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 so hope this one ends up on the Mumsnet Madness twitter account

Most people don't think deeply enough to even be aware that the Christian faith discourages such things.

Most "Christian" festivals are pagan in origin anyway.

I'm a Christian. I wouldn't mind children coming to a church play group dressed up for halloween I don't even mind that some of my christian friends celebrate Halloween. I accept and respect that different people are going to have different feelings about whether Halloween is ok or not. While one of our pastors doesn't celebrate Halloween, she keeps a bowl of sweets ready for trick or treaters. Live and let live.

To answer a few point so far.

1. It was a church playgroup inside a church. It runs every Monday. The light party is this evening.
2. I am a Christian and yes I don’t like to see kids dressed as a witch or devil inside a church.
3. I was not equating kids wearing Halloween costumes to gimp suits. I was asking the specific poster, if there were any limits to their suggestion, that we shouldn’t shame anyone for what they are wearing.
4. The amount of hatred towards Christianity on this thread has been shocking. I do not mean people who disagree with me on the costumes in church. I mean the people who have posted about their hatred for the church in general.

Muslims teaching states that Halloween is Haram. Would people think it was disrespectful if I dressed my kids as the devil and went to the Mosque? Would it be ok if I wore a bikini to a Mosque (as another poster said). Or took my kid to a Synagogue dressed as a ham sandwich?

Are no faiths allowed to be offered consideration by people using their places of worship?

I also think it is lack of thought and/or knowledge in the OP's case. There is the usual fun, harmless dressing up aspect of Halloween, of course, but there is also undoubtably a darker side enjoyed by some people, which is diametrically opposed to what the Church stands for. So it's understandable if they're not keen.

My local church has a Lights party on 30th October, which is All Souls, I believe. So kids can go to that, and also dress up on 31st.

how far can we take this? Should people be shamed for wearing a gimp suit to church or bondage gear, serial killer outfits? In your world are there any limits?

How disingenuous. And disappointing.

Adults wearing fetish gear or a Jeffrey Dahmer costume to church is a different ball game to children dressing up as witches, skeletons or 'creepy pumpkins'. I think you know that.

The whole 'in your world are there any limits' thing is such a strawman argument. I don't think that someone should be removed from a Christian church service if they haven't completely covered their shoulders. I do think it would be fair for them to be asked to leave if they were sitting topless.

But because I said I don't think it reasonable to chuck someone out of the service for not completely covering their shoulders, you would (per your response above) presumably say "how far can we take this? Should people be shamed for sitting with their breasts showing in church? In your world are there any limits?!" Which would be as nonsensical as your response above.

Of course people have limits and thresholds for what they think is appropriate. They just aren't the same as yours.

And I have to say, on threads about religion on MN, when it comes to religious people in discussions, I only see snarky and dismissive kind of responses (like yours above) from Christians, rather than other religions.

It's not productive, isn't doing the church any favours and ironically isn't a very 'Christian' attitude.

@DogOverlord
Would you like people/society to respect your beliefs?
Then if you want to live in a society that is accepting of people’s right to choose their deities, you kind of have to play too.

Now you’ve whipped out the devil to up the stakes.

I'm not going to point out the irony of this statement

Thank goodness I stopped with all this religious stuff years ago. What’s Christian about whining about children having fun. Funny how Christian can be so judgemental and unforgiving.

Who cares why they want to? They have a perfect right to. Perhaps they find your beliefs offensive or disrespectful and that's why they want to hold something to counter it.

Your faith won't be "pushed out" by other people holding different events. If it's that weak a faith that it can't handle any kind of criticism or counter then it deserves to tank.

The amount of hatred towards Christianity on this thread has been shocking.

To be fair OP, you think us non believers are going to hell...

Which I'm fine with as I don't believe in heaven or hell.

But you're hardly loving atheists by thinking that, so it's a two way street!

what do you mean by the church? Which church are you talking about? What branch of Christianity?

And OP if you find pumpkins creepy you might want to sit down before you read the Old Testament (which informs much of the New Testament you presumably follow so cannot be dismissed) because it's a little bit more scary than a kid in a pumpkin costume.

So you're upset that the children wore Halloween and started talking about the Light Party but they weren't even attending the party?

If you went to a mosque in a bikini or a synagogue dressed as a ham sandwich (although why would you do either of those things?) you'd be disrespectful because you know those things wouldn't be welcomed, but how many people honestly know that some Christian's don't like Halloween?

Not a single other Christian here has said they'd be offended by a child dressed as a witch.

If anything it's a good idea to dress up for Halloween. It's so roaming demons (and other evils from beyond the veil) assume you are like them so don't try to steal your mortal soul.

😂😂😂

You are of course entitled to your feelings, but the purpose of a light party most certainly wouldn't be to offend anyones beliefs.

As a more protestant Christian, for myself, I would tend to reject much of the Christian All Hallows' element as an unnecessary fixation on death and demons and has its origins in catholic ideas of purgatory which we don't hold. If our hope is in Jesus' death and resurrection, then it is Jesus "the light of the world" we should set our minds on. My children don't like scary stuff so are happy enough to be at a light party with nothing scary and out of the house so people aren't knocking on the door.

In my view that has nothing to do with rejecting or criticising your pagan faith which I would have a lot of respect for. I would be more inclined to think adults dressing up as serial killers and sexy dead cheerleaders is more disrespectful to those origins.

We can talk about the appropriation of the festival and why that happened 100s of years ago and whether than should have happened. But we are where we are now and church light parties are just an alternative offering for modern secular halloween, bearing in mind tolerance and choice is part of being a multicultural society.

Goodness OP it's Halloween today, they're not in play group to pray or be religious, or to follow the devoutness of you or any other religious kill joys in the room, they're there to play and have fun, don't be such a muppet

😀

I’m a bit puzzled as to why you think it’s unloving for Christians to think that non-Christians are going to hell?