[Darris McNeely] It's a real, simple question. Should a Christian celebrate Halloween? The answer, directly, is no.

A Christian person of faith who believes God's word should stay as far away from Halloween as they possibly can. Its origins are in paganism. It is representing a cult of death. And it has nothing to do with the Bible and with the gospel of Jesus Christ or the Kingdom of God. No, a Christian, their family, their kids should not celebrate Halloween. Does that make candy wrong? No. Does that mean taking care of people is wrong? You know, when I was a kid, we used to dress up like a cowboy, run around the neighborhood, get the candy, but I also would carry a little tin box for donations of money, usually pennies, for UNICEF to provide food for people in developing nations. Giving the people is not wrong. It doesn't have to be connected to a pagan holiday. Candy is not home governed by itself in that sense and kids having fun.

But to connect all of this to a pagan holiday, which I've heard some theologians try to do in order to, kind of, you know, allow people to get close to Halloween without really keeping it, in order to, kind of, keep peace or to mollify certain ideas, have nothing to do with it. Halloween has become probably the biggest consumer cultural phenomenon in America. More money seems to be spent on Halloween now than any other holiday. It consumes the entire month of October. When I drive into my neighborhood in the month of October, I think I'm driving through graveyards and scenes of...it turns it into an incomplete haunted neighborhood with all the decorations that people do.

There's a scripture in Ephesians 5:11, I think, that says it all for those of us that look to the Bible as our worldview and as our foundation of faith, belief and way of life.

The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5:17 "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret."

Halloween is rooted in paganism. It is part of what Paul talks about here as something that is the unfruitful works of darkness, of Satan and of his world, and of a cult of death. It has nothing to do with the gospel of God, the gospel of the kingdom of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, a message of life and salvation that we should be having as the anchor, heart, and center of our life.

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