Practically Christian Podcast

From “Devil’s Day” to Neighbor Day: A Christian Take on Halloween’s History, Myths, and Missional Opportunity

• Josh and Debbie

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The porch light tells a story. Flip it off, and you signal retreat. Turn it on—and pull a couch into the yard—and you signal something else entirely: presence, welcome, and a little courage. We lean into the tension many Christians feel around Halloween and ask a better question than “Should we opt out?” We explore what happens when we opt in with discernment, kindness, and a missional heart.

We trace the roots from Celtic Samhain to All Hallows’ Eve, clear up persistent myths about “the devil’s birthday,” and place the night within a wider biblical lens: the earth is the Lord’s, and no square inch of the calendar belongs to darkness. If the church could reframe Saturnalia into Christmas and weave martyr memory into Valentine’s Day, why not redeem a single autumn evening into a warm, neighborly moment that builds trust? Along the way, we open up about church hurt, the pull to withdraw, and the invitation of Jesus to step toward people, not away from them.

You’ll leave with simple, practical ideas: set out chairs, cue a family-friendly movie, hand parents water, and give kids the good candy. Skip costumes that glorify the occult, keep safety common sense, and let generosity do the talking. You don’t need a doorstep sermon to embody good news—just a posture that says, “We’re glad you’re here.” If you’ve wrestled with Halloween, this conversation offers history, nuance, and a hopeful path that honors both conscience and neighbor love.

If this resonates, tap follow, share with a friend who’s on the fence about October 31, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find thoughtful, faith-filled conversations like this.

https://www.missionsent.org/

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Taking all that implication and all in your brain and giving you real practical application.

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I'm ready. Hello.

SPEAKER_06:

And welcome to another episode of Practically Christian Podcast.

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Bienvenidos.

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Man, we should not have ate lunch before this, though.

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I'm fine.

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You might be. I am not.

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I think it was the chili and cheese you ate.

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That food is bottoming out, to say the least.

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I feel fine.

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Yeah, but Moe's did have a new chili con queso.

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Mm-hmm. And then you had like ropa view with it.

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Oh, so good.

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I had chicken with a half a scoop of rice.

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But I am definitely sitting here going I am breathing different.

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You are. And I had some tomatillo.

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Like you ever had one of the meals where you breathe different when you get done?

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Those are awful. That's the worst feeling ever.

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For you.

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For me. Oh.

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I love it.

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Think about it.

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We have a whole holiday. But if you think about it, I mean we have a whole holiday.

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Get your stretchy pants.

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You would be dedicated to don't wear jeans. This feeling I have right now.

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I don't think that's I personally don't think that's a good feeling. Like I just picture organs like stretching and the stomach getting That's why you wear stretchy pants. I don't know.

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And speaking of holidays.

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And th threshy pants.

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First of all.

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First of all.

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I do apologize to everyone out there. For because I forgot to upload.

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You did forget to upload.

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Yeah, so that one's on me. But here we are. We're back. We had started Mission Academy. We did.

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Congratulations to us. The past couple of weeks have been a Oh God, it's been a world one. It's been exhausting.

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But in a good way. Yeah, in a good way. Because it's our thing. Ooh.

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Let's not talk about that.

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You're not supposed to talk about it.

unknown:

Oh, okay. Don't talk about it.

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Yeah, it ain't CrossFit.

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Because the first rule of CrossFit is to always talk about Cross.

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Always talk about CrossFit. But um What if Christian said that with Jesus?

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What is that?

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Intruder, intruder, intruder. It's better than this.

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I actually don't mind that. The other one was awful.

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I thought I was gonna do it again.

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Anyway. That's terrible. No, but we we do have. We have uh a holiday coming up.

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It is Halloween. What is that? No. I thought you were gonna do like a ooh.

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Let me see. Um You got nothing there.

unknown:

Halloween.

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Okay, yeah. That's Halloweeny.

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Or this. Right? And and really, I really want to talk about this because someone, you know, has reached out and asked um the the Christian perspective, as it were, on Halloween. And it it and and I know we posted this uh, you know, what five years ago, maybe six years ago. Six years ago.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and I repost it every single year.

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Just because so it but I want to get a little more in-depth than just this little blog I wrote uh sitting in a morning meeting at uh a school we worked at that you should have been paying attention to what was happening. But again, I here we are. No let's be honest, I know most meetings can be an email.

