Most Americans are Christian. This country was set up by our founding fathers with a Christian foundation. As God fearing Christians, Jews, and Muslims we try to keep evil (in whatever form) away from out children.
Drug abuse is evil. Sexual perversion is evil. The seven deadly sins (gluttony, etc) are evil. Devil worship is certainly evil. But Halloween "trick or treat?" Not really. We've all heard about various pagan rituals that started hundreds even thousands of years ago. The celebration of Halloween night does, in fact, come from a pagan origin. Halloween was a holiday about goddess worship (I worship my wife... does that count?).
Halloween also became a day when witches celebrated the festival of the dead. It also became the day when Satanists celebrated death. So, Halloween became very important to several cults. With all of that in mind, I have some questions. Do young children know this history of Halloween? Do they care? No. Our children see it as a night of "make believe" and a chance to go beg for candy.You and I saw this practice the same way when we were young (oh so many years ago).
Now, it does become the responsibility of all of us to let our teens and young adults know that devil worship and the use of ouija boards, tarot cards, fortune telling, and astrology are all false gods. These are things to stay away from. Many of these items are looked at as entertainment to start with but for some people it becomes serious. When friends and relatives start to believe that these things have some bearing on their lives, they have crossed into the twilight zone.
But collecting candy or going to a costume party? It becomes the duty of parents to separate the paganism from the fun.
Phil McMillan is a writer who maintains a daily blog entitled "Baby Boomer Baloney" http://www.babyboomerbaloney.com.
Phil McMillan
http://www.babyboomerbaloney.com
ptmcmillan@gmail.com
