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've never heard of a light party. I thought of a disco or lightsaber party.

Do the group explicitly say no Halloween costumes and explain what dressing up for a light party entails? I'm an adult and would be stumped- is it code for dress in white or bring a torch?

Plus Halloween is enormous in (famously very religious) Northern Ireland! Can’t quite square how dressing up in Halloween costumes is disrespectful to Christians in general (as per your title) when NI go mental for it!

@oakleaffy I personally have never seen a ghost but my sister used to work in a very very old building that is apparently haunted.
It was recently converted into flats and on the town's local Facebook gossip group loads of people were saying stuff like "I hope they checked with the ghost that's this is ok" or "Is the ghost the landlord" 😂👻
Conclusion....that building most definitely has a ghost.

Maybe you need to make it clear that the playgroup is only for children of practicing Christian parents?

OP doesn’t actually know if the playgroup organisers have an issue with the costumes…

Plent of church run things are faith based, but not faith biased- meaning they are open to everyone. In fact many are for the lost sheep and not the sheep.
Unless its a closed group specifically for one type of christian and they have all lied about their faith, its fine.

@zingally I used to work in a CofE village primary school which was very "high church". The then-head teacher was a very devout Christian (also a sociopath - but that's another post entirely), and she banned Halloween from even being mentioned.

Unless you have a qualification in psychiatry calling someone a 'sociopath' is not appropriate.
It seems you yourself are demonstrating the intolerance you criticize in others?
If you didn't like the way the school was run, you didn't have to work there.

YANBU

Christians are disrespected relentlessly in this country, just the sad reality to be honest.

Things will only get worse in general society, morals are already in the dumpster, and we can see the dire consequences all around.

The hardship does build character though for those who stay true to their belief in God.

And in turn your reward will come on judgement day.

Gimp suits and bondage are potentially offensive in many environments but particularly those including children. I was raised a Christian and honestly they never came up once in Sunday school. Halloween however we did every year. It really depends on your group, is it for Christians only? If yes then obviously some further education is needed. If it's open to all I think if the group doesn't want costumes on Halloween they need to specify.

Does no-one find it ironic that for Samhain, you would dress scarily to ward off the monsters, yet the Church holds a 'Light party' which would technically make you more visible to the scary demons on the night the barrier is thinnest?

If they didn't want children in Hallowen costume then maybe they should have pointed that out.
Personally had never heard of a "light' party so maybe the it should have been explained to the parents.

Agree that Halloween is now a secular ‘celebration’ for most people (whether that’s right or not depends on your view). Best thing to do if you don’t like it is to switch the (church) lights off and hunker down for the day.

You are suggesting that children are wrong to dress up for halloween. You are being ridiculous and judgemental.

Have you considered joining a church? You’d fit right in.

I do understand the notion that these groups exist because the volunteers want to promote the church and hopefully encourage participants to join the congregation and if we are going to acknowledge our gratitude to the time and facilities these volunteers/organisations we need to also respect their beliefs. With all that in mind however I suspect they needed to be clearer about the party and if it were that important then turn the children away.

I drove passed the CofE church near me yesterday and it’s been decorated for Halloween with cobwebs, spiders, and pumpkins. Christian anti-Halloween sentiment is clearly not a universal one, or even a dominant one.

If you put a pointy hat on a nun she becomes very witch-like!

I, too, went to a primary school where there were nuns and I think one may well have taken off her pointy hat when she entered the school!

I took the girls to a party for on of their friends it was a princess party. We went dressed as princesses as did everyone else (boys as princes). One of the girls turned up as a witch as did her mother (the mother tended just to do her own thing), the little girl was embarrassed not being a princess. The lady told her not to worry her mother must have thought it was come as you are.

@120go Christians are disrespected relentlessly in this country, just the sad reality to be honest.
Things will only get worse in general society, morals are already in the dumpster, and we can see the dire consequences all around.

I agree.
You've only to look at all the threads about misogynistic partners and their porn /gaming/alcohol/addictions to see which way we are heading.

You can't complain about being disrespected in one breath and threaten people with judgement day in the next.

Not all Christians are opposed to Halloween. It's not like eating a bacon sandwich in a synagogue.

“I’m here demons, come get me, take me home”

Christianity being disrespected is another issue (and I'm not Christian). I do agree people have no problem being rude about Christianity but would never say anything about Hinduism, Islam, etc.

If you don't endorse Halloween, then dint hold a party, light or otherwise

@minou123 Hallowe'en (correct spelling) is a shortening of All Hallows Eve, and is followed by 1st November, All Saints Day. Both are celebrated in the Christian church, although probably not in dissenting or Anglican churches very much.

But in Latin America, predominantly Catholic cultures, the Day of the Dead is all about the religious contemplation of death, and what the dead can teach us.

@arctica You can't complain about being disrespected in one breath and threaten people with judgement day in the next.

Why not?
It's not going to bother those that don't believe it!