Internet Monk indicated that the roots of the anti-Halloween movement are in a deception. But why was and is the nonsensical idea that children dressed in costumes are the front line of a war with the forces of evil taken seriously?
I think the reason is because American Christians want to be deceived in this way. It is a self-deception.
Christians are reminded time and again by their Scriptures that they are to be at war with evil. But most American Christians are too intricately entwined with the roots of the problem, and too far away from those in need of a solution, and much too comfortable, to ever really engage evil: injustice, oppression, poverty, starvation, human trafficking, war. Tackling such real problems and offering real solutions would take a sacrificial investment of time, energy and money that most Christians in the United States are not willing to give.
I think that is why so many gravitate towards treating things that are or should be non-issues as though they are Satanic ploys. It allows us to persuade ourselves that we are “fighting the good fight” while the real scary monsters are allowed free reign.
The image on the left is what should scare us. And because it scares us so much, we put it out of our minds and pretend the real enemy is in the image on the right, not the causes of the suffering in the image on the left.
Shame on us if we do that.
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