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People are fine with being disrespectful to Christians

1000 replies

Flymetothezoom · 31/10/2022 09:34

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
nopuppiesallowed · 31/10/2022 14:25

@PurpleWisteria1
It depends on the church you go to.
Ours is full of young families - well over 100 every Sunday morning. We do loads of things for children and teens - playgroup, twins group, youth groups (over 40 when we had a bonfire party a month ago), bible study groups, wewkends away. All our groups are open to non church children and young people. We don't hold Halloween parties (bible tells us not to have anything to so with witchcraft) but we do hold a Light Party. We don't sneer at people who do celebrate Halloween - it's perfectly possible to disagree without being sneery or judgemental. In spite of not celebrating Halloween, the children keep coming to our church and church activities because we have so many good things going on for them. Our son lives on the other side of the country. His church is just as active as ours.

SomePosters · 31/10/2022 14:25

ZoeCM · 31/10/2022 14:21

OP, the Bible teaches that if a rape victim isn't heard screaming for help, she should be executed because she must have secretly been enjoying it. If you're not offended by the Bible, but ARE offended by toddlers dressed as pumpkins, then your sense of morality is rather skewed.

Also this!

put much more succinctly than I did but was very much the point I was trying to make

BashfulClam · 31/10/2022 14:25

‘Glorify the darkness’ dark and light anew a balance and I suggest you read your bible..Darkness is not a barrier to God. Psalm 139:12 describes God's response to darkness: “Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.”

Toddlerteaplease · 31/10/2022 14:25

Unfortunately most people will
Miss the point of a light party. At the catholic ones I know of, you are support to come as your favourite saint. Which compared to a halloween costume is very boring!

NippyWoowoo · 31/10/2022 14:26

If I "threaten" a serial adulterer with punishment for breaking the laws of God, I am denounced.

But of course, I am a hypocrite.

This thread highlights how far the West has fallen.

How I imagine people who talk like this to be

People are fine with being disrespectful to Christians
Flymetothezoom · 31/10/2022 14:27

@girlmom21 both. I am a volunteer and I had my toddler there.

OP posts:
Topsyturvy78 · 31/10/2022 14:27

I went to a church playgroup but I and most the other mums were not members of the church. So how about the parents supposed to know.

Toddlerteaplease · 31/10/2022 14:27

People think it's fine to be disrespectful to Christianity. Particularly on Mumsnet. But no one would dare be disrespectful of other religions. So why is it ok to hate Christianity.

whumpthereitis · 31/10/2022 14:28

BloodAndFire · 31/10/2022 14:24

I mean, to be fair, given that your best argument was "what if I took my child to synagogue dressed as a ham sandwich", that's a fairly low bar.

“What if I took my child to synagogue dressed as a ham sandwich”

how did I miss that? 😂💀😭

whumpthereitis · 31/10/2022 14:29

Toddlerteaplease · 31/10/2022 14:27

People think it's fine to be disrespectful to Christianity. Particularly on Mumsnet. But no one would dare be disrespectful of other religions. So why is it ok to hate Christianity.

Apparently a popular thing to say, but it is bollocks. A prime example of just because something is said, does not mean it is true.

Flymetothezoom · 31/10/2022 14:30

@BloodAndFire fair comment, that wasn’t one of my better ideas.

OP posts:
phishy · 31/10/2022 14:30

Toddlerteaplease · 31/10/2022 14:27

People think it's fine to be disrespectful to Christianity. Particularly on Mumsnet. But no one would dare be disrespectful of other religions. So why is it ok to hate Christianity.

I agree that a lot of the comments about religion / religious people are awful, but you're being disingenuous to say people wouldn't dare be disrespectful about other religions. Have you not seen the virulent ignorance, hatred and racism that can surface when there is a thread about Muslims?

BashfulClam · 31/10/2022 14:31

@SomePosters you can also sell your daughter to her rapist…some wild stuff in there and I know this is Old Testament but wow!
Deuteronomy 22

Various Laws

1 If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.
2 If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back.
3 Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.
4 If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.
5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.
6 If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.
7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.
8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.
9 Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.
10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
Marriage Violations

13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her
14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,”
15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin.
16 Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her.
17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town,
18 and the elders shall take the man and punish him.
19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,
21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,
24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.
26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor,
27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,
29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonour his father’s bed.

