Thursday, October 29, 2015

My Thoughts on Letting Our Children Mock the Devil

My original post on the subject of Halloween and can be read here. This is kind of a follow-up.

The blog posts and articles one can read on the subject of the Christian and Halloween are seemingly endless.  There is one opinion on the subject that I have found fascinating and puzzling.  Adherents to this opinion may say something like this:

"We let our children celebrate Halloween, because what we are showing by dressing up as ghouls and goblins is that this is a way we can mock the devil, show him that we aren't afraid of him or evil.   Death is longer scary because Christ has been victorious over the grave and the devil is going DOWN."

Interestingly enough, it seems like these are the same articles which are linked to by those, in other posts, in which they claim "Now we would never let our children dress up as anything scary" and "we don't get into all the gravestone's and skeletons in the yard and all that spooky stuff".

So I'm not really sure which it is: a) we dress up as scary things to mock the devil and scariness or b)we don't dress up as scary things because it's, well, scary

But in regard to the idea that Halloween was originally a Christian holiday, begun in times past with the purpose of dressing up in costumes to jeer at the devil and tell him he doesn't scare us (not sure where the trick-or-treating comes into this theory), here are my thoughts.

Many of the articles on Christian Halloween cite two quotes from Martin Luther and Thomas More by C.S. Lewis at the introduction to his famous work The Screwtape Letters.  The quotes are,

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." -Martin Luther

and

"The devil…the prowde spirite…cannot endure to be mocked." -Thomas More

However, the context of these quotes was not of children dressing up like devils and jeering at the devil.  Martin Luther was beleaguered in his life by continuous reflection on and overwhelming guilt over his sins. This is one reason he wanted to be a monk, and the main reason that led to his pilgrimage to Rome and to his famous stand at the Diet of Worms where he would not deny, among other things, that forgivingness is a free gift of grace and cannot be earned or bought.

Later in life, Luther was known for his wit and cheerfulness and at one of his many famous "Table Talks" he explained one way he would drive away the Devil when he was so intensely harassed about his sin.  One biographer provides the context of the above quote:

Doctor Luther said that when he couldn’t get rid of the devil with Holy Scripture and serious language, he had often expelled him by tart remarks and crazy jokes. And when he [the devil] tried to burden his [Luther’s] conscience, he would often tell him, “Devil, I’ve been doing it in my pants, have you smelled it and added this to your list of all my sins?” Again, he told him, “My dear Devil, should the Blood of Christ shed for my sins not have been enough, please do pray to God for me.” ... For he is a proud spirit, and cannot bear scorn.

Similarly, More is quoted from his A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulacion, in which he says, particularly in explaining how to handle the "pestilent fancies" of suicide,

Some folk have been clearly rid of such pestilent fancies with very full contempt of them, making a cross upon their hearts and bidding the devil avaunt. And sometimes they laugh him to scorn too, and then turn their mind unto some other matter. And when the devil hath seen that they have set so little by him, after certain essays, made in such times as he thought most fitting, he hath given that temptation quite over. And this he doth not only because the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked, but also lest, with much tempting the man to the sin to which he could not in conclusion bring him, he should much increase his merit.

So, putting those two quotes in context, I fail to see how they are a benediction on the practice of costumed tots celebrating Halloween, however they may celebrate it.

On the other hand, in the little book of Jude, wedged between the letters of John and the Revelation, we have Jude's interesting comment regarding the spiritual authority to refute the devil.

But when the archangel, Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." -verse 9

In explaining this verse, Matthew Henry says

It is said, he durst not bring, etc. Why durst he not? Not that he was afraid of the devil, but he believed God would be offended if, in such a dispute, he went that way to work; he thought it below him to engage in a trial of skill with the great enemy of God and man which of them should out-scold or out-rail the other: a memorandum to all disputants, never to bring railing accusations into their disputes. Truth needs no supports from falsehood or scurrility…He would not stand disputing with the devil, nor enter into a particular debate about the merits of that special cause.

So, my thoughts on that whole explanation of why Halloween is "actually" Christian: it's actually not.

Martin Luther may have gotten relief from his very real and very personal attacks on the surety of his salvation by crying out at the devil and ridiculing his claims of persisting guilt. But this tactic seems to have been utilized after he responded to these personal attacks with Scripture and not simply for the fun of jeering at Satan.

Michael the archangel refused to engage the devil with taunts or fun-making. Christ himself refuted the devil with Scripture and in the end simply said be gone Satan! If neither Christ nor his archangel taunt the devil, why should we, and why should our kids?