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.

Did they actually say anything OP?
Or are you just presuming?!

Our church kids groups would be fine with it

Not remotely true. I will happily dismiss any and all religion as fairytales for adults.

Cringe

@DogOverlord Sadly I don't think the benefit system will let me do that. I shall wait till paradise come.

The tradition of dressing up as ghosts, witches and devils (as well as pumpkins, or, technically Jack o’ Lanterns) is to confuse the supposed lost souls that hang about on All Hallows’ Eve and prevent them from exercising any hold on the living world.
Having this army of imposters out and about led to people offering them food and drink and thus Trick or Treat was born…
Some people (not just Christian ones) assume that dressing up as something that’s “bad” is somehow conflated with glorification of their characters: it’s not, and people who object to taking part should a) not organise Halloween parties (or any other type of day-themed parties on Halloween) at Playgroup or school Etc. And b) not take part in Trick or Treating by decorating their houses with pumpkins, skeletons, bats Etc.
And frankly, anyone who thinks that Christians are being disrespected because “their religion trumps something” that has its origins from long before Christianity was brought to the UK (and this was 5 times longer ago than it was brought to the US, btw) needs to gain a healthy perspective and learn how to disseminate between worship and a general, fun tradition - with no devil-worship involved…

You've lost me

I don’t respect any religion, particularly. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to be offensive or awkward towards people who are religiously observant.

I suppose I am culturally Christian insofar as I celebrate Christian holidays, granted not in an observant way.

I’d probably not take my child to a playgroup run by a religious group, to be honest.

Why? What else do you expect people to call your imaginary friend?

‘It probably wouldn’t occur to most people that some Christians might have a problem with Halloween.’

Indeed.

Some churches have a stronger stance on All Hallow’s Eve than others.
I’d take the dedication to a party of light & NO Halloween as a clear indication of where this group stands.

The expression of light is deeply symbolic in the Christian faith.

So to answer @Flymetothezoom original question: Yes, people are fine with being disrespectful to Christians.

Of course, only some people & probably due to ignorance about Christianity even though many of our shared values come from our Judeo-Christian heritage & traditions.

I go further to say some are disrespectful to Christians to extent that they would never dare to be to other faiths.

For what it’s worth, I’m a Christian and I love Halloween. It’s FUN!

^If you break the laws of God, you will be punished by God.
Really is quite simple stuff^

I'm already buggered then on the basis of consuming shellfish and wearing mixed fabrics.

Why would someone want to mark a day which has not much to do with them. That's the point.
It's like I would go and do anti some other religion event which has nothing to do with me really.
"Oh no, others have festival I don't like. I must try to push it out by making my alternative"

I just don't see the harm in it, personally. Children like to dress up, and they like scary things. I don't really see any real disrespect, and I'm sure none was intended. Plus it can get complicated if you need to buy different fancy dress outfits for different events, especially if you have multiple children. It's just strikes me as a very trivial thing to get worked up about.

Confusing for parents to have a party on Halloween with no explicit clarity on what is 'acceptable' fancy dress, surely? If the organisers are easily offended then maybe they should have made it clearer that they didn't want certain costumes included to avoid any offence?

LOL at everyone getting confused at Christianity making up its own celebrations when they literally took over every celebration they have from older religions.

Your church might not celebrate Halloween, but many, many, many Christian churches/Christians do. Dressing up in Halloween costume is not being 'disrespectful', in fact, you are the one being disrespectful by misrepresenting Christian beliefs. And, maybe, since most Christians do celebrate Halloween, these parents did not know that that particular church didn't? After all, it's pretty rare for Christians not to celebrate Halloween, so why would the parents expect that church doesn't? That particular (extremist, fundamentalist sounding) church sounds like the odd one out, and the one in the wrong here.

Forgive me if another poster has said this, but does no one see the irony that a Church group is holding a party of light to counteract Halloween, when Samhain, the festival all Hallows Eve was devised to stamp out, was also a festival of light? Anyhow, OP, I am sorry you feel Christians are being disrespected but they are simply being confronted with the fact that other religions existed before they did. Halloween is an echo of that. My devoutly Catholic grandmother loved Halloween and instilled a lot of traditions in me that had pagan origins. I have passed them onto my children because, as we are Irish, it is part of our history and our culture. Like my grandmother, you can acknowledge that and still be a devout Christian. I find people who are offended by Halloween are those that that are convinced it is all about devil worshipping etc, which it isn't. Ignorance only leads to negative responses and this is something we all have control over. How other people dress their kids is not.

Eh. I think the parents probably just didn't know what a light party is - I certainly didn't until this thread, and I am a Christian.

Our church held a Halloween party for the local kids over the weekend with prizes awarded to scariest costume 🤷‍♀️ just a bit of fun, isn't it?