People are fine with being disrespectful to Christians

[Flymetothezoom]

At a church playgroup. The people who run it are very devout Christians. I am taken aback, by the number of parents, who thought it was appropriate to bring their kids to the church dressed for Halloween. Kids are dressed as witches, goblins, skeletons, creepy pumpkins etc..
The church holds a light party every year on Halloween and is very clear that they do not endorse Halloween.

I'm not a Christian

Christianity is a huge umbrella with plenty of Christians having no issue with Halloween. Some do, but no universal statement can be made.

If this particular group of Christians do have an issue with children dressing in costumes, they should have sent parents a notice that it was not acceptable / please do not do that. It would have clearly set expectations.

Atheism isn't ridiculous, but comments like this are.

Not believing in a same thing and not having same prophets is not same as actually organising counter events on a specific event. That is the bit which is problematic.
Don't believe in same thing? Fine, ignore it. That's absolutely fine.

I think it all hinges on whether the leaders of the group made the dress code clear or not in advance. If they did, and the parents ignored it, then yes, I think that's disrespectful. If you are attending something run by a religious group then i think you should follow reasonable requests regarding dress, behaviour etc out of respect for the people involved, even if you don't share their beliefs. I'm sure many of us have visited religious buildingson holiday for instance where we've been asked to have our shoulders covered, take our shoes off, cover our heads/not cover our heads, not take certain foods with us etc and have complied with those requests even though we are not of that faith. It's just polite to comply if you're a visitor. If you don't feel that you can do that because of conflict with your own beliefs or conscience then you shouldn't go.
However, if it wasn't made clear in advance I don't think it was disrespectful. As is obvious from this thread, there is quite a range of views and practices regarding Halloween within Christianity so it's unreasonable to expect people to understand the stance of a particular group if they've not been told.

But why can't you?

As long as you don't interfere with other people practising their faith, why can't you hold something different if you want to? You're allowed to think a belief system is rubbish and to hold something else that you find more appropriate as an alternative.

The only person trying to dictate how people mark the day is you.

@DogOverlord I have nothing against atheists and I never laugh at their beliefs, but you think it's ok to call something someone deeply believes in as a maker, a sky daddy?
You don't think that could possibly be deeply offensive?

Nope it's the day before All Hallows (Saints) day. Hence why it's Halloween which is short for All Hallows Eve

Instead of children being surrounded by things that glorify the darkness

I went to a stay and play type thing this morning. Didn't realise the small child I saw there dressed as a pumpkin was glorifying the darkness..

Given there are a bunch of Christians on our road right now who don’t find it disrespectful to stand outside other people’s homes to protest an abortion clinic down the road (because they’ve been banned from being closer), I can’t say I can call drawing a two year old as a pumpkin in a church hall disrespectful.

Hmm I think YAB a bit U - dressing up as a witch or a ghost is just a bit of fun. I'd agree with you if someone had turned up with a ouiji board.
However I do think that people are overall much quicker to be rude about Christian beliefs than they are about others (e.g. Muslim, Hindu)

@DogOverlord That's not my job. You have grown to adulthood thinking it's not, there's not much me, a random person on the internet can do to persuade you that what you say, is incredibly disrespectful and derogatory.

If you break the laws of man, you will be punished by man.

If you break the laws of God, you will be punished by God.

Really is quite simple stuff.

I was thinking the exact same words.

But Halloween is part Christian? You've got the 3 consecutive linked days of Halloween, All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day. If it's a community playgroup and not just for church members then it's unreasonable for you to expect everyone to understand your specific theological positions, particularly if they are quite niche.

Tehcnically would Halloween (All Hallows Eve) start at sunset, and was actually the evening of All Saints Day, as days went from sunset to sunset?

lol

@DogOverlord I don't believe in hell but it's a bit weird to be offended at that. From my understanding the belief is that if you do things that aren't ok in that religion, you go to hell. If you don't believe in that religion or its beliefs, why would you choose to believe and be offended by one part of it?

Still hypocritical.

Do you get off on threatening people with hell?

What a strange post. As others have said, depends on what sect of Christianity - many, such as Catholics, don't have a problem with Halloween. If your church group doesn't want people to dress up, why didn't they just say that, and then refuse entry to anyone who is dressed up if they wanted!