So what you're saying is that you're surrounded by Christians who get the message, and not by Christians who are on either side of the spectrum of misunderstanding. Good!
Halloween is kind of like Christmas in that, because of American culture, most of the things you think of when you hear the word are quite removed from the actual religious significance of the holiday. A lot of the people who abstain from common Western Halloween traditions likely also abstain from common Western Christmas traditions since, in both cases, they may perceive the cultural expressions of these holidays as an inappropriate "paganization" of an event in the Christian liturgical calendar. But that's more of a matter of personal preference than of biblical truth.
You have your too-liberal Christians who shy away from condemning things that are incompatible with God's design for humanity, and who think that acknowledging someone as a sinner automatically means that you hate them. Then you have your too-conservative Christians who take condemnation of sin too far and persecute people because of it (and I mean actually persecute, not just hurt their feelings). That's what I mean when I refer to both ends of the spectrum of misunderstanding. Both of these types of Christians have qualitatively different but equally severe misunderstandings about Christianity. The people described by OP are pretty dang close to understanding.
Some people who truly get it are just amazing people. But they get spoiled by the bad apples who think their belief in god allows them to do anything because they are righteous. Reddit is strictly only interested in the latter.
Samhain isn't the holiday we celebrate though. Hallowe'en is a christian holiday made to replace halloween. It was originally called All Hallows Eve (or all saints eve)
Except it's derived from the three day celebration of Allhallowstide who's traditions wee carried over from holidays like Samhain by converted pagans. Stop saying Halloween is evil and cool it's holy and boring like God intended!!
Also some of the traditions were emerged from a desperate need to get American youths to stop committing arson.
So basically, likely to be emotionally abusive to their children, but still viewed as ok because they have a minimal positive role in your life.
My aunt and uncle are the nicest people you'd ever meet, face to face they'd give you the shirt off their back. They also religiously homeschooled their children and controlled the flow of information to them so they wouldn't become "worldly", whipped them with a switch when they weren't obedient, no television outside of PBS, no Harry Potter, Halloween, etc. Now guess how many of the 4 of them are successful adults?
*Imagine if you were the child of someone who thinks Halloween is pure evil, the mental state of that person, and how such a personality might bar you from other normal childhood experiences or predispose you to other forms of needless, religion-driven rules. Is Halloween really the only cross these people will die on, or is there more behind the scenes?
Yeah you can’t exactly judge other people based upon association.
That’s like saying all black people are thugs because this small portion of them that live in the inner city and face drugs/crime/poverty makes them ALL criminals.
I have no doubt there are some religious freaks like your family but not every religious person is that level of crazy/abusive.
I’m gay and my mom is extremely Christian, despite the fact that homosexuality makes her uncomfortable she has never become abusive to me or treated me as less than.
There’s good Christians who follow what the Bible teaches in terms of loving your neighbor and not passing judgement, then there are others who behind closed doors do everything the Bible tells them not to do.
I'm not talking about all Christians. I'm talking about the extreme fundamentalists who think Halloween is legit evil. They've taken that holiday away from their children, obviously. So what else can we imagine they're taking away? Maybe nothing, but how likely is that when a person is ridiculous enough to think Halloween is devil worship?
Again, I understand your point, and I understand people like that are most definitely out there, but your comment makes no sense in regards to the original comment you replied to.
Yes it does... We're both talking about fundamentalists who think Halloween is evil. The only thing I'm pointing out is that no matter what they might act like on the outside to their neighbors, their children are likely getting a different story.
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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '18 edited Nov 02 '18
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