Our Search for Truth

This post is in response to Drew’s recent post called “Pagan Christmas” but you should also read my previous post on Halloween before you read this post if you want a complete perspective.

I agreed with most everything Drew said in the first paragraph.  There are, of course, many variations on the history depending on the source you reference but I didn’t see anything in Drew’s first section that I hadn’t read before and I have no additional comments.  It’s the paragraph that starts with “I have a few friends” that I would like to comment on:

(Drew’s words are in red and mine are in green)

I have a few friends that don’t celebrate Halloween in regards to its pagan nature and see no value in it. Even though Halloween brings communities together, makes kids laugh, multiplies candy, belittles evil, and is fun, celebrating such a holiday appears to question their moral Christian principles.

My wife and I are some of those friends and yes, we see no value in Halloween.  I address each of the reasons Drew gives as “even though”s in my Halloween post so I am not going to redo that here.  Halloween does not make me question “moral Christian Principles”, it just provides an excellent opportunity to practice them.    Please read my Halloween post for a full explanation.

I wonder if the Church had decided to incorporate Samhain (pagan holiday) and Christ’s birth if some Christians would be more apt to celebrate the holiday of Halloween.

The church has already done that…its called “All Saints Day”.  The answer is no, it didn’t make me more apt to celebrate Halloween.  Just because the church sanctions an event doesn’t mean it is worth celebrating or not worth celebrating.  We have to decide for ourselves what we should participate in.  Many churches now celebrate Halloween…in fact, all of the churches I went to growing up celebrated Halloween in some form or another.  I decided to stop ‘celebrating’ because I thought the issues through for myself and my conclusion is fully explained in my Halloween post.

Note: In my Halloween post I don’t mention ‘pagan origins’ as one of the five reasons why I don’t participate….”I am not nearly as interested in the history of Halloween as in what it means today” – the same applies to Christmas symbols and traditions.

It does seem that Christmas (probably due to its commercial push and the multitude of Christian sheep corralled into the stalls of justification) is viewed primarily as a Christian Holiday, and therefore most Christians can celebrate the holiday without a sered conscious.

I have to confess (regarding the seared conscience), my wife and I have struggled with whether or not to celebrate Christmas for several years.  Christmas has become such a commercial enterprise and Santa has nearly completely replaced Christ as the focus of Christmas, at least in the malls, public school plays, and around the office.  Christmas was not celebrated by the early church and many of the symbols of Christmas can be traced back to pagan rituals.  To be honest, my wife and I are still sorting this out and don’t feel like we have reached closure (mostly because we don’t agree yet…usually means I’m wrong but rationalizing in my mind so I don’t have to see things the way they really are or the way God sees them).  We actually got rid of the Christmas tree a couple years ago and didn’t celebrate Christmas, at least not in the traditional way.  We simply read the Christmas story and tried to focus on helping others (like the original Saint Nicholas).   My family still enjoyed Christmas and it was nice focusing on others but I felt like there wasn’t as much joy and happiness in my home as previous years.  I decided the following year to start celebrating Christmas again for the inverse reasons of why I don’t celebrate Halloween.

I started off my post about Halloween by explaining that even if I didn’t have religious reasons I would still not celebrate the holiday.  The opposite is true of Christmas.  Even if I wasn’t a Christian, I would still see the value in a holiday that celebrates love, family, giving, friends, happiness, beauty, etc.  The whole tone of Christmas is nearly the opposite of Halloween.  I wish I had a picture of some houses in my neighborhood from earlier this year.  One in particular was covered in symbols of evil – demons, zombies, decapitations, blood, and ghosts.  Now, just months later, that house is not decorated at all, but the house next door is decorated with beautiful lights, a smiling Santa Claus, and other symbols of friendship, love, and happiness.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with the materialism, deifying a magical Santa, or other facets of ‘X-mas’ that draw our attention away from Christ.  However, the reason I decided to continue celebrating Christmas and the reason we have put up a Christmas tree this year is because for me personally, Christmas draws my attention back to Christ.  When I see a Christmas tree I think of Christ.  When I sing the famous Christmas carols I think of Christ.  When my family gathers and shares gifts with each other I think of Christ.  I think we each have to ask ourselves:

1.  What are our motivations for the things we do?

2.  What is valuable and worth supporting?

3.  Do we believe what we plan to do will glorify God.

For this reason, I am not upset when someone else chooses to celebrate Halloween, or Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever.  If they believe their motivations are right, that there is value in observing the holiday, and that observing it edifies God, then who am I to disagree…it is between them and God.  For me, I can celebrate the birth of Christ (labeled as Christmas) confidently with those 3 questions in mind…I can not do the same for Halloween.

I suppose (once again) it’s all the Church’s fault.

We are the church.  It’s our fault as individuals.  We have encouraged the whole process all along by singing about Santa, buying gifts beyond our means and with wrong motivations, and submitting to the political correctness of the media and the marketing schemes to promote consumerism.  No worries though…the bible doesn’t forbid or require us to celebrate Christmas so there is nothing to lose.  If Christmas is eventually completely lost in materialism and emptiness it doesn’t change the reality of Christ. If we lose Christmas we have lost nothing.  If we lose Christ we have lost everything.

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill towards men.”

Merry Christmas, BoB