by Larry J. Walker

Pastor, United Church of God, Bend

Did you read the article about Halloween on the religion page of the October 16 issue of the Bulletin? If so, what was your reaction? If not, allow me to summarize. The main point of the article, titled “For some, marking Halloween on Sunday is frightful,” is that Halloween should not be celebrated on Sunday. One lady said, “It’s a day for the Good Lord, not the devil.” So since Halloween falls on Sunday this year, she plans to send her daughter trick-or-treating on Saturday instead.

Another lady added, “You just don’t do it on Sunday. That’s Christ’s day. You go to church on Sunday, you don’t go out and celebrate the devil. That will confuse the child.”

I suggest that it is these adults (and others who share their point of view) that are confused. What is their point? Is it OK to “celebrate the devil” the other six days of the week?

I have encountered this strange reasoning years ago, when I lived in Texas, where “dry counties” and blue laws prevailed. It was illegal to sell alcohol on Sunday. At the time, I wondered about the logic. If alcoholic beverages are illegal, why only on Sunday? What kind of message do these laws send?

Ironically, drinkers could simply apply a principle related to the Sabbath found in Exodus 16. God gave the Israelites manna for food every day except the Sabbath and commanded them to gather twice as much on the day before the Sabbath. The lesson here was that work should not be done on the Sabbath. So God provided twice as much on the day before and none on the Sabbath. Likewise, Texans could simply purchase enough alcoholic beverages on Friday or Saturday to last through Sunday.

I guess that the message that I infer from reasoning expressed in the October 16 Halloween article is that it is OK to sin six days a week but not on Sunday. This is not to suggest that Sunday is the Sabbath or that drinking alcoholic beverages or celebrating Halloween is a sin. But a sin is a sin, except for principles that relate to Sabbath keeping. Neither alcoholic beverages nor Halloween fall into this category.

What do you believe about Halloween? If you have children or grandchildren, do they understand the origins of Halloween? Is Halloween a good way to poke fun at Satan, as some suggest? Or is it simply fun to dress up in scary costumes and get free candy? Probably most would agree with the latter. But what message does it send to children to associate fun and candy with the devil? Or is the devil simply a myth like Santa Claus?

I suggest looking beyond the superficial aspects of costumes and candy and into the origins of Halloween. I encourage you to think about these and other questions relevant to Halloween. Based on that information, is celebrating Halloween appropriate Christian conduct for you or your children? If it is, then it can be celebrated any day of the week, including Sunday. If it isn’t, explain it to your children so they understand. In fact it would be good to explain it to your children either way.

The most important factor of course is not what I think or you think but what God thinks. If you have Internet access, plenty of information is available for your consideration. Be sure to check our Web site in the process.