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Oh yeah, absolutely.

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Uh but so to look at this like through a Christian perspective, because there there are a lot of like we've worked in Christian education for a couple moons now. And um there's a lot of part of a decade. Yeah, and there are a lot of different views, I guess is the easiest way to say it when it comes to especially Halloween.

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Right.

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I mean, I've heard everything from it's the devil's birthday to it's a celebration.

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When people sacrifice children. I've heard that from kids. Right. Because that's what their parents told them, and I was like, hmm.

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So first, let's look at it through this point of view. Do you celebrate Christmas?

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I do. Most Christians do. Most Americans do, right?

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Christmas and Easter. Those are those are our big two, right?

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CEOs, Christmas and Easter only. Yep.

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Um, you know, and no one's real quick to point out that Christmas was started as a pagan holiday. And it wasn't really until about the fourth century A.D. that um so some somewhere in the 300ths AD, that the church decided, hey, you know what? We want to reclaim this holiday. I mean, you're talking about almost what 300 years after Jesus that they went. Hey, we're gonna reclaim this holiday and and we're going to we'll just say Jesus was born.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. We'll just we're celebrating.

SPEAKER_06:

Which most people should know was not December. It probably wasn't in the winter. You know, Joseph and Mary would not have been able to make that long trek during the middle of winter. So the church kind of took over this holiday. Now, if we look at Halloween, it is the eve of Hollow uh all hallows day. Right. Which for the the better part of to understand it would have been it was started by the Celts, um, the people in England and in that area. And what they would do is they would light these big bonfires on hills.

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Right.

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Um, because it was really marking you know the the harvest is over, winter is coming.

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Right.

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And and it was a day to remember those who had passed on. Um, kind of like, and I'm I'm gonna butcher this, but you can say it and correct me after I'm done. Okay. The Dia de Muertos. Dia de los Muertos. That thing, you know, cocoa. Yes. Um But it was it was for them to remember their dead. It was for them to remember, you know, those who have passed away, and and for whatever reason, you know, they had developed the superstition that on this night it the the barrier between the supernatural and and the natural was smaller.

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Okay.

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So they would wear mask to scare away the bad ghost.

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Right.

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So that welcome the good ones.

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Okay.

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You know, and and that was kind of the origins of Halloween. And um, granted, yeah, over the years, obviously it's it's morphed into all kinds of different things. Right.

SPEAKER_02:

And well, I'll I'll pick that up later. You keep going.

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No, you you're good.

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I was gonna say, like, I hear all these, oh well, this is when witches do this and you know, devil worshippers do that. However, I know it is, but they also do that on a random Tuesday.

SPEAKER_06:

But they also do it on Christmas Day.

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Right. On any what I'm saying, like the day should not be set aside and given credit to. I always tell the kids when um they say, Oh, well, you know, that's the devil's day, and I tell them, There are zero days that belong to the devil.

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Zero to preach.

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Every day is all this is mine, all of it declares the Lord. Right. And and I said, You can't just go, okay, this is the day that belongs to Satan. It doesn't. Jesus owns it all, God owns it all, and it's just a day that kids go around dressed up, and why do we have to turn it into something so ugly? There's so much that's already ugly. I'm not saying go dress up like witches and warlocks and go uh pretend you're doing blood sacrifices, but why can't little kids? Pardon us. But it's if you guys were here, you'd be laughing too. Um I'm not laughing at my conversation. Oh, honey. You okay?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the mic? I'm pretty sure the mic didn't pick it up. Whatever, we'll find out.

SPEAKER_02:

Like you can keep going with it, huh? Yeah. Just roll with it. Just roll with it. Just roll with it. So I'll keep going. Um what are you doing?

SPEAKER_06:

Keep going. We shouldn't dress up. We shouldn't be doing blood, we shouldn't be doing blood sacrifices.

SPEAKER_02:

I I get all that. It doesn't mean that you can't use it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. You have a day where strangers are gonna come to you. Kids who right now are under attack all over the place. And you know, we see that as teachers, and you have this opportunity to give them love, to give them some snacks, to hey, give them a super sized candy bar and stick some scripture on there. Do something that goes not only am I not gonna be cheap and give you the candy that's at the bottom of my purse, but I'm gonna give you the good stuff and I'm gonna give you scripture and and love you at the same time. Yeah, and I mean, even if you don't give scripture, I mean I'm saying something that they know that you're a Christian and you're not gonna be one of those Christians.

