Halloween Horrors

Date Published: 10/27/2009

In 35 years of ministry in 4 congregations I have navigated through a variety of approaches and responses of Christians to Halloween. I’d have to say I grew up treating Halloween as a harmless, fun fantasy day for children. The masquerade of evil and death was not taken seriously. Everybody knew it was pretend. But along the way people in the churches I have served have ranged from “this is a dangerous, evil opening to the occult so we don’t even acknowledge Halloween” to “trick-or-treating is dangerous and we don’t trust our neighbors so we offer a safe alternative at church” from “the church can have a costume party for youth but give it a safe theme such as dress up as your favorite Bible character” to “Halloween is a chance to teach about the hope of resurrection so people are not afraid of death.” But none of these congregations tried scare-‘em-out-of-hell haunted house evangelism. I did, however, hear a lot of complaining that Christians who tried to give a cautionary spin to Halloween were killjoys who should just give it up.

My Wisconsin grandchildren are trick-or-treating this year as R2D2 and a pink panda. I haven’t heard from my Pennsylvania grandchildren yet. From grandparently distance in another part of the country, it seems that my grandchildren are getting more-or-less the harmless fun approach I grew up with. As I see the elaborate displays and parties done by some families and in some neighborhoods (and the stretch some churches make to do an alternative), I have found myself musing about my current feelings about Halloween.

Over my years of pastoral ministry I have come to recognize the reality of evil and the damage it does. I’m sure some folk use Halloween as an excuse for some level of evil from destructive mischief to pursuing occult power. Maybe making fun of evil in its most grotesque forms disarms it as well or better than direct confrontation. Might this even be an affirmation of confidence that the forces of evil are no match for Jesus?

I have accompanied many people to the last days of this life and have conducted many funerals. I have witnessed the dramatic differences in the ways people respond to death. I am not so naïve as to suggest that all people of faith die calmly and those without faith die in dread. However, I do know that the Christian hope of resurrection to eternal life is a powerful antidote to fear. A lot of the fear provoking features of horror movies and haunted houses are based on faulty understandings of what happens when people die: ghosts, zombies, vampires, and even angels. Can caricatures of these things expose their unreality in a way that affirms the hope of the resurrection to eternal life?

I’m not at all sure I know the answers to these questions. I expect some of you may react to what I have written with “you’re playing with fire” and others may respond “don’t be so serious.” My purpose is not resolution but to stimulate conversation. If you have thoughts about Halloween, I invite you to reply to this blog. Pass it on to others who might be interested in putting in their two cents. We might all learn something.