What's the Deal with Halloween and who's it for?

We're back on Thinking Christian on Life Audio. Here's the rest of the conversation regarding Halloween. Halloween 2, not the movie. What we deal with culturally as Christians, we deal with Halloween as a holiday that presses us back into an economic logic of life, right, that is a consumer-based understanding of time. It is now time to buy our Halloween outfits. Okay, let's go buy our Halloween outfits. What? Like, it doesn't have to be time to buy our Halloween outfits. We could just opt out. And so a lot of people do. So I don't wanna make this like the only problem ever. But the point is that sometimes we can get so focused on the spiritual side of Halloween that we just forget that our culture is a spiritual influence. Like, we don't have to go back all the way to the origins of Halloween for this to get messed up. Yeah, right. There's a spiritual influence on us today from our culture. And I just want people to recognize that as well. Well, you talk about localization, and I agree with you. There's so many things that, you remember you used to go to a restaurant and you used to see melon or something or a certain fish that was available only in season, and you're kind of like, oh, that's really kind of cool. This is really, you know, that really gives me a sense of time in that way. And our sense of time, when you even think about the merchandising of, they started merchandising Halloween in August sometime, maybe even before that. We see Christmas decorations in stores now. All kinds of things that are... So even I know that I have, I don't know, I remember a time where I have actually, and I thought it was maybe it was global warming that was making me not recognize seasons, right? And then I was like, wait a minute, I really don't know what month it is, or I don't have a sense of what month it is right now. And then we had a snowstorm here, so it's a... You know what I mean, but I do think you're right. I mean, you start to lose this sense of time. I mean, when I worked in higher ed, you know, there was a clear cadence, right? Your fall semester, spring semester, summer. Right. Fall semester, spring semester, summer, always. After I left higher ed, it was like, wow, none of this really means much. You know, my kids go back to school in the fall, but I don't particularly care about spring semester anymore. Like, I don't have my job, my life, my every day doesn't really change. And so, you know, you're sort of just in this sort of almost endless cycle. And I think, you know, many of the churches that I've attended, you know, the best way to mark out time is through the sermon series, right? We'll be on this sermon series for the next six weeks. And it's like, well, that's interesting, but, you know, where are we going with this? Right. And so, you know, I think going back to some of those church calendars could be really interesting, but I think that at the bottom line of this, right, like I said before, Halloween is a problem because it is a holiday with deeply pagan origins. And I think that there can be some slippery issues there, right? So I think parents of kids are right to sort of want to distance their kids from that sort of influence. That's absolutely appropriate. But I would just also say that as we're looking at this as Christians, we need to think more deeply about what's going on with Halloween specifically and holidays in general. Because they really do, there is a new cycle of time. There are new seasons that are driving our behaviors. And if we're attentive to those, we'll notice them, right? But they run sort of as a default operating system and it can be difficult to identify them. It really can. Well, I really was very thankful for Charlie Brown because Charlie Brown always let you know what season it was. And I knew I always wanted those Dolly Madison cakes. I mean, it was just... Right. I mean, yeah. I mean, those are great examples, Richard, because I mean that, you know, when I start seeing the Little Debbie, you know, Christmas... Oh yeah, you guys had Little Debbie. That's right. Yeah, it's like, oh, okay, it's Christmas time, right? I mean, those are the markers now. Right. And it gets a little weird. Yeah, it is. And even, you know, Charlie Brown had its own culture in music because, you know, you had those Mendelsohn piano things that... You know, and so it's... That's how we measure our seasons now, right? That's right. But I think, you know, if I were going to wrap it all up, I would just say this to parents. You know, again, I have four kids. I'm as concerned with their spiritual life as anybody is, right? And so I don't want them to be influenced by, you know, demons or evil spirits or anything like that. Like, obviously, that's not something I'm looking for. But I also think that one of the big challenges our kids are having right now is just how they manage their attention, how they spend their time, manage their attention, how they sort of take a step back from the barrage of information that they're being given on almost any platform. And, you know, I've been really pleased that my kids have not been interested in social media. We use it very sparingly, and I'm very grateful for that. But the reality is that it's hard to keep them away from it completely. Yes. And so I think, overall, the way we reckon time is going to have to become a topic of conversation for Christians. And it is deeply related to what we've got going on right now in the technological realm and how that technological realm is beginning to govern the cadences of our life. Yeah. 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Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. Do I think Halloween is a massive, massive deal that we, you know, that Christians should be really, really concerned with? I've not found that to be the case, right? I've not had any issues with Halloween, but I will also say it isn't something that I've ever really keyed in on too much. I didn't like it when I was a kid. My kids haven't been super into it. And so it's just one of those that I haven't had to deal with much. But what I would say is that, you know, the way that we are being pushed to reckon with time and to understand the various cycles that we live by are the more problematic element. That's what I've personally experienced. That's what I see my kids go through. And if I watch them getting anxious about anything or frustrated about anything or just not sure of, you know, having a clear purpose of where to go or what to do, that is one of those things that I have more concern for them on. And I would love it if they, you know, if we could figure out how to kind of, and we do do some things as a family, but I think, you know, as a church, I think we need to figure out some ways to create a cadence for kids that they're understanding, you know, what this cycle moving from Christmas to Easter, you know, back through the passion, what it's really supposed to do to us. Right. And so that'd be what I would say. I don't want to diminish anybody else's concerns about Halloween. I would share those concerns, but I think that there's more here to think about than just the spiritual corruption that can occur through ancient practices. There's also the spiritual corruption that can occur through contemporary practice.

