Dear Fount family,
Growing up, I celebrated Halloween by dressing up as a vast array of characters ranging from literal ninjas to Ninja Turtles, baseball players and firefighters. And I was also told that Halloween was the devil’s literal birthday by a youth pastor growing up. Maybe you were raised in a context where costumes and trick-or-treating were celebrated and encouraged—or maybe you weren’t allowed to even come in proximity with the holiday in an effort to abstain from anything that commemorated darkness and evil. My hope is that we would allow ourselves to have a balanced and biblical approach to nuanced topics like Halloween so that we can live in the liberty in which we’ve been given. In Galatians 5:1, Paul emphasizes that “for freedom, Christ has set us free.” In Christ, we are called to live both in freedom and with wisdom.
There’s been speculation that Halloween’s origins derive from the Gaelic festival Samhuin, which marked the end of the harvest season when people believed the boundary between the living and the dead thinned. However, there is zero historical evidence that supports this notion. In fact, Halloween's origins are largely tied to Christian traditions, particularly the medieval celebration of All Hallows' Eve, the evening before All Saints' Day on November 1st. This day was set aside to honor saints and martyrs, and it involved activities like dressing up, feasting, and praying for the dead. While it absorbed folk customs over time, Halloween was originally a Christian observance rather than a pagan holiday. What we know as Halloween today is even further removed from All Saints’ Day as it has primarily become a consumerist holiday centered around costumes, parties and candy. In fact, Halloween is the second largest day for candy sales in the US!
Considering this, it’s important to note that Christians and the Church are not immune to cultural topics that can cause confusion and, as a result, division. This is what we see when the Apostle Paul addresses the Corinthians in the first century. In Corinth, meat sacrificed in pagan temples was often sold in markets or served at meals, and many new Christians were troubled about whether eating such meat would compromise their faith. Paul clarifies that food itself holds no spiritual power to bring one closer to or separate them from God even if the food itself had been dedicated to pagan gods. He urged believers to focus on their personal conscience and the faith of others, emphasizing love and unity over legalistic concerns. Addressing this in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says:
“It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do. But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.” - 1 Corinthians 8:8-9
This is the principle we’ll apply to Halloween. Maybe you’ve experienced voices, albeit well-intentioned, that have instilled fear around being corrupted by the demonic, particularly related to Halloween, but we believe that the Christ who lives in us is greater than any spirit that exists in the world (1 John 4:4). This doesn’t give us liberty to be unwise with our decisions and where we give our attention, but it also doesn’t mean we need to live in fear that our souls are in danger of being corrupted by things that are lesser than Jesus around every corner.
In our call to live wisely, we are meant to be people who live in and celebrate the light while not elevating or condoning darkness. Part of what this means for us is that we carry a wise approach to that which we consume, celebrate and advocate for. For myself, I’ve taken a large step back from watching horror movies or things that are centered around lots of violence—and this is the whole year, not just at Halloween! For some of us, maybe it’s not the horror-centric part of Halloween that needs to be considered, but rather how sexualizing a particular outfit is, whether you’re a man or a woman. It’s important that we pause and take a spiritual inventory of the things we have normalized that may not be the best for our hearts and minds (see Philippians 4:8), but it’s equally important that we don’t look down on someone else just because they don’t share the same convictions as us.
As followers of Jesus, my prayer is that we would embark on the journey in which we’ve been called by allowing God’s Spirit to shape our convictions. Sometimes this happens in a moment, in other instances it happens over time, but the point remains that our lives are meant to be lived with someone greater than ourselves in mind.
So here’s what I’ll leave you with: If you dress up and decorate your house for the holiday, we honor and respect that. If you don’t celebrate or dress up in a costume, we honor and respect that just the same. In Christ, you are free to celebrate this Halloween with friends and family, and in Christ, you’re also free to disagree with this entire statement. Whether you choose to participate or abstain, our greatest calling is to live faithfully to our convictions in Christ Jesus and to love our neighbors well, with grace and unity.
In Christ,
Ryan Schlachter
NYC Location Pastor
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