What is the appropriate Christian response to Halloween?
Many see their options as either celebrating Halloween and feel guilty for indulging in an increasingly dark holiday, or abstaining completely from Halloween and feel guilty for abandoning an opportunity to witness for Christ.
In Redeeming Halloween, author Kim Wier works from the premise that Christians should see Halloween as an opportunity for witnessing. She understands the trepidation some parents feel about letting their kids observe Halloween. Kim challenges us to keep one thing in mind.
“Don’t do things out of fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Light casts out darkness. If you are doing things because you’re afraid, then you need to stop, you need to commit that to prayer, and you need to be able to act in confidence with whatever that action is.”
She says instead of seeing it for what the culture makes it out to be, Christians really should remind themselves about the true reason for Halloween, or All Saint’s Day:
“If Christ were to be removed from Christmas…90% of culture would experience Christmas no different than they do today. In a way, there is a parallel to Halloween. They’re both very commercial, they both at the root have a Christian faith message, and they both were instituted by the church. And yet they both today resemble very little of how the church created them: to be days of faith.”
Kim insists that parents and church leaders find ways to purposefully engage in Halloween. One way, she says, is to actually do some homework and develop an understanding of the roots of the traditions associated with Halloween. It was started by the church, and to use
Halloween can be an opportunity to learn from the stories of Christian martyrs and the ongoing martyrdom of Christians all over the world.
In whatever way you choose to observe or celebrate Halloween, examine your intentions and always point the world, and your neighborhoods back to Jesus:
“There’s nothing in this world Christ can’t redeem…why would we abandon one day on the calendar, as if Christ’s redeeming power isn’t strong enough for Halloween?”
