tree in a condo that HE OWNS. Fear mongering.

Fear mongering is costing us all of our freedoms, destroying a lot of our traditions, and once gone, we may never see these freedoms again. So it might be a good idea to know what the real danger to Halloween is.

Mike

[Samhain]

I think a lot of times safety is used as an excuse. The reason our local elementary school gave for no longer having Halloween parties is that they believed children being costumed posed a thread to their safety since they couldn't be readily identified. I call b.s on that. They've had Halloween celebrations during school for at least forty years there and never once had anything bad happened. The real reason is that they simply do not want to risk anyone complaining about Halloween or any other activity being allowed school that might result in someone getting upset. I don't think they even do the Pledge of Allegience anymore. It's gotten to the point of absurdity.

[DemonSlayerMau]

Well, what I hate about where I live is that it's illegal to own or buy fireworks.
I never really see it too well enforced, until last fourth of july they said on the news that anyone having their own private displays would be arrested.
I'm sorry, but no fireworks is unamerican! Yes, people get hurt, be gee whiz, they should at least allow someone to have some kind of fireworks permit when they turn 18 or something.
At least by that age, you should be responsible enough to know that fire works are dangerous if you mishandle them!
All it takes is one bad thing to happen and people try to take it away.
It's the same thing with trick or treating. You always make sure to check your candy before you eat it. My cousin actually had a razor blade cut her tongue once. You just never know, but you can't let one bad thing ruin the whole event. Yes, people are evil, but if you check the candy, and go to houses you know, or at least feel confident that the neighborhood is safe, then go for it. I know when I was little, we'd check my candy. I've never had any problems.
The only bad trick or treating experiance I had was when I was with my dad and it rained and my costume fell apart. It was one of those cheap plastic ones. But it had nothing to do with something bad happening as a result of poisened or candy that had a razor blade in it.
Always check to see if the candy was ripped open, or if there's any needle points in it.
Also, I personally wouldn't trust someone's homemade candy simply because..you never know. Unless you absolutely trust said person.
But to ban it altogether is down right ridiculous.

[Pumpkin_Man]

[color=#FF40 That's how our freedoms are eroded. It's all in the name of safety or 'political correctness.' In Illinois we are actualy allowed to have some fireworks, but none of the really good stuff. In my town we have traditional Trick or Treating on Halloween (thank the Lord) but the hours are limited and very strictly enforced.

I'm seriously considering moving to Indiana when I retire from my present job.

Mike

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[crimson_autumn]

This is something that bothers me as well. I am an avid Christian (although these days, the word 'Christian' has so many negative connotations....let's just got with "follower of Christ) and I LOVE Halloween! I consider it my favorite holiday. I didn't realize how "weird" that is until I moved to a predominantly Christian town (the town is home to a Christian University) for college. Now that I've lived here two years out of college, I notice the lack of Halloween decorations, and it makes me SO sad. I was the ONLY house decorated on our entire row of neighborhood last year, and we only received a handful of trick or treaters (the majority of which weren't actually in costumes).

It makes me sad for Halloween this year. I miss where I grew up in IL (in a predominantly Catholic town) where it was festive and wonderful.

[Autumnal_whispers]

I was raised as a Baptist, but I don't remember the positions of too many of the different churches that I went to. The one was full of snobby hypocrites that wouldn't even let my parents become members of the church because my dad was previously married, so that was a "sin." Even my aunt wasn't allowed to become a member because she divorced her PHYSICALLY ABUSIVE husband. So yeah, needless to say I detest that church. Or course they were the ones that hated Halloween and claimed it was the devil's holiday, and they made my mom tell me that Santa wasn't real because "Christmas is ONLY to celebrate the birth of Jesus." I'd like to see how those people would react after seeing my today: Piercings everywhere and a godless heathen. lol If only I went back when I had my short pink hair...

Anyway, this other church I went to was a Lutheran church with my best friend, and I LOVED it there. They were so laid back and actually preached acceptance, not hatred. Also, these people loved Halloween and even got some cars together so we could all go to this local haunted hayride and haunted house.

So now I don't even have a religion. I'm just a peaceful atheist.

[hippieluvn]

rightwing christian fundamentalists (let's be honest and admit who we're all talking about here) won't be attacking halloween this year they're too busy: assassinating abortion providers; enabling the deaths of millions of their fellow americans who are living without healthcare; spreading their hate and neo-mccarthyism; and yelling at the top of their lungs at the big, bad black man in washington, blaming him for their lot in life



these people make me sick there is absolutely nothing christian about their behavior in fact, it is the antithesis of christianity - imho, as a former catholic seminarian jesus is supposed to be their shepherd, not fox noise