Every year the Jesus freaks pull shit like this...

[Archae]

Decades ago, I was escorting 4 of my nephews and nieces trick-or-treating, and a Jesus freak started yelling about the occult and crap from her car at us.

I told her to shove her book of fairy tales up her ass and get the hell out of our face.
The woman took off.

My nephews and nieces thanked me, they had seen her before, she liked yelling Jesus bullshit at people from her car.

Witchcraft Panic Fuels Trump Allies’ War on Halloween
By Peter Montgomery | October 29, 2019 12:47 pm

It’s tradition: As Americans dress up to celebrate Halloween, religious right figures warn that what seems like harmless fun is actually a dangerous participation in demonic activity and Satan worship. This year’s warnings seem a little higher-strung than usual given the ongoing religious right panic about President Donald Trump being targeted by witchcraft.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/witchcraft-panic-fuels-trump-allies-war-on-halloween/

[d_r]

1. I am sorry but

This sounds Iike mental illness, and I am not making a quip about mental illness I am being serious.

Intercessors for America, which mobilizes prayer warriors on behalf of Trump and conservative candidates, urged people to sing and praise from the biblical book of Psalms from noon on Oct. 30 until noon on Nov. 1. “We believe that our corporate songs of praise have great power to confuse the enemy, nullify demonic schemes, and clear the way for the King of Glory to come in!” Last week, IFA launched a week-long prayer campaign to protect Trump from “occultic activity.

[gratuitous]

4. They want to go somewhere and sing for 48 hours straight, more power to them

Leave the rest of us alone.

But somehow, I get the feeling that shutting themselves away to pray in solitude doesn't give them the satisfaction of bothering others.

[Hortensis]

19. I agree. And it's ONE person. Archae, this has never happened

in any of the neighborhoods we've lived in, and apparently it only happened once half a lifetime ago where you were.

Smearing whole groups with bad behaviors, real or imagined, of a few (in your case likely mentally ill!) is the very definition of bigotry. Many people on DU have family and friends who are devout Christians or are sympathetic to someone who is.

I'm in that last group. Here in GA we're surrounded by "Jesus Freaks."

[cwydro]

22. Yes, thank you. I trick or treated as a child, and later went with children trick or treating.

I’m always home giving out candy now. I live in a very red county full of “Christians.” All of whom have always been nothing but nice to me.

Never have I ever seen anything like that on Halloween.

This sounds like a very cool story though!

[Turin_C3PO]

24. Trust me,

there are anti-Halloween Christians. In my blue county, we have two churches in particular that go around town, railing against the holiday. It’s not the majority of Christians, certainly, but there is a certain segment that think Halloween is evil incarnate.

[Grokenstein]

49. The sort of Christians who hand out Chick Tracts.

Like these specifically anti-Halloween ones:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/10/8-halloween-themed-chick-tracts-to-chick-out-this.html
They're so grotesquely sickening.
(The tracts are pretty nasty too.)

[SCantiGOP]

55. I was taking a group of 5 kids around years ago

They came back from one house and showed me that they had been given church pamphlets and a flyer warning about witches and demons.
I explained to them how we used to toilet paper houses when I was a kid. I think I got my point across

[NastyRiffraff]

63. And they accuse pretend witches and warlocks of magic?

"Prayer warriors" who "sing and praise from the biblical book of Psalms from noon on Oct. 30 until noon on Nov. 1." are embodiments of Magical thinking. They believe that their songs have "great power to confuse the enemy" etc. That's the very definition of magic.

Even for Christians who believe in prayer, that has to be a bit much, isn't it??

[mr_lebowski]

76. Dunno why it would be ... most of religious thought falls well inside the definition of magic ...

Believing in 'resurrection', an 'afterlife' and an 'omnipotent sky creature', for example, is the epitome of magical thinking. Some religious folks probably think it's somehow different ... but it's really not.

I'm not sure why one wouldn't buy into pretty much anything ... if they buy into those things.

[Midnight Writer]

2. i grew up in a Southern Baptist home, and Halloween was sinful and Trick r Treat was begging.

My grandmother would stand out on our stoop and berate the kids in their Satanic costumes.

Boy, did we get egged.

[Hortensis]

26. Really? Egged by your fellow Southern Baptists year after year?

That must have been hard on you.

