Something Wicked This Way Comes (But Do We Know It?)

That time of year is creeping up once again. My local grocery stores are filled with the growing cornucopias of pumpkins and squash. Apple and pumpkin pies are lining the shelves. At my local Aldi, an entire aisle was dedicated to fall. While fall is not one of my favorite seasons, symbolizing the death of my most beloved time of year, I do enjoy the coziness of plaid flannels, the tastes of pumpkin spiced lattes, and the calming crisp scents of decaying leaves. Well – I did before moving to Florida where fall feels like the mid to high 80s instead of the low 60s. It’s been an adjustment. 

The one part of fall I am growing to dislike – and honestly, it’s becoming something that I have started seeing crop up in July in the past recent years– Halloween, or rather, its over-the-top celebration. There are a growing number of people that just want September to roll around so  they can don black every day, put creepy inflatables in their lawn, and binge watch the Disney Channel’s 25 days of Halloween. I do understand that there are some exhilarating moments in the season of scares, and that some Halloween movie can be fun to watch (I am a big fan of Tim Burton, and while I am not likely to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, I do like to watch The Corpse Bride around this time of year). I have noticed that this season, Halloween seemed to hit hard and fast – probably with the marketing of the new Hocus Pocus sequel as Disney, yet again, proves it cannot make a new story but needs to recycle an old one. One of the trends I have been noticing over the past couple years is the growing number of my Bible professing friends in taking up with the spirit of the season (I hesitate to call it a “holy day”). It’s had me wrestling with my own approach to this time of year – how do we, as representatives of Christ, approach a holiday that has its foundations in demonic celebrations?

Growing up, my family did participate in Halloween in small doses. I was blessed to grow up in a small suburban neighborhood in upstate New York, and it was both safe and convenient for us to walk door to door and participate in “trick or treat” with our neighborhood friends. My family did participate in a couple Harvest Festivals at church (notably, the year we were living in an apartment complex), but that tradition never took. Instead we ventured out like many an American household on October 31st to collect candy from endearing elderly couples and exhausted moms trying to get their own broods out the door. While we participated in trick or treating, we had guidelines in our costume choices – nothing demonic, scary, or associated with evil. My parents also made the decision to ban Harry Potter from our house (a decision I am not inclined to support with my own children), so we had little desire to dress up like the little witches and wizards our friends often went out as. Honestly, the guidelines weren’t that limiting – there were hosts of athletes, pop stars, cartoon characters, and other iconic creatures to go out masqueraded as. Outside of this, we did not have extended cable, so I did not grow up on a steady diet of Disney channel Halloween movies. I did not see Hocus Pocus until my senior year of college! I also do not remember anything but candy lining the shelves of stores of our local Price Chopper much to the chagrin of the adults.

As I have grown older, I have noticed that the presence – and the obsession– with Halloween has seemed to grow as my generation has reached adulthood. I, as a future parent, have become concerned with the burgeoning popularity of this day, not because I think my friends who profess Christ yet get dressed up in their witchy best are sacrificing to the devil, I just believe we run the danger of sanitizing and familiarizing things that are demonic and evil by making them kid friendly. This year especially, as my husband and I are on the cusp of starting our own family, has me wondering how God might call us to respond to this day in a way that honors Him but also allows us to practice our Christian liberty. 

There are parts of Halloween that  can be good innocent fun. There’s something that can be community building in  innocent trick-or-treating. My family and I often went with unbelieving friends, and it allowed us to create deeper relationships  to share our faith. I also see little difference in going out for Halloween and engaging in a church based “Harvest Festival,” where candy and games are played and people dress up all the same. I believe either way families participate in this event can lead to fun for small children. And can lead to various ways to bring people to Christ, which I believe should be our ultimate goal whenever we engage with others in our community. I don’t think it is wrong that some people have a conviction to not trick-or-treat – just please don’t be like the sheltered homeschooling families of my younger days and make Harvest parties all about the church family. What a great way for us to reach others and spread the gospel – especially as many other young people may be in apartment complex situations where trick or treating is a logistics issue and not a moral one. 

The real concern that is growing in me about Halloween seems to be the glorification of the other parts. How creepy can we make our house, filled with witches and demonic beings? How many times can I declare myself a witch? How many of these movies can I watch, slowly desensitizing myself to the real presence of evil in our world and instead making it into a silly, jumpscare gag? I have to start out the next part of my treatise with this word of encouragement – these are merely my thoughts in this generation and I want to share some of my convictions. Your convictions may not align with mine, and that is okay. There is freedom in Christ. However, I am seeing trends in morality that are beginning to worry me, and I want to raise a yellow flag of warning to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who may be exposing themselves to the dizzying effects of the enemy is one of my duties as a fellow sister in Christ. . 

