About ten years ago, the fundamentalist complaint du jour in my town was Halloween. They asserted that Halloween was an evil, Satanic holiday designed to turn children into godless demons. At that time, they made a lot of trouble for local public schools, harassing them about school Halloween decorations and celebrations.
In reaction, many fundie churches began sponsoring what they called "fall festivals". These were children's parties at the church with pumpkins and other harvest/autumn decorations, but no witches, devils, ghosts or goblins. Most of the churches allowed the kids to dress up in non-spooky costumes, but a few of the more extreme ones banned all sorts of costumes.
While driving around this fall, I've noticed for the first time that many homes are extensively decorated for Halloween. And it's not just pumpkins anymore. People now have elaborate illuminated ghosts and witches, with orange candles in the windows and orange lights outlining their homes. It's every bit as elaborate as some people's Christmas decorations are.
What's most interesting is that many of these decorated homes also sport those tacky metal Ten Commandments signs in their yards as well. And, although I still see church signs advertising "fall festivals", I don't hear fundies railing against Halloween much anymore.
Could it be? Could many of them be reconsidering Halloween?
It would be nice to think so -- and that they could start reconsidering a lot of things while they're at it.
Thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment