Harmless Fun?
Autumn has always been my favorite season but since the mid 1980s it has also been a time that has provoked feelings of sadness because it was at that time, three decades ago, that I listened to a program on Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio broadcast. The man who was interviewed spoke about the origins of Halloween and the horrid practices that continue to take place on that night. He felt it was his responsibility to inform parents and church leaders about the truth of the holiday that so many participate in and view as being harmless.
A year before I heard that interview, my husband took our children around our neighborhood with their plastic jack-o-lantern buckets tucked in their hands for their first Halloween experience. I expected our preschoolers to be thrilled at the prospect of dressing up in their costumes and calling, “Trick or Treat!” when our neighbors opened their doors, so I was surprised when they didn’t seem at all happy and the only part of the evening that appeared to excite them was ridding themselves of their costumes the moment they returned to our home. We emptied the buckets onto our kitchen table and after they ate a couple of pieces of the candy, they brushed their teeth and made themselves ready for bed. After hearing their prayers and tucking them in, I remember that it took me a long time to fall asleep. I felt strangely convicted about the whole evening but couldn’t understand why. A year later, as the holiday approached again, my questions were answered. I was sickened as I stood in my kitchen that morning and heard what the man presented to Dr. Dobson. My husband and I repented that night and we ignored the holiday from that moment on.
Here we are, three decades later, living in an age of unparalleled information that we literally hold in our hands, yet it seems that nothing has changed. Parents still have to make decisions concerning what their children will and will not participate in. But what grieves me most is the number of churches that embrace this holiday of Satan. Where does the Bible ever say that we can mix things that are holy with the unholy and expect that God will be pleased? I’ve heard it said that it is an outreach to the community. My question is, at what cost? Is being the light of the world not enough to draw others to The Way, The Truth, and The Life? I cannot, would not, speak for another. But for myself and my children, I could not bear the thought of participating in the holiday and then one day looking into the eyes of the One who died and rose again to set me free from the god of the dead, and say, “You understood. Right?”
Sue Bendorf
Warsaw