Fischer on Halloween

I've always been a fan of author John Fischer, from the time when he wrote the back page article of CCM magazine and later in his insightful and encouraging books. One of my early favourites was Real Christians Don't Dance, although the second in that series, True Believers Don't Ask Why is absolutely brilliant in its treatment of "Ask, Seek, Knock" being part of the entire Christian journey, not just up until we become followers of Jesus in the first place.

One of John's more recent books is Fearless Faith: Living Beyond the Walls of Safe Christianity, and he tackles a favourite theme of his: getting beyond Christian subculture and being a redemptive part of the culture around us. In one of the chapters, John writes about Halloween, and so for a Halloween post, here's a quote from John Fischer:

"The more acceptable Christian thing to do now on Halloween is to close up the house and have an alternative party for our kids at church. The party usually has a harvest or biblical character theme -- no ghosts or goblins allowed. Though I understand how this safer alternative came to be, I wonder whether a blanket boycott is the only way to handle this controversial holiday. Is this just one more time when we as Christians isolate ourselves from the rest of our culture for religious reasons apparent only to us? Have we really thought through what our dark houses are saying to the rest of the block while we're off having our alternative party? I can hear the neighbourhood kids shuffling by our house, saying, "Don't go there, they don't give anything." Is this what we want to be known for in the community -- a dark house on the one night you can be guaranteed neighbors will visit?

"If Satan comes out on Halloween, he doesn't go back into hiding the next morning. Regardless of the origins of Halloween (and there appears to be little agreement about this, even among historians), what we have today is a culture-wide event that is more concerned with pretending than it is with the underworld... If Satan wins anything on this day, he may win more through the darkened homes of Christians than through anything else."

Of course, if for conscience's sake, some of you do not feel the freedom to participate, feel free to send me your candy.