Posted on 10/20/2005 11:09:48 AM PDT by Millee
An Ellettsville family whose home is decorated for Halloween contacted police after someone placed on its porch a flier that suggests Halloween praises the devil.
Dalene Gully told Indianapolis television station WRTV that she took offense to the flier, which was placed outside her home by the House of Prayer Church of Bloomington.
"I started reading it, and I was very, very upset by it. I found it very accusatory and very threatening," Gully said.
The church's pastor, Larry Mitchell, said the people who left the flier would have preferred to talk with Gully, but she wasn't there.
Mitchell said the church didn't intend to upset the Gully family, but rather tell people that Halloween isn't harmless fun.
"Halloween is not fantasy," Mitchell said. "We're training up our children, and obviously this lady was trained up in this. Halloween seems like it is taking just as much prominence as Christmas."
The Gully family filed a complaint with the Ellettsville Police Department. The incident also prompted the family to install an alarm system at the home, the station reported.
"This is my home, and I like Halloween. If I want to decorate my home, I have every right to decorate my home," Gully said.
2005 Auditions for the New Village People??
Certain black magic rituals by modern (i.e. non-pagan) witches do use candles ON human skulls . . . but that's not pagan. Most Satanist practice is merely sick parodies of Christian ritual, and it's been invented recently. And it's bad, but it has nothing to do with Hallowe'en.
The citations to the article are from religious publishers like Harvest House and Koinonia House, NOT serious historical sources.
I repeat, the Oxford History of England series has all the actual, verifiable sources pulled together for you. And The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain points out how you can't trust the mere assertion that something has pagan origins.
Try again.
I have had to occasionally lean out the window and call, "Honey, come inside and leave the nice people alone!"
They don't come back.
A friend of mine hauls out her Book of Common Prayer and tries to convert them to the Episcopal Church (or at least she used to before they got so crazy.)
He was MOST displeased when I made an appointment to discuss them, and told him it wasn't appreciated.
I swear, some people get their panties all in a knot at the idea of others having anything resembling fun, if it doesn't jive with their beliefs.
My son is dressing up as Dash from The Incredibles. Last year he was a crewman from the Home Depot pit crew. The year before that, he was a cow.
Wow, the evil that he is! My God! I'm raising the Anti-Christ! /sarcasm
"A friend of mine hauls out her Book of Common Prayer and tries to convert them to the Episcopal Church (or at least she used to before they got so crazy.)
"
Or you could come to the door, and open it, then say, loudly:
"Hey, honey! Get the sacrificial altar ready. We have company!"
That should send them on their way.
In #125 you had said...'in many ways, you are correct about Christmas and Easter'...I was just wondering how many it takes, before a person is actually correct.
Trouble is, all those "horrifying accounts of poisoned candy and fruits booby-trapped with razor blades and needles" are urban legends, spread energetically by "Christians" who don't take the 9th Commandment too seriously. They never happened. There has been ONE confirmed case of a child being poisoned by candy on Halloween, but it turned out the child's own father had done the deed, thinking he wouldn't be suspected on Halloween since "everyone knows this happens all the time" -- police knew better, however.
"The pastor of the local fundamentalist something-or-other church in the neighborhood (he tried to claim to be Baptist, and the htree other local Baptist churches issued a flyer disavowing any connection with him) handed my (then three year old) daughter a handful of the most bigoted anti-Catholic Chick tracts I've ever seen last Halloween. Even told her she was going to 'roast in the fires of Gehenna.""
I used to answer the door partially clothed, holding a handle of whiskey, and a cat in the other hand, etc.. I'd wipe my mouth and pretend to be interupted having sex. The more outlandish the funnier it was. What a hoot! The looks I'd get would have me laughing so hard my ribs would hurt and I'd get the hiccups. Kind of like reverse trick or treating.
Lately I guess I've mellowed out a bit. The folks that came to my house lately were respectful and polite, so I've just thanked them and sent them on their way. They seem to mean well, and want to help me in their own way.
So far they've respected the no trespassing sign.
Jeez. Get him together with my little cowboy, and his siter, the luna moth, and we have a demon brigade!
If Fred Phelps' Westboro "Baptist" "Church" left a tract on my porch that said so much as "Hello", I'd be calling the police without delay.
Bingo! I am a sinner. What makes a person Christian is repenrence. You can define Christian a repenting sinner. Calling sin good is not repentence.
Stop judging people. Let Christ's GRACE work in people's lives, then attitudes will change.
By all means let Christ grace works. And let us accept chastisement gracefully.
Blind "repentance" preaching does nothing.
What is "blind repentance"?
Funnily enough, most of the people I know who collect them are EXACTLY the people he rails about The collect them for the sheer humor value.
I expect the ACLU to sue to make halloween mandatory within the next few years.
"Funnily enough, most of the people I know who collect them are EXACTLY the people he rails about The collect them for the sheer humor value."
The description is enough to know that it directly attacks a practice which the parents of the household are very obviously endorsing.
Furthermore, what you define as "sin", another may not. The book of Romans is very clear on this. Matters of personal freedom and liberty aren't yours to dissect.
What I meant by "blind repentance" is that you're advocating repentance over the blood of Jesus shed for the FINAL payment for sins. It is over, now, because of His blood, not by any repentance of mine.
Nevertheless, this is a thread and story about Halloween, not Christian theology, so if you want to continue this, let's take it to personal mail...
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