The Religious, the Secular and Halloween
The religious sector from the different states of America have hounded the celebration of Halloween for many years. The commemoration was often linked to “evil” or “anti-Christ” activities. Halloween was maligned more than other public events in the US.
Why The Bad Rap?
Nowadays, the word ’satanic’ has become ambiguous in churchly domains. If the Western Christian belief was summarized, then the devil’s picture would appear to be anything that did not look Christian.
Imagine looking at a vast horizon from within a small room. Because you don’t understand the outside world, the vast horizon is dangerous. The whole horizon is the devil. This may be confirmed by studying the evolution of the image of the devil through the centuries.
Should Halloween Be Removed From Institutions Totally?
Due to irreligious Halloween schemes such as various images considered irreverent and demonic, religious authorities have been wanting to completely eradicate Halloween celebrations in schools.
That meant if you believed in such ideas, you may then think children who dress up with masks and outfits for the occasion were being incorporated as alliances to Satan. Ridiculous as it seem, these churches had large followings.
Secular Reaction
Despite the accusations, there were groups of people who did not sympathize with the fanatical religious beliefs. Based on the Atlanta Constitution, a newspaper:
“Halloween may have begun as a pagan festival, but in the United States it was now a festival of fun, feasts, fancy frocks, and frivolous fright. Ours is not just a Christian nation, but a nation born from the search of religious freedom. Let the kids have some fun.”
Because of such strong, critical views of Halloween, the celebration has been saved from unjust persecution and complete immolation.
Fighting back, more and more
The voices of the people have prevailed, and because of this, religious parties have taken extreme measures just to ensure that they have their own say as to how Halloween celebrations should be carried out. Such communities may not really know what to do.
They react based on the superficial circumstances and not to the deeper structures; and thus, they fail to address the problem. Anyway, these reactionary communities try to combat Halloween by doing the exact opposite of modern Halloween practices.
For instance, adults dress their kids with clothes that exude vibrancy instead of ones that suggest darkness or despondency, and these pious adults may revise the standard haunted house with their own innovations.
One good example of this is the Trinity Christian School in Texas. The said school has been known to set up a Hell House on a yearly basis. The Hell House provokes the usual schemes and themes in renowned culture such as:
- Drug-ridden raves
- Pre-marital sex
- Homosexuality
- Family cruelty
- School shootings
The point of all this is to lead children and bewildered teenagers to so-called paths of righteousness. Are they effective? To a certain degree, they are. Because out of 75,000 individuals who have been recorded at one time, about 15,000 have become members of the community.
These are the most modern weapons of evangelism today; apart from the presence on the World Wide Web.
Tags: Halloween