Nothing takes the joy out of a holiday quite like Christianity.

So, basically, Christians want to co-op TWO formerly pagan festivals as celebrations of Yeshua's alleged "resurrection"; Easter AND Halloween. No matter that the two are a good six months apart (explain how THAT works! Did he die twice or was he just reanimated twice?), and no matter that Easter (named in honor of the Saxon Goddess of the Spring, Eastre) has already been almost thoroughly com-modified, but that's just not enough for the Believers. No, they MUST completely cleanse the pagan end-of-harvest celebration (renamed Halloween, which itself is a modern corruption of the medieval "all Hallow's e'en[eve], harbinger of the Catholic celebration of "All Saints Day" on November 1st - because apparently celebrating a feast day for saints practically every other day of the year just wasn't enough) of any remnants of its pre-Christian origins. Will they not be satisfied until EVERY secular or pagan-sourced holiday is infused with the trappings of Christianism? Heck, they've already got Christmas, plus a decent lock on Thanksgiving, and we've seen recently the uproar from Catholics over the dissolution of Columbus Day, but what next? Christian President's Day? Jesus Memorial Day? Fourth of Religious Freedom in July? Onward Christian Veterans Day?

Jesus, those really are some terrible costume ideas.

Sigh.

The War on Christmas begins earlier every year.

adding imaginary scenes to the Bible

Redundant.

@3

No kidding, those were horrible. The Rapture idea was the only one I got a mild chuckle out of, which them prompted me to want them all to just Rapture already so I could get back to my sinning and fornicating in peace and (not always) quiet.

@2: That's what Saul of Tarshish did. He diverged from the Judaic rule of "don't adopt pagan traditions, follow your own traditions instead" (and indeed a lot of Leviticus is about what pagan traditions specifically not to adopt), and went to "make their traditions part of our traditions to attract them to us".

The more they lose the louder they scream. Just ignore them - their rhetoric is failing and they are desperate.

The co-opting of Halloween by churches is hardly new. As a kid I was always being invited to youth group functions which would save me from the danger of trick or treating.

Trunk-or-treating is another way that churches make sure kids don't visit their neighbors, but only associate with "safe" youth pastors and church goers.

Giving Bible tracts to trick or treaters? Crap! At least when you got apples, you could throw them at the jerk's house.

@ 10, we had neighbors like that when I was growing up. Correlation is not causation, but that house was the most TP'd one until they moved away.

Flagrant abuses of religious liberties?



How about silly shit that takes 10 seconds for any competent parent to diffuse?



Why do we have to get all whipped up about idiots instead of ignoring them?

If they can rationalize "Biking for Jesus" and "Bowling for Jesus" and that kind of nonsense, I don't see why "Trick or Treating for Jesus" would pose an ethical/theological dilemma for them.

Watching a documentary called "Hell House" makes you a SECOND hand observer.

@12:

I mentioned Christmas.

If you hand out Chick Tracts and candy corn (renamed or not) to all your visitors, you deserve every ounce of the mountain of flaming dog shit that will find its way to your doorstep.

Just for the historical record ... Samhain is not a set, Gregorian date. When it began, it symbolized the end of the harvest, when the rule of the Goddess gave way to the rule of the God, Lord of the Hunt.

It wasn't until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar that it got assigned a specific date.

It's also the time when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, and some of us choose to use that time to say a final farewell to those we have lost in the previous year.

You can keep the rest of the claptrap, in my opinion.

It's only "Satanic" because the Christian church made it so, and frankly, that's another soapbox entirely.

There are no Christian holidays or traditions. They stole everything from other religions and simply renamed them.

Did anyone else notice that the Catholic article about making kids feel bad about their costumes links back to the Stranger on the word "movies"?