Well, Ed, I think, as you've talked about so well, is thinking Christian. How do we think Christian throughout our year and what are those markers, those natural markers in our seasons that bring us to that? I can almost see a whole new project that we could be working on, which we probably don't need any more projects, but it's... No, I mean, I, you know, I think, you know, at the end of the day, you can take a look at what we're going to go into next year. Right. 2024 is going to be the year of another presidential election. Presidential election has been a topic of conversation all year this year with the primaries. Right. You know, and this round, it really hasn't stopped because of some of the other sort of interesting anomalies with the last election. Yes. And so, you know, you just had people who really seem to be frustrated about what's going on. But my point here is not to get into any of the any of those kind of theories or what have you. I don't have any particular opinion on any of that. But when I look at it and I sit back and I say to myself, we're going to have almost a full year dominated by a presidential election. Yes. This is this is the way that our country is designed to cycle through. And, you know, in between those, we usually have, you know, House of Reps and senatorial elections. And it's like these things have become our mile markers. They've become the the points in time, the cycle through which we live our lives by. And I'm not sure that's a good thing. Yeah, I don't know either. And I'm looking forward to some of the things that we could do with some of the stories that we're going to be working on on Behind the Curve. Those things that have fallen off of the cycle, which I think is kind of related to this when you when you think about it. These seasons that we have lost our our way with looking at those those times. And, you know, it brings a whole different look at the old newspaper, the New York Times or LA Times. You know, those those are pretty much all conglomerated into one one thing now. And yes, we've lost we've lost our seasons. We've lost our seasoning. Yeah, I mean, the 24 hour news day didn't help anybody. And I think social media is, you know, just a continual barrage of information. And so what we end up losing is just the time to sit back and think. It feels like we need to have an opinion on everything. But the reality is, there's so much going on in the world. We're not going to have an opinion on everything. And if we do, that opinion is generally not going to be well informed. Right. And that's why, yeah, we just have to be OK with that. We have to be OK. I mean, I've generally been OK just saying I don't have an opinion on that one. Sorry, haven't thought about it. Whether you have or not. Right. There's just some topics that I have no interest in and haven't taken the time to go out and actually figure out. And I think it's important for us to recognize that, you know, expertise doesn't bridge out of domains. Right. I mean, you actually have to put the work in. If you're going to talk about a new topic, it doesn't matter that you were smart on some other, you know, on some other topic. You actually have to put the work in on this one, too. So, you know, we've just got a lot of crises. And I think that when we look at holidays like Halloween, we shouldn't get so narrowly focused on sort of the micro of that holiday. Right. The micro problems of that holiday. The very maybe it's better to say the particular problems of that holiday. We really also need to be sort of scanning out and saying to ourselves, there are bigger issues here that would inform all of our holidays and the way that we are sort of guided into spending all of our time and all of our money and all of our attention across the year. And as Christians, whether we do that or not, we should really just be cognizant of it. Number one, so that we can resist it. And number two, so that we can help our Christian brothers and sisters resist it as well. That's all the time we have for this episode of Thinking Christian. It's Halloween and I hope that you have a good and safe one if you are celebrating. And if you're celebrating a harvest festival, enjoy that as well. Now, here's a thank you from Dr. James Spencer. I want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you will find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Looking for ways to stay positive? Brighten your day with the free Story Behind podcast. Hear weekly short stories that showcase true joy, love, and hope. Listen now at lifeaudio.com or by searching for Story Behind wherever you get your podcasts.