When we, as Christians, begin to normalize spiritual aspects to make them nothing but “fun” or “scary” stories, I believe we are numbing our ability to detect the schemes of the Devil. Now, I believe that, just as with any matter of personal liberty, how much we can read of these tales is based on the individual, their story of coming to Christ, and their sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. A place where I draw a hard line, personally, is with the type of horror or scary movies that I will watch. I am not a fan of being scared in general, but I don’t mind a good suspense movie from time to time. The one genre of horror I refuse to watch is the spiritual supernatural. I think it is a dangerous game to play with movies such as The Conjuring, The Blair Witch Project,or the numerous Paranormal Activities which play around with the ideas of demons. It lulls the unbelieving world (or the casual believer) into the idea that demons are harmless and that they are good fodder for a thrilling story. Demons are far from harmless, though they would love it if we would consider them that way. They would love to creep their way into the lives of non-believers in order to continue to blind them to the grace of Christ; and, while they do not hold power over the souls of Christians, they can sneak in and bind us where we give them power. I believe we should prayerfully consider how much we are willing to “play” with the idea that the enemy is  weak and passive, when he is on the mission to bring as many people down with him into the fiery lake. We would be foolish to think that he does not play into the desire to be taken as weak and as fun entertainment– what better way to prowl about like a lion, seeking to kill and destroy. First Peter 3:8 calls us as professors of Christ, to be alert and of sober mind. Let me tell you as someone who was raised in an abusive household, I am not always “sober minded” when it comes to dangerous patterns in my family’s history, because I have become accustomed to the dysfunction in my family of origin and what is not right has become “normal”. Abuse is the kindest word I can use to describe what the devil wants to do to our souls. We should be careful how we approach media with these types of supernatural beings, to avoid becoming accustomed to the “fun” presence of devils that we are not able to recognize. Instead, we would be wise to call heaven down against spiritual attacks in our lives, families, and communities. 

I also believe there is danger to downplaying different aspects of supernatural elements. Again, this is something that each individual needs to approach prayerfully and seek the Lord. While I am not against witch stories like the Harry Potter series (which most people enjoy the tribalism of more than anything — after all, when discussing Harry Potter, the first question usually asked is what house you are in to identify friend, foe, or Hufflepuff can identified – an issue in and of itself); I do think these can be engaging stories about witches and wizards that can encourage good character traits in young readers (loyalty, how to be a better friend than Harry Potter is, honesty, bravery). The series also makes it impossible for somebody to “become” a witch – like an allegory that went sideways, either you are born a magic person or you are not. However, the more and more we invite “kid friendly witchcraft” into our lives, the more I believe we run the risk of exposing ourselves and our communities to lifestyles that are neither edifying nor beneficial. Most witch stories that take place in our world involve witches learning spells, which is something that is practiced among belief systems such as Wicca. This also desensitizes us to the fact that witchcraft practiced in our world ARE demonic forces. Witches are in the Bible, after all. King Saul went to the Witch of En-Dor (where have you seen that name before, in a tale that involves good magic and bad?), the witch not only was able to prophecy, but was also able to conjure up the spirit of Samuel, who rebuked Saul for seeking out demonic help (1 Samuel 28). Do we teach stories like this to our children? Or that when Christ was raised from the dead, so were others (not a demonic rising, but we sure like to pretend that we made up our zombie stories out of thin air). I believe that we, as Christians, are doing a disservice to our children and to non believer alike to look to fictional storytelling and a demonic based holiday to learn about and celebrate witchcraft while never addressing these stories in the bible. I can’t remember a single time in youth group where we talked about this story of King Saul and the very real power that demonic forces DO have. This is a big reason I will never let my children watch The Princess and the Frog – the voodoo magic was taken so flippantly.  The casual evilness in the movie disturbed my soul, and I was just coming back to my walk with Christ when I saw it. 

I think we as Christians need to be extremely careful and prayerful in how we engage this holiday. That does not mean we need to go and cancel everything – I believe some people have had fun and peaceful Hocus Pocus 2 parties in the last few weeks. I enjoyed a great Stranger Things house set up I saw on Instagram. However, I have also seen far too many pictures of young toddlers in “I am little witch!” shirts posted right next to Bible verses. I am beginning to wonder if my generation of believing women are aware that witches are real – and they were not to be celebrated in the Bible? Having just finished the Old Testament with the Books of Chronicles, the kingdoms that displeased the Lord and walked away from Him to worship at the Asher poles were the ones that began to practice witchcraft and sorcery. Because both of these are real and both of these in this world are linked to the demonic. 

If you think I am attacking you and your children, hear my heart in this. I am not out to tell you how to celebrate or recognize Halloween this year or in the years to come My plea is that you think about how and why you do so. Is it to have a good time, bond with some friends, and enjoy some candy? Then perhaps there is nothing Spirit grieving about the way you enjoy the tradition. But if you find yourself reveling in the darkness, macabre, and sorcery that comes with these times, perhaps it is time to take a heart inventory check (as we should do anytime something other than God becomes an object that captures our attention). 

I look forward to the ending of Halloween this year, even though when I write this,  it is the start of October. While the days may be longer in Florida (and filled with more sunshine than in the gloomy and lost state of New York we fled), the end of the days of this age is drawing near.

 We are called to be meeting together more and more as believers, creating a safety net of accountability and protection, as Christ’s return approaches (Hebrews 10:25). We are also called to take our enemy seriously and to resist him, to run from him (James 4:7). And we are called to remember that Satan ultimately does not have the power – Christ does. He should be the object of our sole worship and attention.

 I look forward to the true holiday that comes with autumn in the United States – Thanksgiving. Which, despite how one feels about its beginnings, calls us to be thankful and to count our blessings, a prescription we are given time and again in the Scriptures as we focus on the Goodness of God. I pray that you are able to seek edification and discernment in this tempting time of the year. Consider that Satan was a beautiful angel before he fell, and that he did not lose his power to attract when he was cast out of heaven. Be alert and sober minded, thoughtfully considering whether the movies you watch, the costumes you don, the way you decorate your house, and the parties you attend are in an effort to be a witness and glorify God in all you do – or are a way for you to forget, for a moment, just how real the spiritual realm is. If you’re in need of a good Halloween read – I would suggest The Screwtape Letters. It just might change the way you approach every aspect of your life in light of eternity going forward.