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 am a Christian and I find the whole Halloween thing so hypocritical. Lots of Christians I know love Harry Potter which is all about witches but when it comes to Halloween they act so holier than thou. My children are dressing up as Spider-Man and a princess. Any other day it would be totally fine for them to dress as that but suddenly on Halloween it becomes a work of the devil? I find it very silly and pointless to get worked up about it.

The level of concern about Halloween where people do not want kids dressed up as witches etc is mainly confined to the US. As you can see, most people in the UK have zero idea what a light party means or views around dressing up kids like this.
So YABU to assume everyone in the UK understands or even knows about a pretty extreme Evangelical Christian viewpoint.

I'm an atheist, so my understanding of all this stuff is very limited, but I thought that in Christianity it was your soul and what's in your heart that's important, not what you choose to put on your back.

I’m interested in how Halloween is viewed by Christian’s in America. Both Halloween and Christianity are much bigger in the US?

If the playgroup had asked people not to come in Halloween costumes and they did anyway, that would be disrespectful. But people shouldn't be expected to just know automatically. Not all Christian groups do particularly oppose Halloween.

I wouldn't say dressing up for Halloween is especially disrespectful in this instance, but I've noticed in general that MN seems more sneery toward Christianity than other religions.

All Hallows Eve is a Christian festival.

Hallowe'en is not about dressing up. Google Samhain. As a Pagan I find your comments disrespectful and offensive.

Which replaced a much older festival where people dressed up.

I am a Christian and attend church most weeks. To be honest so much needs modernising for 2022 IMO.
My church is still mainly run for the 70+ demographic and anything for kids is either for tiny kids (pre school) or is very old fashioned. This includes hymns, the sermon (which is very hard to follow and relate to modern life most weeks).
I really worry for the future of the church. We need more young people involved but the CofE is like a slow dusty juganaught that refuses to bend or change. The rules are many and strict.
I do worry what will happen when the current 70+ demographic isn’t here any more. In 10/20 years how many will be sitting on the pews? How many vicars will there be to take services?
Dressing as a pumpkin or witch etc is just part of what kids do. I just want to encourage young people to come to church not drive them away

From what I've seen on here, it's because those who express their Christian views try and force them onto others and make people feel bad for viewing the world differently.

The Jewish/Muslim/Sikh posters I've seen are much more relaxed and respectful of others beliefs.

If they have specified a dress code or said not costumes please then yes, it would be disrespectful to ignore that. If they haven't specified anything then I don't think they can assume that everyone realises that Halloween costumes aren't welcome. To be honest I wouldn't have.

The brand of Christianity that is common in the USA Bible Belt bears little resemblance to the teachings of Jesus as I read them ( see the Sermon on the Mount and the parable of the rich young man). They seem to be the type of group which has the biggest issue with Halloween.

Yep.
I think a lot of the hand wringing about Halloween is because the Christian part hasn't quite managed to aniilate the original origins. Every time I see my judgy relatives reason for the season Christmas sign I hold my tongue and don't remind her it's not a Christian festival originally and they appropriated it. Be nice if she could do the same, but judginess seems to be more important than Jesus teachings, who himself was not a judgemental person.

Isn't Easter linked to the pagan festival of Eostre, that happens at the same time?

Most non Christians have no idea that some Christians have a bug up their nose about Halloween. There would have been no disrespect meant.

I am a Christian, I go to church every Sunday and play an active role in our parish and community…. Halloween can divide Christians. But I can only think of a few within my parish that actually have a really huge issue with it, and they are all over the age of 80. But even those people still buy a tub of sweets on the off chance they get trick or treaters! (But they don’t leave a pumpkin out, so they don’t get many anyway.) we also have a light party for Halloween. All the children dress up as anything that isn’t Halloween themed, and we have candles and stories about Jesus, activities, games and food! We run a playgroup Monday’s, so I expect we will see some little pumpkins and witches later,… and we will make a fuss over them and think they’re cute! Things that are disrespectful to Christians - blasphemy, a baptism if you have no belief in God (which means you are lying and say that you do believe!)

"Despite the new religious focus, people in Old England and Ireland continued to associate the end of October with the wandering dead. They set out gifts of food to mollify hungry spirits, and as time wore on, people began dressing in creepy costumes to go begging for the treats themselves. The practice was called "mumming," and looked pretty similar to today's trick-or-treating."

www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/halloween-ideas/g4607/history-of-halloween/

No, they're Indo-Europeans, so they ARE the same thing.

All of us have a festival of light at this time of year, as the darkness draws in at the close of the year. The majority of the British, ethnically, are Celts, not Saxons, so they still celebrate Samhain, where bonfires are burnt and our ancestors spirits are invited to the penultimate feast of the calendar. They just don't KNOW it's that, sadly, thanks to the attempted obliteration of our culture by the enforced introduction of the Mad Daddy God of the Middle East.

The thing about Guy Fawkes is just a cover up excuse to keep an ancient "pagan" festival going. Like, erm, Christmas. And Easter.

You might want to go and look up the words "Morrigan" and "Cailleach" some time...the blue-skinned, triple-aspected, white haired hag goddess with one eye in the centre of her forehead; the goddess of winter, of war, of death and destruction.

And Mor Rigan means Great Queen in Old Irish, and oddly enough, in Sanskrit.

The concept of a Light Party makes me think of Hanukkah. Or Diwali. I didn't even know it was a 'thing' in some Christian churches. No problem with it; sounds enjoyable and positive; but I don't think people should be automatically expected to know what it is.

As a pagan I feel annoyed that the Christians took over all our festivals and pretended they were Christian ones (see Easter/Christmas (Saturnalia)/). Halloween (Samhain) was completely stolen. I don't go moaning at Christians though.

We also do not run playgroups to try and recruit you into the religion.
🤣 they are purely because the church is meant to serve the community in any way they can. So a playgroup does just that! At our group we have fun nursery rhyme type songs about God. And we have a bible story. This is at the end and some parents leave before it as they don’t believe - and that’s fine!! Others don’t believe but know that their children are enjoying the songs and treating the bible the same way they treat any story… we are far from uptight. 🤣

Yes. I don't think unthinkingly dressing kids up for a playgroup on Halloween is disrespectful and I doubt the church ladies were offended, it must happen every year. I imagine they're pleased families keep coming, but I agree people sneer at Christian beliefs/customs in a way they wouldn't dare to dream of behaving towards any other religion.

I agree with this. The only time I see threads about Christianity is when it is someone trying to lecture us all that we are doing Christmas, Easter, etc all wrong. People do not respond well to hectoring tones.

This is about a playgroup? So I'm assuming toddlers and preschoolers? Come the fuck on OP, you can't equate it to gimp masks and bondage gear. Get a grip.