Posted on 10/30/2012 6:32:37 AM PDT by marshmallow
Poland's Catholic Church has warned that modern Halloween rituals risk promoting the occult.
In a statement on its website, the Church said that celebrating Halloween could contradict Church teachings and Christianity.
One archbishop said the 31 October celebrations were promoting paganism to young people.
Archbishop Andrzej Dziega warned that Halloween was behind a "culture of death".
"This kind of fun, tempting children like candy, also poses the real possibility of great spiritual damage, even destroying spiritual life," the archbishop of Szczecin-Kamien wrote in a letter to be read out at Sunday sermons, according to the Polish Press Agency.
He wrote that "irresponsible and anti-Christian fun" introduced young people to a "world of darkness, including devils, vampires and demons" in the name of "fun".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Of course, the first thing on my mind when I distribute candy on Halloween is gathering souls for Satan.
< /s>
There are a lot of greater threats to any Church than Halloween, including Homosexuals wanting to be Priests, and their past of hiding pedophiles.
I would say the Archbishop needs to worry more about the other 364 days in the year.
Isn't that the point? ;)
I concur. If you look at how dark and twisted the movies, TV have become; the costumes and even the regular clothing people wear, all the body tattoos and piercings, imho a lot of these people are conducting a dress rehearsal for their future life (eternal) in Hell.
You honestly believe that watching movies and tv, wearing costumes and even regular clothing and getting tattoos and piercing will result in a person going to hell?
the point is that Halloween MAKES FUN OF SATAN!
Do these observances act as occult snares? For the weak minded who leave Christianity for the silliness and fakery of Wicca or take the Twilight vampire tripe to the point of having their teeth sharpened I guess the answer is a "yes". But throughout history these adaptations to local and beloved rituals have probably helped more to make the message of Christianity acceptable than doing any harm.
No, the point of Halloween is to get as much candy as you can.
It may be interesting, but it's also largely bunk.
1) There is absolutely no evidence that Christmas was based on Saturnalia. The more common charge is that it is based on the ostensibly Mithraic "birthday of the Unconquered [Sun]" on December 25. But even that is tenuous, since they both occur together on the Chronography of 354 and it's impossible to tell from that which was first. The evidence from Hippolytus indicates that the Roman Church celebrated Dec. 25th at least since about 200....and St. John Chrysostom asserted that the date was kept from time immemorial at Rome and gleaned from the Census records.
2) "Easter" was only called that in Germanic countries who came later to Christianity. In Mediterranean countries, Easter is called Pascha/Pasqua/Pascua...which are all variants of the Hebrew Pesach. The feast was based on Passover, not any pagan celebration.
3) All Saints had nothing to do with Samhain originally. The earliest Irish martyrologies show that the Irish Church celebrated All Saints day in April. It was later moved to November 1st to bring it in line with the Roman All Saints Day. The Roman All Saints Day was chosen to commemorate the dedication of a Church to All the Saints on that day....the Romans didn't give a rat's rear about Samhain or Celtic religion in general.
Not that I object to baptizing pagan customs, mind you. After all, Pope Pius XII did that exact thing when he took the Communist May Day and turned it into the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. So even if those holidays were pagan in origin, I wouldn't really object. I just want to make sure that our history is correct, especially as so many neopagans running around there asserting dumb things like "All your Christian holidays are based on paganism!"
Halloween has changed alot since we were kids. I think the Poles are experiencing it not as we did—growing up door to door dressed as Superman—but with all the idiotic glorification of evil and bloodlust that goes with it nowadays.
There are appropriate ways for Christians to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve. Reveling in evil and death is not one of them.
I don’t think many people are thinking about satan in any manner on halloween
Yes I do:
http://www.tldm.org/directives/d44.htm
http://www.tldm.org/directives/d52.MarkOfTheBeast.htm
http://www.tldm.org/directives/d72.htm
The popular culture, as promoted by the anti-Christian Left, pushes this stuff for a reason. It is not the seemingly innocent fun it purports to be. Electing Mitt Romney next week, God willing, is only a brief delay of the inevitable, if we do not turn our TVs OFF, if we do not work to get as many kids as possible out of the public school system and it’s anti-Christian culture in the short time we have left.
I think you are in the minority
All human beings are flawed and sinful. That is what results in human beings going to hell.
Refusing to submit to God's will, refusing to submit to Christ as Lord and savior, is a rejection of the lifeline that God made available for all people by sending Jesus to live as a human being and die as a sacrifice for our sins is merely continues the default position that all human beings are destined for hell if they continue to reject God.
The cultural result of a humanity that is separated from God and that collectively rejects God's will manifests in growing secular acceptance of sinful behavior (homosexuality and other sexual sins, blasphemy and other mocking of God, theft, murder, and so on). As Romans Chapter 1 also notes, a culture that rejects God will be given over to its sins -- it celebrates sinful activities through its music, art, politics, economics, and all other aspects of life.
In doing so, the culture attempts to convince its members that God is unnecessary and that they can achieve perfection, happiness, enlightenment or whatever their spiritual goal on their own terms. The homosexual community is a perfect example - that community rejects God and attempts to convince itself, others, and potential members that there is nothing wrong or sinful about its activities.
To answer your question, then, merely watching an occult movie that celebrates violence, magic, and death does not send a person to hell. It is a symptom of being out of a right relationship with God.
So let me get this straight: you believe the first eleven chapters of Genesis are mythology . . . but that J*sus was literally born on the 25th of December?
::Facepalm::
You folks are getting desperate.
I disagree.
Halloween is nearly unknown in Poland. I know, because I live in Poland.
American and even global culture glorifies death and violence and always has.
Don't believe it?
Look at a list of the top films of all time. Nearly every one has violence in it.
So what do humans find entertaining? Death, rape, violence, destruction.
Halloween has nothing to do with it!
The top three films are The Godfather 1, 2, &3. They are from when I was a kid.
ok
And to clarify, by ‘regular clothing’ I don’t mean t-shirt and Levi’s. I mean clothing adorned with things like peace signs, pentagrams, skulls, skeletons, etc. They are commonplace, acceptable and very ‘regular’, here in the Northeast.
http://www.tldm.org/directives/d275.htm
Relax ZC. I do not believe Genesis 1-11 are mythology.
As for Jesus being born on the 25th of December, you show me some contrary evidence. Like I said, Hippolytus mentions it specifically around 200. Chrysostom calls it an immemorial tradition of the Roman Church based on the census records.
Actually, if I had to guess I’d say there was an underlying Hebrew date (25 Kislev?), which was conflated with the Incarnation and rendered into the local calendars haphazardly (25 Pachon, 25 Pharmuthi, January 6th).
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