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Well, that's what I was saying. Even if even if all you did was give them a candy bar.

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Or you had a sign in front of your house that said Jesus loves you, something.

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Right. Or so they knew. Yeah.

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Or invite them to your biblically correct church.

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Right. You right, but what I'm saying is like Yeah, you don't gotta go against everything I'm saying.

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Let's have you.

SPEAKER_06:

But I'm not going I'm not going against what you're saying. Like I think everything you're saying is is true and correct. But I'm also sitting here going, or you could just pass out candy.

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Like you don't have to turn this into No, it doesn't have to be a gospel uh where you're having a gospel conversation. It can.

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Absolutely.

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Well I'm saying if you're I'm talking about if someone is so adamant about we're gonna reclaim this for Jesus, because I've heard people say that, well, then do it in a big way that blesses that person.

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Right.

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And and doesn't put the spotlight on you.

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Right. But I mean, I I and and I'm gonna speak about this from more so from like a church perspective, you know, because I know there are a lot of churches out there that um like there we're gonna act like it doesn't even exist. We're not gonna give power, you know, to the devil and and and I go, why? Why are we gonna act like this doesn't exist? Yeah, not why are you not gonna get obviously I was like, listen to what you just said. Obviously, I know why we're not gonna get the power of the devil, but I go but again, it's if the mission of the church is to seek and save what is lost, to be a light in the darkness, um, that requires that the light go into the darkness.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And you're gonna have to go to places and see things and and be around people. Yeah, you're gonna be have to be around people that are not as messier than you are, right? Dirtier than you are, yeah, um, more sinful than you are, because you are all of those things.

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Right.

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Um, and I think we take ourselves out of the game sometimes by categorizing, well, I'm a good little Christian girl or boy, and these pagans, these these nasty earthly, worldly people, you know, they're not on my level yet.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. And and how are they gonna get on your level if if you're not gonna go get them?

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If you're always looking down on them, they're never going you you'll never be able to see them face to face.

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Right.

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And and I go, you know, And I have a lot of bitterness towards stuff like that. So obvious I mean, some of that might be coming through.

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I apologize. But I have been church hurt.

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But again, it you know Married to my pastor who has been church hurt.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah, and and walked away from the church for years.

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Hence why we planted our own church, hence why we started our own school. Well, not just that, but like I'm saying that led to that helped fuel that. Right was purposeful in what he did. Yeah, and it wasn't by accident.

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It took years for me to to understand I wasn't mad at God, I wasn't mad at Jesus, I wasn't mad, I mean, honestly, even at the church, it was you know, uh I was mad at people, you know, and you know, and and institutions that allowed for this to happen.

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Right.

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But again, you know, so when we look at a holiday like Halloween, when we look at a holiday, I mean, even like Christmas, when we look at any holiday, Thanksgiving, you know, I know that there are holidays that are are more near and dear to us as the church than, you know, and then we have holidays like you know, St. Patrick's Day or you know, right, Valentine's Day, which, you know, again, you guys know on Valentine's Day you're you're celebrating the beheading of a martyr, right? Like that is with with chocolate, love, and candy, like you know, but but again, it's it's because we made it that way. Right. So so what if instead of going, hey, that is the evil day of the devil, what if what if we went, you know what? No, this is a day that we have the opportunity to get into our community to to have I mean uh again, like you said, you literally have people coming to your house.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. You don't even have to go look for it. You don't have you don't have to go to the house.

SPEAKER_06:

What if you set up a little you know, we went, um we had friends ask us to go trick-or-treating, you know, a couple years ago in one of them uh rich neighborhoods, and they had the gate code, so we were like not where we live. Not even in the same city you live in. You know, and they had the they had the gate code, so we were like, Yeah, let's go. Like, you know, and I was blown away. I mean, they had people in this neighborhood, like you walked up to the house and they're like, Hey, those are treats for the kids over there. These are the adult treats, these are the adult treats over here, like come trick or treat over here. Like people, you know, they they had outdoor, you know, screens set up and movies, they had couches in their front, free water bottles, yeah. Like, you know, and and I was like, Man, so like you can just hang out, like the kids hang, you know, and they were watching like these little short, you know, Halloween movie things, like you know, um the Charlie Brown, whatever. Yeah, the Great Pumpkin Chase or the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, they were watching um the Grinch night, you know. I mean, uh nothing that would be over. I mean, when like they were watching like the exercise. The saw or whatever, right? Stuff like that. But but on the same hand, you know, I was like, man, how inviting is this? And and what better way to get to know your neighbors?

