Every Halloween I marvel at the number of complaints “Christians” lodge against the holiday. For me, these complaints and concerns are indications of a) a lack of faith, b) a lack of knowledge of history, and c) the failure of the Christian church to be the church. Halloween is not a worship of Satan. Halloween is not an invitation to the forces of darkness. Halloween is not a blasphemy. Halloween is a multicultural expression of the triumph of God’s goodness over evil. Oh, yes, and Halloween is an excuse to dress up so that you can pillage the neighborhood for candy and treats, as well as do a little ICE agent hide-behind-the-masks vandalism and mischief.

Lack of faith. Simple question: is God greater than evil or is evil greater than God? If you choose the first, Halloween is a non-issue. It is only people who think evil greater than God who have anything to fear. I am always intrigued by supposed people of faith who cannot talk about anything but evil, sin, the devil, hell, and demons. Belief in God offers absolutely no comfort or strength to such people. I remember two women from my first appointment who proclaimed themselves paragons of the faith, but when we hosted a Haunted Church for the community for Halloween both these ladies lost their faith because Satan had taken over. We were inviting the devil in. We were opening ourselves to the forces of evil. We were corrupting young, impressionable minds. Actually, we were doing nothing of the kind because the true leaders of the congregation believed in God and simply had no fear that any other force was greater than God was. It was impossible for us to knuckle under to fear because we had faith, and we wanted to offer something of joy and whimsy to the community. We weren’t inviting evil in. We were making a mockery of it, laughing at the very idea that the devil was anywhere near as powerful as God, and giving out some great tricks as well as treats as a community church. I cannot fathom a person who truly knows Christ ever having a problem with something as silly as Halloween. And yet, it persists. I am so sad for people whose faith is so fragile.

Many cultural manifestations of Halloween or its equivalent have their roots in a celebration of good over evil, of death as a passage from suffering to paradise, and a mockery of those who live in fear rather than faith. Glamours, images, and masks make fun of dark things, not honor them. Even acting out acts of mischief are symbolic pranks reinforcing the idea that bad things happen, but they are not the end of the world. Have people taken things too far? Have people crossed lines from pranks to outright vandalism and destruction? Yes, but that says more about them than it does about Halloween. Take a few minutes to Google the relationship of Halloween to All Saints. Halloween (Samhain) wasn’t welcoming evil spirits, it was ridiculing them. It was chasing away the dark forces to make way for the spirits of light and life. Christians didn’t oppose such festivals; it endorsed and celebrated them!

Why is our culture so enamored of the dark side? We love our horror movies, but they have done more to perpetuate myths and empower evil than to dissuade it. There is something in all of us that resonates with the spooky, whether we love it or hate it. But fear it? Why? If the Christian faith had done its work over the centuries, we would still enjoy a good scare, but we wouldn’t actually hold any fear of the boogeyman. Why? Because we believe in God. If we have God, there is nothing to fear. There is no power greater. Laugh at the devil and he/she/they will flee from you. Walk in the light and darkness has absolutely no power over you. Love Christ, and there is no sin, no evil, no fear that can exert any influence on you. Fear is nothing more than a metric of a lack of faith.

The impact of horror movies, novels, stories, and television depends on making evil a whole lot more scary and powerful than it actually is. But they are fiction. Those storytellers lacking the ability to chill with plot and words resort to gore and violence, which is sad and only further muddies the water. I read a number of online posts from “Christians” attacking Halloween again this year and thought, “How sad. I hope and pray that these people do not pass on their lack of faith to their children, and that their kids can grow up with a real faith that makes all these fears and foibles nothing more than just plain silly.