ZoeCM · 31/10/2022 14:32

OP, do you have a response to my previous post? Why are you more offended by toddlers dressed as pumpkins than by the belief that rape victims should be executed?

PeekAtYou · 31/10/2022 14:33

So nobody explicitly said "no Halloween costumes please"? You can't expect people to know that costumes weren't ok. This thread proves that opinions amongst Christians range from don't care about costumes in church through to a preference for no costumes in church.

People generally want to be be respectful but unless the unspoken rules are conveyed, people won't know how to behave in the church.

Anonymouseposter · 31/10/2022 14:36

the church and Christianity aren’t the same thing Someone has commented “disagree “ I do agree with this. The churches ( and there are a lot of different denominations) are man made institutions and in different ways have moved away from Christ’s original teachings. They are flawed, as are all humans.

deliverooyoutoo · 31/10/2022 14:37

I think the issue you have is that not all Christian denominations, and even churches within the same denomination, have the same view on Halloween. Thus, if it's not made explicit, how are people to have known?

BloodAndFire · 31/10/2022 14:37

whumpthereitis · 31/10/2022 14:28

“What if I took my child to synagogue dressed as a ham sandwich”

how did I miss that? 😂💀😭

OP's post at 13.13.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4666839-people-are-fine-with-being-disrespectful-to-christians?reply=121159207

It was one of those goady attempts at racist whataboutery, but she got it a bit (hilariously) wrong.

#whenantisemitismgoeswrong

Saltywalruss · 31/10/2022 14:38

PrettyMuchBollocks · 31/10/2022 14:07

You can’t, as a religion, take over a centuries old set of pagan celebrations and expect everyone to “switch” to your more pious (frankly boring) alternatives without keeping on any of their original rituals.

Look at Nowruz in Iran. Its a festival from the Zoroastrian religion originally. If those in charge in the “Islamic republic of” Iran can’t bow their people to drop an ancient festival (and they really did try), then I don’t think you’ve got much hope here with a “light festival” to replace Halloween/Samhain.

But the way most people celebrate Halloween now isn't the same as pagans did centuries ago .

Puzzledandpissedoff · 31/10/2022 14:39

The general consensus on here is we're all a load of child abusers/sweaty nonces who brainwash people and hate gays

Not all of you, no - in fact not even many - but that doesn't alter the concern over the approach of too many leaders to those who are

BloodAndFire · 31/10/2022 14:40

phishy · 31/10/2022 14:30

I agree that a lot of the comments about religion / religious people are awful, but you're being disingenuous to say people wouldn't dare be disrespectful about other religions. Have you not seen the virulent ignorance, hatred and racism that can surface when there is a thread about Muslims?

And if you haven't seen the most gross antisemitism expressed on here, then you've never opened a single thread about Jews, Jewish culture, food, or even a celebrity that people think is Jewish.

Of course it's disingenuous. But it's an incredibly common trope. The racism and prejudice against Jews, Muslims, Black and Asian people, etc. is obvious and overwhelming.

Saying that 'it's OK to hate Christianity' is much like those posters who complain about 'misandry' and say that men are the real victims of sex discrimination. In that it's complete bollocks.

ArtixLynx · 31/10/2022 14:40

girlmom21 · 31/10/2022 12:47

Says who?

We're not fictional, we're very real people. I've been a practising Pagan and Eclectic Witch since i was 18.

Referring to us as 'fictional' because of fairy stories warping what we are, is extremely rude. HTH.

Love that this is a thread about disrespecting Christianity and nearly every bloody post is disrespecting Paganism.

Saltywalruss · 31/10/2022 14:40

Toddlerteaplease · 31/10/2022 14:25

Unfortunately most people will
Miss the point of a light party. At the catholic ones I know of, you are support to come as your favourite saint. Which compared to a halloween costume is very boring!

I haven't heard of this type of light party but why is it boring?

Toddlerteaplease · 31/10/2022 14:41

@phishy actually no, one never ever seen that happen.

mam0918 · 31/10/2022 14:41

Im christian and LOVE halloween, every church I have been part of loves to involve themselves in theology discussions and is completely accepting other cultures and societies traditions... refusing that isnt religeon its cult extremeism.

Also a toddler dressed as a pumpkin, a 6 year old dressed as a cat and and a 9 year old dressed as a scary clown and an 11 year old in a skeleton suit etc... is in no way 'disrespectful'.

You sound like you're still in the dark ages.

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