Pat Robertson is taking flak for his bold stance on—or should I say against—Halloween. The Huffington Post is making a big deal about Robertson's words on The 700 Club Thursday.
What did he say that got the liberal media so up in arms?
“Halloween is a festival for demonic spirits. The whole idea of trick o' treating … the Druids would go to somebody's [house] and ask for money and if they didn't get any money they would kill their sheep. That was the trick … and it was serious stuff,” Robertson says.
“All this business about goblins and jack-o'-lanterns all comes out of demonic rituals of the Druids and the people who lived in England at that particular time. I think churches can have Halloween parties. You can bob for apples … and turn it into a Christian festival, and that's what we ought to do. We need to redeem these days, but that day was given over to Satanic things.”
The Duggars Don't Do Halloween, Either
The Duggar family of 19 Kids and Counting fame refuses to celebrate Halloween. Duggar family matriarch Michelle is not as bold as Robertson in her reasoning, but has made it clear that, “we don't do the Halloween thing.”
“From the beginning of our marriage we just kind of felt like we didn't want to celebrate that holiday. But we enjoy the harvest celebration,” Duggar wrote in a blog post. “Our church fellowship has had different celebrations through the years that we've been a part of, ones where the children can play games and receive candy and toys and do all kinds of fun things, like a cake walk.”
The Duck Dynasty family also prefers to celebrate with hayrides and harvest parties with its church and community. Phil Robertson proves it can still be a blast. In this video, Robertson reminisces about the year he was in charge of his church's fall hayride, which according to this family, turned out to be a bit of a disaster.
We Shouldn't Play Into the Devil's Hands
I didn't raise my daughter to celebrate Halloween either. While she was growing up, our church had harvest carnivals every year, with games and skits and a salvation call at the end.
What we avoided was hell houses, which decorate a church to look like a demon-filled dwelling place. Displaying skeletons, laying out bloody “dead bodies,” hanging up bats and cobwebs and the like seems to be an invitation for demons to dwell there. I've been in these hell houses, and the atmosphere is absolutely demonic—and I'm not sure how many people are really getting saved by filling the sanctuary with demonic icons.
But, Jennifer, shouldn't we be trying to use this secular holiday to rescue souls? With harvest carnivals and hayrides, yes. With hell houses, no.
Sincere pastors are trying to redeem a cultural event for the glory of God. But most of the people in the hell house I visited a decade ago were church folk looking to have a good time. And, again, we can't be sure true conversions are taking place in this demonic atmosphere. Why not do an outreach at a local haunted house and share the gospel there instead of defiling the church? Why not make it our goal to stand up and speak out instead of blending in with the crowd?
Jennifer LeClaire is news editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Making of a Prophet and Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.
