“Why? Why would a Christian choose not to be at home on the night that 82 children walk up to your front door? What on earth would possess a Christian not to want to be there?”
Because people in my neighborhood don’t really participate in trick-or-treating because there are so many alternatives available locally—and because my kids love the huge fall festival we regularly go to and would be very disappointed if we stayed home.
Saying that Christians should or must stay home on Halloween is just as legalistic as saying that a Christian should not participate in Halloween at all. It’s still ultimately a Romans 14 issue, and I don’t appreciate the shaming tone of this post.

Halloween is an excellent time to get to know your neighbors. We actually serve free coffee and hot chocolate and take picture of the kids to give to the parents. It has opened doors to the neighbors who would normally shy away from a Christian family.

This is the kind of person I want to be and the kind of heart I want to have. It reflects Jesus.
Stella – you must have shame issues in your life that have nothing to do with Halloween or this post. Be free, there’s no need to carry such heaviness.
The heart of this is to be Jesus. Love people, don’t run from them. Engage the culture and its holidays, redeem, be present, and bring life. It’s given me a different perspective for this time of the year.

I loved this post and will be reposting it shortly. A friend of mine, who is a youth minister, was really struggling with Halloween and how we should address it as Christians. This is by far the best explanation I have heard. I love that we have options to draw people to our churches, and maybe the trunk-or-treats are the new community gathering spot, but I love the thought of welcoming kids to my home to just smile at them, tell them I love their costumes, and give them some candy. I don’t know my neighbors as well as I should and I was so disappointed last year when I took my kids around to trick-or-treat and so many houses had their lights off. It is the perfect time to put names with faces and just know who lives on our street. The down side to the church harvest festivals is they are more anoynmous or just the same people you see every Sunday. It may be fun and safe, but something is missing. I think we may be carving some jack ‘o’ lanterns at our house tonight.

Excellent idea Shannen.
No shame here Stella and it wasn’t meant to come across that way. If you’re not home, have a great time at the fall festival. I think the point here is that if you are home don’t turn out the lights and disappear, be present. That’s all. Being present to our neighbors, whether they are Christians or not, is a great gift to them.

It’s ironic that you would imply *I* am reading too much into things, “John Piper.” No shame issues here. My reply was a direct response to the incredulous “how can you possibly be a Christian and not stay home on Halloween?!” tone in the comments I quoted, nothing more.

YES!!! This is EXACTLY what I’ve been trying to say all these years, but my voice was alone in a crowd loudly judging & saying my family is horrible for even thinking about Halloween. My family has studied the history and come to the exact same conclusion–what other night of the year do we have our neighbors come up to our door in such volume? So thus became the delimma for us. My family knew it was time to re-think about how we do Halloween, but yet my husband is on staff at a church that holds a “Pumpkin Patch.” As a staff family, at least my husband is required to be there. So we’ve remained stuck in this delimma & simply attend the PP out of obligation and have wondered about the oppotunity lost back at home. Thank you so much for posting this because it gives my one, quiet voice strength to speak louder & have the courage to do what I should’ve done a long time ago!

I see a lot of “Cafeteria Christianity.” Picking what they want off of the dessert bar and never finding the real food. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men and full well ye reject the commandment of YHWH so that ye may keep your own tradition. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth…. Now that we remember what the WORD says. I would suggest that we work harder to know our neighbors throughout the year. This is how we love our neighbor as our self. We should be inviting them over weekly for dinner or even better Sabbath. When people know where your feet stand, they won’t try to step on them. Remember parents; don’t be mad if your children lie to you, if you have been lying to them since they were born. Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy… LIES LIES LIES

Here is my blog post about what our family does on halloween:
http://burgessbasecamp.blogspot.com/2010/10/happy-halloween.html

AMEN!
“Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world!”
and because of that i will engage in community. my light will be on, and my light will be the Light who is Christ in a dark world.

Halloween is as ancient as Scripture itself, well not that Old. Catholics add to this holiday with their traditions. We should partake in popular culture. There’s nothing wrong with Halloween in today’s sense. The old symbolic means give way to popular means of celebration. And for those who either chose not celebrate it or celebrate Reformation day, stop your fundamentalist ways and realize that God does not commends us not celebrate in it.

Christmas trees also started out as a pagan symbol of fertility… but I think a whole lot of Christians still have them in their house every December. *wink* I came home from choir last night to find my husband had taken the kids to Walmart, bought the pumpkins, scooped them all out, and there they sat, carved and lit, on my front porch. I was SO excited. =^) I can hardly wait to stock on my candy reserves Sunday night! The rule in our house is all the trick-or-treating loot goes into one bucket and everyone has to share with everyone else… including with mom. =^) Thanks for the great post. Legalism can come in many forms, and ultimately we need to look at where our heart is at. I appreciate the place yours is in. =^)

Great post! I completely agree!

I like!

I disagree. We are to be salt and light to the world, not conform to it! That means we have to ask God what He wants us to do and then obey Him. That might look different each year. When our kids were young, we hosted a private party where they dressed in costumes ( no witches or ghouls allowed!) ate candy and played games. When they got older, we attended church carnivals. One year our church created a live nativity in our front yard and the kids dressed up like shephards, animals and angels. We passed out candy with scriptures attached. One year we attended a great movie called “The gospel of John.” The heart issues are: 1)Do you want to live to please yourselves and for the praises of men, or 2) Do you want to live to please God?