SPEAKER_02:

It was very warm and welcoming. It wasn't I didn't feel you didn't feel like anyone was being standoffish.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. And and what better way to get to know your neighbors?

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Right.

SPEAKER_06:

You know, we've opened up our entire yard here. Like, you know, there were a couple of houses they had grills going.

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Yeah, we had our couches in the front yard.

SPEAKER_06:

You know, well, I I was talking about on that. Oh, I thought you were talking about you know, yes, we after we experienced that, it was amazing. We did come back and we were like, hey, you know what? It's Halloween, let's put couches out, let's you know, get the outdoor projector going, and let's see if we can redo that.

SPEAKER_02:

It wasn't to the same effect, but I mean, we had one trick-or-treater all.

SPEAKER_06:

We did.

SPEAKER_02:

We invited people over. It was it was nice, but it wasn't the same. That sense of community really wasn't there.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. And I'm sitting here going, you know, the whole purpose of the Bible is to show God's redemptive plan through the person and work of Jesus. Right. Jesus utilizing the church to bring about his rebent or his redemptive plan.

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Right.

SPEAKER_06:

Like that is the whole purpose of scripture. You know, it's not a self-help, it's not, you know, here's how you get your marriage right, here's how you get your money right, here's how you get your marriage. Right. Like it is here is how Jesus is taking what is dead and bringing it back to life.

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Right.

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And and then the the church's role in that.

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Right.

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And I go, so instead of looking at, you know, things like Halloween and going, that's dead, let's leave it alone, you know, let's fight against it, let's push it down, let's bury it even deeper. And not just why are we not looking at it and going, but Jesus can use the redemptive purposes of that to redeem those who are lost.

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Because on the other side, I've seen people that are not believers or that are like teeter-tottering with the idea, be shamed and you know, and guilted. And we've I mean, we've even worked at schools that kids were shamed and guilted for shame for dressing up or wanting to participate in, you know, a fall festival or you know, an event. A trunk retreat, which we are excited about ours coming up very soon. Free to the community. Anyway, keep going.

SPEAKER_06:

On October 28th, Fort Smith Boulevard.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, join us.

SPEAKER_06:

Um But again, it it we we turned it into it's too far gone. And and and I go, as the church, how many times do we look at society that way? Like it's too far gone. Let's let's separate from society. Yep. You know, let's do our own thing. Let's, you know, let's just forget them. Let's just worry about people that are in here. And I go, is that really That is not what God called us to do. Is that really what we see throughout scripture? I mean, Jesus leaves glory, Jesus leaves, you know, perfect harmony with the Father and the Son, or the Father and the Spirit to enter into a broken, shattered creation, you know, to to ultimately be put to death to show us this isn't what it was designed to be. Here's how you do this. Yep. And so I think the the bigger picture of all of that, because I go, if we can celebrate Christmas, which honestly was a month-long party, orgy, um, you know, where slaves became masters and masters became slaves, and you know, it was called Saturnalia, and you know, are our you know, for those of us um who who celebrate some version of Santa Claus, I mean that that's the Norse god Odin, you know, that's where that legend comes from. It's not Satan, which a lot of people say it's Saint Nick, you know, he was a he was a saint, he was a real person, but but we mixed the the Norse legends, you know, with Odin, with this legend, with that legend, and then we And then threw the manger in it. Right.

SPEAKER_02:

And then went, okay, now this belongs to Christians.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. And I go, if we did it with Christmas, why can't we do it with Halloween?

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06:

You know, if we did it with, you know, Valentine's Day, why can't we do it with Halloween? Right. You know, I mean, again, think about Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_02:

Like Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_06:

You know, and I know I know we have people that aren't in America that listen to this, you know, and I know Thanksgiving is an American holiday. But I mean really what are we celebrating?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh stretchy pants. Right.

SPEAKER_06:

I need them stretchy pants right now. But what are we really celebrating? You know, you're celebrating, you know, you you went to someone else's land, took their land, and then they, you know, they taught you how to hunt and fish. Right. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. You know, like now everybody stuff your bellies.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. Like, and I go, I mean, if if we can do it with all these other holidays, why is it just Halloween that we look at and go, Right.

