Last year I asked the question, Do Christians Have a Responsibility to Observe Halloween, and I still stand behind everything in that article. I do believe that Halloween represents a unique opportunity for Christians to be on the offensive against the darkness of sin in our culture and to communicate the gospel with our lost and dying world. Today I came across a video of John Piper wrestling with the question of Halloween. I’ve posted it at the bottom because I think it is worth your time, but I also think that he made an important point by noting that many Christian traditions could be associated with paganism (Sunday worship, Christmas, Easter, etc…).
Now I’m not saying that all of those things ARE associated with Pagan worship and I believe that every good arguments exist to the contrary, but the point is worth exploring. If we look hard enough, we can find something ungodly or pagan behind many Christian practices and traditions. Halloween is not a Christian practice strictly speaking, but the lack of Christian roots does not make it wrong for Christians to participate. College football doesn’t have Christian roots so maybe we shouldn’t watch college football. UNLESS, we take a similar approach to those who connect Easter and Christmas with paganism. Many Colleges and universities in America were originally started to train preachers and pastors and to educate according to Christian principles. Colleges, thus, have a Christian background which gave root to college football, thus college football is godly.
My argument about college football is ridiculous. But tying Christian practices to paganism may be just as great of a stretch, but I digress. The point here is that we should think carefully about how we best honor God and engage our culture with the gospel. How you observe (or not observe) Halloween should be the direct result of careful thought and consideration that accords with Scripture. I would encourage you to hear Piper’s perspective.
