I am not trying to be insulting, not in the least. Neither do I intend to diminish the damage or suffering incurred by those who mess with the occult…but blaming Halloween for your brother’s involvement, if that link is tenuous or inaccurate, only serves to diminish your witness.
It makes perfect sense that you have a personal aversion to Halloween as a result of your suffering, but it does not follow that Halloween, those who participate in it, or those who disagree with your feelings on it should become the target of your angst.
My family has suffered because of alcohol abuse, but I do not demonize alcohol or those who consume it because of my own negative experience. The occult is negative in any form, but Halloween as a modern phenomenon is not occult. I completely agree that those who use Halloween as an excuse to dabble in such practices are making a serious mistake…but writing off the entire holiday as evil and satanic will not convince anyone to heed our warnings. We are much more likely to reach people in that regard if we demonstrate that we are informed rational people who can think clearly on the matter and make the logical distinction between kids dressing up, and munching candy…and the self-styled Satanist who sacrifices the family cat for kicks! Learning the true history of Halloween will only strengthen your witness…your current stance sounds biased and narrow minded, is that the impression you want to project?
Children are not partaking of evil by dressing up and going trick-or-treating, though I would certainly discourage the darker themes. My children where cute fuzzy animals last year, super -heroes and a knight this year. They don’t like the scary stuff because I and my wife take the time to communicate our values to them every day…not just once a year.
Surely your brother’s negative choices cannot be blamed solely on one annual holiday? Perhaps if you or your family had done a little more research earlier on, your brother could have been warned of the real dangers of rebellion, in all its forms. I’m not trying to discount the truth of your experience; on the contrary, I am trying to encourage you to actively seek deeper truth for your own benefit. Put your experience in proper focus and grow from it instead of being crippled by the fear and pain it left behind.
If God is in control, then you have nothing to fear. By giving evil more credit than it is due you only empower it all the more. Fearful Christians who demonize Halloween, in my experience, usually provoke foolish skeptics to dabble in the dangers all the more just to prove how silly all us prudish Christians are.
Having an intelligent conversation with a non-believer about the real history of the holiday has often provided me with a firm basis to discuss the reality of true evil, and how we can avoid it and make better choices. Chasing demons out from every rock is one of the fastest ways I know to undermine any opportunity to witness or be a positive influence.
In love and respect,
s.h.
.a smile is a bonus.
