Halloween may be a fun day of trick-or-treating, dressing up and watching scary movies for some, but Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson is not having any of it, and implied that Christians should avoid the holiday all together. Other believers, however, say the holiday can be used as an occasion for outreach and evangelism.
During a Sept. 27 episode of “The 700 Club,” Robertson’s daily talk show, a viewer wrote in saying he felt “unsettled” by the fact that every year his church “hosted one of the area’s largest haunted houses,” and how popular the holiday was in the church community.
Robertson responded, “I agree with you, we need the power of God, not some kind of earth-set entertainment. We don’t believe in haunted, we don’t believe in ghosts, we don’t believe in all this business. Halloween is Satan’s night, it’s the night of the devil.”
He continued, “Churches shouldn’t do that. You can do something besides have a haunted house. You’re feeling badly? You should.”
While Halloween may mean pumpkins, candy and scary paraphernalia to the general public, some Christian outreach organizations, such as Jesus Ween (or JesusWins), use the holiday to evangelize.
According to the initiative’s founder, Pastor Paul, “Christians will not have to hide during Halloween; instead they will share God’s love by giving others a gift.” The nonprofit organization encourages Christians to hand out Bibles and tracts, and to share the good news with trick-or-treaters who knock at their doors.
Source: Christian Post | Allison Summers
BCNN1 WP 