Why Christian parents should think carefully about Halloween and its origins

Hope Bonarcher is concerned that many parents don’t think seriously enough about the dark background to Halloween

Some stories are downright eerie, even when they’re biblical:

At the beginning of time, a perfect couple lived in a fruitful garden. Their all sufficient, loving father walked alongside them. One day, an uninvited third party revealed himself, ruining their paradise by cunningly convincing them to doubt their father’s identity and goodness. Sin entered the couple and all their offspring. The man and woman were banned from the garden. In mercy and kindness, their father continued to bless them, but their unintended alliance with his enemy’s inferior, still formidable authority, left them perpetually gripped by warring evil entities and death.

Western believers may be less comfortable with talk of demonic supernatural forces, but the Bible isn’t silent

Try as we might to stave off scary stuff as Christians, we have to admit, it’s woven into the fabric of our origins. Good-evil, light-darkness, life-death; we can’t separate from the root of who we are as humans, but we can control our focus and intent. Western believers may be less comfortable with talk of demonic supernatural forces, but the Bible isn’t silent. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Around the world and for millennia, since that heave-ho from the garden, ancient cultures have ……