SPEAKER_02:

We're gonna take this that's the devil's playground.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. We can't do that.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, and and it's sad because there's so much that people miss out on. And you can miss out on meeting some of the most amazing, wonderful salt of the earth people that you know I was on my right.

SPEAKER_06:

The office.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Um I lost my train of thought. You just you miss out. You miss out, and and honestly, you look like that bitter, nasty, crumungeoned Christian that nobody wants to be around. Don't be that person.

SPEAKER_06:

Well, and I go, and it's what you make it. I mean, would I be okay if you know my kids were like and we don't trick-or-treat in our house, okay?

SPEAKER_02:

We never have I mean we went twice.

SPEAKER_06:

But even then, like the kids had to give away all their candy, and we went and got candy. Right. But that that had nothing to do with it being the devil's holiday. That had to do with, you know, with with my time in law enforcement and you know, just the birth of the internet and reading what some people do, yeah, you know, to candy. I went, no, you know, I'll I'll go buy you candy. You know, that's not true.

SPEAKER_02:

You can go get the candy, we're gonna exchange it for you. Right, right.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. Um so that was more, I don't know, jaded distrust and the goodwill of man, but it's a whole other story. But you know, uh uh I again I just go back to you know it's what you make it. Right. Would I would I've ever let my kids dress up as, you know, something glorifying, you know, the horrific, you know, what we know is hellish and demonic. No. You know, I mean one year Kayla dressed up as Wolverine, like right.

SPEAKER_02:

One year she dressed up as Bithia.

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Right.

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Who is remember Bithia? Yeah. The mother of.

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Not the mother of.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh no, it's uh Moses' sister. Nope.

SPEAKER_06:

Nope, that's Mary.

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Ramsay's sister.

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It's the one who found it.

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I'm going the wrong way. It's the one who found Moses.

SPEAKER_06:

Um you know sideways. And really it was in and and really it was a Cleopatra outfit, yeah. But she wanted to make it. Kayla came up with that all on her own. She did, that was funny. Um, you know, but but again, you know, I mean, JT's gone as Iron Man. Like, what's wrong with with playing dress up? What's wrong with I mean adults do it all the time, right? Right. You know, you dress up to make it look like you, you know, have you got a good thing?

SPEAKER_04:

You're good at your job. Right.

SPEAKER_06:

You look dressed up. Dress apart. Um you know, so so again, when when we're looking at this, what is your heart motivation behind it? What is your what is your you know, desire? What is your mission with this? What you know? Why can't it just be, hey, we're gonna have a a night of fun and we're gonna listen to the monster mash and you know, we're gonna have some friends over, we're gonna watch, you know, Great Pumpkin, we're gonna watch Beetlejuice.

SPEAKER_02:

Your kids are gonna invite all the kids that don't go to church.

SPEAKER_06:

Why not have a Halloween party? Yeah, why not give them candied apples and Bob for apples? I don't know if they do that anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

Popcorn balls, whatever, do all the things.

SPEAKER_06:

You know, but why not engage in that?

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06:

You know, why not sit here and and make it a day to remember, you know, your loved ones that have passed on.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_06:

What really how are we glorifying the dark lord in any of that?

SPEAKER_02:

You're not. It'll be whatever you m you turn it into, and if you turn it into something ugly, it will be ugly.

SPEAKER_06:

Right. And I go You just lose so many. Or you could turn it into something that actually does bring glory and honor to Jesus.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And it's not the devil's day. Stop saying that to your kids. It's not the devil's day.

SPEAKER_06:

Unless you're giving it to the devil.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, and that's a whole different story.

SPEAKER_06:

So I I don't even want to say this week over time. But this Halloween. I'll challenge you. Challenge yourself with what you think about it. Is it is it is there anything beyond the redemption and power that is in the cross? Is there is there anything beyond Jesus being able to save and redeem and use for his glory? I don't think there is. And I'm not saying go out and and worship the dark lord and you know go that route with Halloween, but I am sitting here going, you can use it for an opportunity to bring glory and honor to King Jesus.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Yep.

SPEAKER_06:

So until next podcast, we love you. We thank you. We love you guys. And we can't do this without you.

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Debbie

Host
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Josh

Host