Why We Do Not Do Halloween

By Rev. Benjamin P. Glaser - Posted at Mountains and Magnolias:

As the chief grumpy pants of 506 East Ivy Street I am often asked (and then eye-rolled) why my wife and I no longer allow our kids to participate in the American holiday of Halloween. In this post I want, in good Presbyterian fashion, to give a biblical and confessional defense for this decision which runs against the grain of 98% of our nation’s culture and as I already noted leaves many folks kind of shaking their heads in the usual “you silly fundy taking all the fun out of life” ways. So while this post is a bit self-depricating in recognizing how out of kilter my family and I are with the world, it is just another way out of several practices that this is the case.

And on that point I do want to make a comment about the “counter-cultural” nature of this position. There is a segment of my side of the Reformed world that is in constant need to “out Reform” others and this leads to a desire to take on more and more unique positions merely for their novelty and then reverse engineer ones thoughts to undergird this new found doctrine. Adopting positions to seem more holy than another or because “we used to do that before everything got liberal so it must be good” is not in keeping with the inward devotion to the law of God which must always be the reason for the love one shows to the commandments of Christ. Outward obedience for worldly reward is just as dangerous as the open and secret violations of the command of the Lord. We must be on guard against this.

(And while I say this on the column to the left I will reiterate that this position on Halloween is not the teaching of our local church or of my denomination in any way shape or form, but it is my own personal conviction on this particular matter.)

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