No One in Modern America

     Even if I had just emerged from an underground bunker where I lost track of time, I could tell by the candy aisles and yard displays that Halloween is drawing near. It comes in second only to Christmas as the most decorated for American holiday. When my kids were small, we carved jack-o-lanterns (pumpkins are not evil), they dressed in costumes (not scary ones), we took them to church for carnival games and I took them trick-or-treating. Although Halloween has pagan origins, no one in modern America believes the kids wear costumes so the demons abroad in the streets won't recognize them. Nor do they think giving children treats is a bribe to get them to go to church and pray for them. Most of the churches I know hold some sort of carnival as a safe alternative for church kids and a witnessing tool for unchurched/pagan families.

     I think of the pagan origins of Halloween the same way I do cremation. Cremation definitely has pagan roots, but no one in modern America thinks cremation frees the pure spirit from the sinful flesh or that flames are needed to carry the deceased's spirit to heaven. It is simply a less expensive and land consuming (although high emission) way to dispose of a love one's body. The pagan associations with cremation were left behind long ago.

   Also left behind, except by Muslims and a few Christian sects, is the belief that women who wear their hair short or uncovered are, at best, immodest, at worst, prostitutes. Short hair may have been a prostitutes' billboard in Bible times, but it is more a badge of the blue-haired in mine. In America, women tend to wear their hair short late in life, when their prospects as a prostitute would be pretty poor. 

     If we look back far enough, many common traditions and practices have pagan roots. I remember my amazement as a new Christian, to find out in Acts 12 that Easter existed in Herod's time when the church was still in its infancy. I have enough trouble rooting out my obvious, conscious sins without rooting around for pagan roots and subconscious sins. The Christian life is counter cultural in any nation and era without worrying about how we might look to pagans of past centuries. So on Halloween night I will give candy to the (possibly four) trick-or-treaters who come to our end of the cul-de-sac. And the next day I will stock up on discounted candy to snack on as I attempt to hide out in an underground bunker until after the election.