Halloween: ghosts, vampires, demons and Christian Nationalism?

Growing up I was not allowed to celebrate Halloween. I think I remember once, being allowed to participate in my elementary school’s Halloween festivities. The other times, I sat in the library, which as a nerd normally I wouldn’t have minded. But knowing my peers were getting to dress up and eat candy while I had to read quietly to myself, was not fun. 

 To be honest, out of all the religious trauma I received growing up in a sexist, patriarchal, homophobic Church-not celebrating Halloween-was not particularly harmful. Plus, my church would have a Halloween alternative: a “harvest” festival, where we dressed up as Biblical characters. We didn’t go trick or treating but we did get candy and we did dress up, which for my young mind, was the most important aspect of Halloween anyway.  

But I bring this up because this refusal to allow children to participate in Halloween because it was celebrating the “devil” or celebrating “paganism” demonstrates just how out of touch some forms of Christianity are about the true threats of this world. Someone dressing up in a red costume with horns and a pitchfork isn’t actually worshipping Satan. They are more often mocking the childish and idiotic renderings of Satan put forth by general society, including Christians. And making fun of absurd ideas and theologies is not in fact an evil dangerous threat. 

Additionally, if Christians are going to get all up in arms about Halloween being based on “paganism” I have some bad news about the gospels: they were written and based on the Roman Empire’s style of biography. Some of the key points of the gospels: divine birth, and miracles, are also found in biographies of Roman emperors. To be sure the purpose was to demonstrate how Jesus was the real “Lord” over the false god that was the Roman emperor, but still, if Christians are going to make a big deal of not copying “paganism”/non-Christians, then perhaps they need to look at their own religious history. For more about how the gospels mimic the ancient Roman style of biography writing check out the book Jesus and the Empire: Reading the Gospels in the Roman Empire.  

But what strikes me is how this disdain for Halloween is wrapped up in two larger traits of Fundamentalist Christianity (though to be sure not all Fundamentalist Christians view Halloween as something evil or to be avoided): 1) false martyrdom/victimhood complex 2) desire for a theocracy. 

 First, for Christians who disdain Halloween, the narrative of the holiday’s “evilness” is not only tied to its alleged pagan roots and celebration of Satan but also to the idea that “real” Christians are being persecuted in the United States on a daily basis. Evidence of this persecution? Some Halloween costumes are viewed as mocking Christianity and the fact that the holiday exists and is celebrated in the first place.  

For many American Fundamentalist Christians, persecution does not look like people being imprisoned or killed for their faith (though American Fundamentalist Christians do have a weird obsession with insisting one day Christians will be imprisoned or killed by the government, despite Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christians holding a significant amount of political power), but persecution in the US looks like the acknowledgment and existence of other beliefs, traditions, etc. The problem with Halloween, is not necessarily that it actively celebrates “evil” with people dressed as vampires, ghosts, zombies, etc but that its pagan roots, serve as an acknowledgment that there are other beliefs and traditions that exist outside of Christianity.  

The reality is that even if Halloween did have any pagan religious roots, it’s current iteration in popular American culture is separated from those roots. However, that fact means absolutely nothing to Fundamentalist Christians. Because the mere fact that the holiday may have once been tied to something non-Christian is viewed as threatening. (And for Fundamentalist Protestant Christians the argument that the modern iteration of Halloween is based on All Saint's Day, does not make Halloween something to be celebrated. Since Roman Catholics/Orthodox Christians are not viewed as “real” Christians) 

This pseudo martyrdom/victimhood mindset which states that if Christianity is not centered it is in fact being persecuted, is tied with the Fundamentalist Christian desire to create a theocratic state. Growing up, I was lucky, the Fundamentalist Charismatic congregation I attended, was not interested in partisan electoral politics. Meaning, they weren’t going to uncritically endorse the Republican Party. In fact, they often viewed both parties as ‘evil.’  

Nevertheless, the church still preached about an idealistic future world where Christianity was the only religion and where the government fell in line with “true” Christian values: abortion was banned, LGBTQ rights were nonexistent, and Christianity was actively taught in schools. Our mission as individuals, was to try and convert as many people to “true” Christianity (our version) as we could before Jesus’ second coming led to the destruction and eternal condemnation fo the majority of the earth’s population.  

In the decades since I have left, Fundamentalist Christianity has only become even more vocal about its desire to enforce a theocratic state on the rest of the nation. In fact, there are Republican politicians who actively dismiss the separation of church and state. Lauren Boebert has stated: “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.” She also admitted: “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.”   

Understandably, many people, including non-Fundamentalist Christians dismiss, those who view Halloween as “evil” and “pagan” as being silly and ridiculous. But while their stated reasoning for rejecting Halloween may be silly, the reality is that their disdain is part of a larger, more problematic theological worldview. A worldview where anything perceived as being non-Christian is viewed as a dangerous threat and where the ultimate end goal of “real” Christianity is to establish a theocratic state.  

Now I don’t know about you: but this Halloween I’m not afraid of ghosts, vampires, zombies, or demons. I am afraid of my fellow Christians who seek to turn the US into their own little theocratic kingdom. The desire to turn the USA into a theocratic nation that is ruled and caters to a very small portion of the population is not some distant dream: but is the platform of one of the two major political parties.

The other party is unable or unwilling to truly stop them beyond sending manipulative fundraising emails saying we need to send them money in order to stop Christian fascism. Yet when the Democrats are in political power, they seem unable or unwilling to actively defend democracy. They may not explicitly endorse a theocratic Christian state but their ineffectiveness is bolstering those politicians who do.  

The real evil isn’t people dressing up as demons or Satan, or even as “sexy” nuns/priests/pastors. But the politicians and congregations who are actively seeking to overturn democracy and the politicians who sit on the sidelines doing nothing to stop them.  

Image: Mencing hands in the shadows. Text: The real evil isn’t people dressing up as demons or Satan...But the politicians and congregations who are actively seeking to overturn democracy and the politicians who sit on the sidelines doing nothing to stop them.