By Scott Tibbs, October 30, 2014
Tomorrow is Halloween. Some Christians have serious objections to participating in Halloween, and will not do so. Others do not see a problem, and allow their families to participate in trick or treating and other activities associated with October 31.
I understand that the history of Halloween involves superstitions about demons and such. To this day, some who dabble in or actively worship the occult see Halloween as a religious holiday. For the vast majority of people in this country, though, that is not the case. Halloween has become a money-making operation. Candy and costumes are sold and people go to parties. There is little if any occult influence today in the wider culture.
But that does not mean that sincere objections to Halloween should not be respected.
The answer for Christians, in my opinion, is to follow their conscience and be respectful of others' choices, regardless of their particular stance on Halloween. Those who do not celebrate Halloween should not judge those who do, and those who do celebrate Halloween should not judge those who do not. Absent a clear commandment from Scripture, we should respectfully agree to disagree and not fight about or divide over this issue. We should love each other and be unified in Christ.
In fact, this should be the position of Christians on any matter of conscience when there is no clear commandment of Scripture - to not judge, fight or divide over these differences. (Obviously, if there is a clear commandment in Scripture, that is a completely different matter.) We have enough to deal with in our lives without splitting into factions over the celebration of this day on the calendar.
