trick-or-treat tagged: , ,

Christian Radio Host Criticized Over Halloween Remark

Posted by in Best Of, Holidays, Religion, Religion Run Amok


Last week, I noticed a comment on the website of a Christian morning radio program, The Wally Show, that I listen to on my way to work.

Here’s the comment:

Wally, I love your show! 
I wanted it to ask you something about halloween. I hear you are promoting a contest for the cuties or best costume this month. But…..then that means you encourage people and kids to be part of this celebration that exalts the death and where kids and adults are introduced to magic or other rituals for the first time?

I immediately clicked the reply button and started typing. But then I stopped, walked away from the computer, got myself a cup of coffee and thought about other things for a few minutes.

Then I came back and started over with what I had to say.

Though I have no idea who the woman is who left the comment, and I have no idea of knowing how nice and sweet she may actually be in person, this was not a nice and sweet comment. It was the quintessential bible-thumper rudeness that gives so many of our churches a bad image in the mind of the unchurched.

And here she was communicating this to a fellow Christian!

My response was this:

Not trying to hijack the thread here, but why do Christians feel the need to brand Halloween — or anything else, for that matter — as wholly bad?
Christmas, to some people, is merely a display of crass commercialism and how much “stuff” you can accumulate. If that’s how you view Christmas, that’s all it’s going to be to you. If you celebrate Christ’s birth, then Christmas is something totally different to you. And Christmas was originally a PAGAN celebration. I think that for the most part, Christianity successfully turned THAT around, didn’t we?
Not everyone who dresses up in costume on Halloween is trying to celebrate “dark magic” or Satan or anything else. They DO make Bible character costumes, too. Rather than blasting those who choose to participate in Halloween, why not join them in a way that celebrates a Biblical character and teaches something about our Savior? Wouldn’t that be more productive?

Someone else agreed with my point that not everyone who celebrates Halloween is trying to celebrate darkness or things of the devil.

The original posted came back and left a response to my post a couple of hours later:

Patrick, I absolutely agreed with you that us christians can be so “religious” and see every single holiday or pagan celebration as evil. But there is a big difference between celebrating “christmas” and “halloween”. I will remind you that 95% of adults or kids DO NOT dress up as bible characters or princesses. Instead they dress up as wicthes [sic], devils or monsters. Anyways, in my church we do give an alternative to our kids so instead of celebrating “halloween” they created this event called Halellujah [sic] Night where they do learn something about our Savior and eat lots of candy! So….my question was not meant to created controversy….it was just a question. And I thank you very much for your point of view ;)

I could have left it there. I read her last line, with that cute little winking smiley face, a couple of times. Then I looked back at her original comment, in which she started off telling the host how much she loves his show before leveling a brutal attack on his character.

I reread the rest of her comment a couple of times. And I decided another comment was in order:

Andrea, 
You state that “95% of people DO NOT dress up as bible characters or princesses. Instead they dress up as witches, devils or monsters.”
When I do a web search of most popular Halloween costumes for children in 2010, according to National Geographic, the top ten are:
1. Princess
2. Spider-Man
3. Witch
4. Pirate
5. Disney Princess
6. Action/Super Hero
7. Ghost
8. Pumpkin/Vampire (Tie)
9. Batman
10. Star Wars Character
Sure, there’s a witch, vampire and ghost in there. But “princess” was, in fact, number one. Of the 11 costumes listed, there are really only three or four — a clear minority — that could be considered automatically “evil.” Even so, it’s evil in a secular and fictional way; if those kids who dressed as witches honestly thought witches WERE real and that scary, wouldn’t they be too afraid to even dress up like one?
I just don’t see why Christians should act as though they are “afraid” of Halloween. We should use it as a teaching opportunity. If we did, I suspect that over time, Bible characters just might start making the top 10. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
More importantly, I will accept on your word that what you INTENDED to post was “just a question.” But with all due respect, it did NOT read that way to me. Consider this:
“I hear you are promoting a contest for the cuties or best costume this month. But…..then that means you encourage people and kids to be part of this celebration that exalts the death and where kids and adults are introduced to magic or other rituals for the first time?”
In complete fairness, can you not see how that could read as being very accusatory? Logically, would ANY Christian radio station encourage people to “exalt death?” Do you REALLY believe it’s Wally’s agenda to encourage people to exalt death?
If you were in Wally’s place and you got that comment, how would you feel?

She has yet to respond. I don’t expect her to.

But my last line speaks volumes about the way in which she addressed what she then tried to claim was “just a question.”

It wasn’t just a question. It was an attack.

My pastor recently talked about the temperament of Christ he is challenging those in our congregation to take on in our dealings with each other and with those outside the church. He explained that no one should tolerate criticism — even Biblically-based criticism — if it is not spoken in love.

She didn’t speak her criticism in love. She spoke it in a holier-than-thou slam that assumed a ridiculous position about someone who wouldn’t possibly intend to do what she snidely accused him of doing.

Over coffee with a friend, it was suggested to me that I probably didn’t change her mind.

I was sure that I hadn’t changed her mind. I wasn’t trying to.

The only thing I was trying to do for her was to point out the way in which she asked her “question.” Asking her how she would have felt if someone said such a thing to her is, perhaps, the only thing that might make any impact on the way she reaches out to someone in the future.

And I hope it does.

But I left those responses because I think when someone, in the name of Christianity, makes such a statement, others of us are duty-bound to speak out against what’s being said — or the way in which it is said. People who may not be Christian need to see that messages that can so easily read as needless attacks do not represent the views of all of us.

In a perfect world, no one would need to step in to right a wrong. But it’s even worse when such a wrong is not righted.

If you missed it, here is my take, from last year, on “fall festivals” held by churches to avoid Halloween. I invite you to read it and let me know if you agree.

As to this story, what do you think: did the original comment read as accusing to you as it did to me?