A Loyal Rebel

Musings of a theology geek, pastor and follower of Christ who loves his church but has a few questions along the way.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Secular Holidays and the Christian Church

We're Taking Over! 

You read that right.  No more Mr. Nice Guy.  We’re taken over and doing things our way,  … Halloween of course.  Why…, what did you think I was talking about?

From the very beginning of Christianity we have been confronted with all sorts of pagan holidays and celebrations.  Over the centuries there have been a lot of different responses to this problem.  Some have chosen the middle ground, ignore it and it will go away approach. 
On my tired days this seems best.  Others have chosen the adversarial, attack and destroy approach.  On my grouchy days I have been drawn to this plan.  However, the most effective and often used approach is the “take it over and turn it into what we want” method.   Did you know Christmas used to be a pagan holiday and Easter as well?   I propose we take over another pagan holiday, Halloween! 

This year we will again be offering “Trunk or Treat” on our parking lot on October 31st.  We offer a safe place for families to dress up, laugh, eat too much candy and have a great time.  This is exactly the opposite of Halloween which was all about intimidating, scaring and generally causing mayhem.   Some wonder if we should participate but for me it is all about imposing a Christ like agenda on a pagan practice.  We invite people to come and see our costumes and decorations.  We give them candy, take their picture, let them play games and share conversation with them.  In short… we love them in real practical ways.  – yep, we are pushing our Christian agenda , loving  people. 

 So come on, join me in my conspiracy…. Dress up in a funny consume, dress your car up, open your trunk, give out candy to kids and let our community know we love them…. Come on… you know you want to…


-          Craig.