Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian
From: pmd@cbnews.att.com (Paul M Dubuc)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Halloween
Message-ID: 
Date: 29 Sep 89 07:27:18 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 27
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

A short answer to the original question:  In my opinion, I see nothing
wrong with Christians participation in the social rituals of Halloween.
You have to ask how much "paganism" is really being instilled in your
child by it.  Talk to your child about your feelings, find a happy medium
of participation that you both feel relatively comfortable with.  Strictly
excluding your child's participation when they just want to have fun with
their friends may do more harm than good.

On to what is becoming a pet peeve concerning Halloween and the public
schools:  It's not even October yet and they are starting up already.
My daughter's Kindergarten class is making haunted houses and ghost masks.
Around here the schools really over-do Halloween.  Doing even half as
much for Christmas would be considered sectarian and offensive, a violation
of Church/State separation.  Modern pagans probably feel the same way
about popular Halloween decorations as I do about Santa Claus, but I still
don't see any reason to emphasize the observance of one event so much over
the other.  Where's the ACLU when you need them? ;-)

Any other opinions?
-- 
Paul Dubuc   |   "How could God reveal himself in a way that would leave
att!asr1!pmd |   no room for doubt?  If there were no room for doubt, there
	     |   would be no room for me."
	     |   				Frederick Buechner

[Interesting.  I wonder if it's precisely *because* one can't spend as
much time on Christmas.  --clh]