The war on Halloween

Content warning: if you avoid discussions of Christianity, hypocrisy or any combination thereof, give this one a pass.

Right, you've been warned.

For at least a decade, maybe longer, I've been hearing from right-wing and right-leaning Christians about "the war on Christmas," enumerating all the ways in which popular culture is purportedly trying to mute or shut down any public celebration or discussion of the Christmas holiday.

This is ludicrous for many reasons, not the least of which is that the same right-wing Christians are waging an actual culture war on Halloween. Seriously. All the evangelical Christian churches in my neck of the woods, as the end of October draws nigh, are advertising upcoming "harvest parties" or "Trunkivals," because heaven forbid they should use the terms "Halloween party" or "Trunk or Treat." Hobby Lobby has Christmas crafts galore, lots of Thanksgiving crafts, and a fair number of generic Autumn crafts, but no Halloween anything because "good Christians don't celebrate Halloween." (Meanwhile a pop-up Spirit Halloween store is doing brisk business at the other end of Hobby Lobby's parking lot.) There seems to be a widespread assumption, at least among American evangelicals, that Halloween is a celebration of EEE-VILLE that shouldn't be countenanced in any way.

This, despite the fact that the way American Halloween is celebrated should be a strong, obvious analogy to anyone who's read the New Testament.

Let's think about how it goes. You're enjoying the cozy warmth of your home on a cold October night. The doorbell rings. You open your door to find some of your small neighbors symbolically hiding their identities under the guise of monsters. And the greeting they give you is a symbolic threat: "Trick or treat!" In other words, you'd better give them a treat or they'll smash pumpkins or soap your windows.

And what do you do? Why, you shower them with goodies, of course. With no thought of reward or reciprocation (other than a possible "thank you" from the cute little monsters at your door). It's pure charitable giving, responding to (yes, purely symbolic) fear and threats with kindness and treats.

Christians, this should sound familiar. Because Jesus taught something very similar: when monstrous people threaten you and attempt to force you to do something, rather than resisting or doing it grudgingly, you choose to do more than you were asked -- and by so doing, you both demonstrate kindness and retake power over the situation. It looks like this in the King James Version (Matthew 5:38-42):

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

So yeah, I find it hilarious and more than a little eye-rolling that evangelical Christians would choose to deliberately wage war on a holiday that vibrantly illustrates one of the main teaching points of the Sermon on the Mount. But America is a diverse, pluralist society where people can choose to celebrate -- or choose not to celebrate -- anything they want. So you do you, folks.

And if you should happen to change your minds, we'll be here all night handing out candy.