I agree completely. I understand many Christians don’t want to participate because of the seeking connection with demons, bones, etc. However I believe Christ spent time building relationships with his neighbors even when they were the most vile and evil people around (e.g. tax collectors, prostitutes). How are we being salt and light when we confined ourselves to a church party likely participating in the exact same activities as those we are calling sinners. Let’s get outside the church building and start being the Church. Hint, we must know the names of those around us to be witnesses to them.

I completely agree with Got Truth!! I couldn’t have said it better. We are having gatherings with our neighbors a few times annually, getting to know them with a meal and fellowship. I shouldn’t have to be like the world to try to reach them at Halloween. Think about it, those kids are there for one thing, and one thing only… candy, candy candy. They haven’t come to meet their neighbors, at least not in my opinion. I would much rather go out my front door, and walk around and knock on neighbors doors, invite for a cookout and get to know them. When we did this, we found out we were surrounded by so many Christians, we had a prayer together, and interceded for one another, made bonds with one another, and really made a difference in our neighborhood. Praise God for that.

I completely agree with Got Truth!! I couldn’t have said it better. We are having gatherings with our neighbors a few times annually, getting to know them with a meal and fellowship. I shouldn’t have to be like the world to try to reach them at Halloween. Think about it, those kids are there for one thing, and one thing only… candy, candy candy. They haven’t come to meet their neighbors, at least not in my opinion. I would much rather go out my front door, and walk around and knock on neighbors doors, invite for a cookout and get to know them. When we did this, we found out we were surrounded by so many Christians, we had a prayer together, and interceded for one another, made bonds with one another, and really made a difference in our neighborhood. Praise God for that.

I’m actually preaching on this tomorrow! Thanks for the extra insights.

I completely agree with Got Truth!! I couldn’t have said it better. We are having gatherings with our neighbors a few times annually, getting to know them with a meal and fellowship. I shouldn’t have to be like the world to try to reach them at Halloween. Think about it, those kids are there for one thing, and one thing only… candy, candy candy. They haven’t come to meet their neighbors, at least not in my opinion. I would much rather go out my front door, and walk around and knock on neighbors doors, invite for a cookout and get to know them. When we did this, we found out we were surrounded by so many Christians, we had a prayer together, and interceded for one another, made bonds with one another, and really made a difference in our neighborhood. Praise God for that.

Sorry dude…. It is sad to think that we don’t know our neighbors. It is sad to think we call evangalism, giving out tracks to kids at our door on a pagan holiday. Don’t you think you should already know your neighbors? I think praying for them and asking God to open doors to fellowship and bless them with time and hey, even some cookies from the oven helps. Um, being a good neighbor and that alike. Dude, my neighbors know who I am and I know who they are long before halloween. We should be ashamed if it takes halloween to witness. God doesn’t hate that your little kids go door to door and dress up, BUT what he does hate is when something evil is dressed up as good and acceptable. Brother, I agree to disagree. Maybe you could use 365 days to evangalize:) I just choose 1 day to not celebrate a satanic fesival. WWJD? He would evangalize every day:)

One more thing… Before we tell God what he is cool with and cast off people as legalistic, maybe we should remember that Gods ways are not our ways, His ways are highter (Proverbs) and Amos 8:11, There is a famine in our land, not of bread and water but of hear of the Word of the Lord. What if I were to throw a party and we would have cool smoke in the room and wear our hair crazy. It would be so funny and cool. We could even inite everyone over. What would we think if we found out that the smoke really represented the gas Nazi’s used to kill the jews and the crazy hair was because they had dirty wild hair or shaved heads because of the lice. Not really funny and cool anymore hun. Halloween has evil roots. Well, maybe we should expose the darkness and know what it is before we decide to throw a tailgate party. For real, do we love God? Do we love His word or do we just come up with our own ideas. Come on…. Lets get revival!! God is bigger than all this! He is delicious:) He is Truth!! He is the light and we reflect Him.

I agree with Anne. Its just like Satan to mix good and evil to confuse us. Is there anything wrong with dressing in a cute costume and getting candy? No, but then do it on another day. Halloween is a “holy” day for devil worshippers. The police have reported that there are more animal sacrifices on that day than any other throughout the year. Its a day for them, not us. The Bible says to keep our minds on what is pure and holy – walking around seeing scary costumes, evil yard decorations, etc., is not pure and holy. Not taking part in Halloween has led us to have some interesting discussions about our faith with our neighbors and our family members. It has also taught our children to think more deeply about the choices in front of them. At first some things appear harmless, and perhaps in this world they are, but how does taking part in Halloween please the Lord? I don’t think it does. Amen to Anne – our neighbors should know we are Christians every day of the year – not on the day of Halloween.

I wonder if everyone against celebrating Halloween is also against putting other pagan symbols up in their houses on other holidays. Hopefully people are staying consistent with their beliefs and not including evergreen trees in their houses as that is a pagan symbol and would be celebrating another religion besides Christianity. Just a thought.

Got Truth does have a point about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc. Are those against celebrating Halloween against these things too, for the sake of consistency? Just wondering.