It's very dismaying that your neighbors allowed their children to pass your grandmother's home on Halloween, much less didn't put a stop to egging. I know our GA neighbors, most Southern Baptists and the egg keepers of their households, would not have allowed this to go on.

[Mariana]

45. It only takes one person to egg a house.

You have to know who's doing it, before you can put a stop to it. If MW's grandmother didn't know who was egging the house, why do you assume her neighbors knew?

[paleotn]

57. I know the type....

Every single solitary year the ultra devout start the demonic crap. Luckily, we weren't that kind of Southern Baptist and I trick r treated till my heart was content. Some local SBC pastors would get in a mild tiz about it, but it was primarily the independent baptists that caused most of the uproar. Along with some of the charismatics who believe there are demons hiding under every rock and log.

[Pathwalker]

65. Well, my Souther Baptist Grama made my witche's costume one year!

Used my Greatgrama's jacket, cut down and dyed a skirt black, sewed a hat, and stuffed an old pair if shoes of hers with socks around my feet.. Then my aunt drew some warts on my face with an eyebrow pencil. I was WICKED!
Then she and Grampa sat in their rockers on the front porch, handing out candy.

[brewens]

3. Who needs witchcraft? I think my voodoo doll is working really well. It's a little

hard to control, but we're getting there.

[dchill]

9. Just a few more pricks!

[liberaltrucker]

38. There's one in the White House

[orangecrush]

46. ...

[SammyWinstonJack]

77. Yuuuuge bigly

[MontanaMama]

10. I could party with you

I think...

[nolabear]

32. True dat. The lwa are open to suggestions. 😄

[Turbineguy]

5. It's one day per year.

Jesus gets two days and they are holidays.

[rownesheck]

6. Guess

I'll be extra Satan-y with my costume this year. Doing my part to piss off the religious right wing of America.

[Phoenix61]

7. It's a Christian holiday. Swiped from an earlier

religion like all Christian holidays but it’s still a Christian holiday.

[stopdiggin]

20. you're probably right

but then this would be yet another case of the Christians being bass-akwards on .... Lots of things?

( I find the dividing line between the ignorant, the uninformed, the misinformed, the delusional, the nutters .. and the bat-sh*tters .. to be more than I'm frankly qualified to handle)

[get the red out]

29. Yes it is! All Hallows Eve

Usurping pagan holidays and recasting them in a Christian light was a widespread conversion tactic when the Church was spreading throughout Europe (I am sure other places as well).

[negromiconomics]

51. But of course the evangelical right doesn't recognize Catholicism...

.. as being TRULY Christian. I'm sure the term "Jesus Freaks" is overbroad and offensive to many, but the "anti-Halloween" types come and go in waves. I do remember a particular energy pumped into the anti-Halloween crusade in the mid 90s in New York City of all places. Suddenly, where protestants were making headway in hispanic communities in the area you saw a lot of parents correcting their children about Halloween. An evangelical congregation that located in a nearby building was behind the distribution of religious screeds explaining why the event was OF SATAN. There was a real push behind it. Then after that in the late 90s you started to see the proliferation of Christianized "Houses of Horror" . A spooky horror house attraction with exhibits showing the horrors of what LIBRULLISM could do to Ammurrrrica... kind of like the South Bronx and the Castro district of San Francisco all in a darkly lit tent. Then of course they started making REAL MONEY nationwide and now you see less inveighing against the celebration of Halloween but rather fundraising and profit making of their own by being ANTI-HALLOWEEN. Voila.. in the last 20 years the Catholics are happy to have their All Hallow's Eve back, the evangelicals decry the slide of the unsaved into perdition at a nice profit, the retail industry makes about as much off Halloween as Christmas and gets to extend the "holiday season" from august 31 back to school through Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine's Day, and the rest of us get to spend lots of money on cards, jack-o-lanters candies, cakes and turkeys!!! Making America Greedy Again!!!

[negromiconomics]

56. but the older less "fiery" Christian denominations

.. are more at peace with it than the fire and brimstone ones. Catholics were targets of the KKK as well so realize that the uneasy peace that exists between ALL Christians that has existed in the past 60 or years did not exist 100 years ago. And these more fiery varieties of Jesus worship use easy shortcuts to steal followers from the older dustier and drier houses like the Episcopalians or the Catholics. Like American Jihadis they decry the idolatry of the old churches and insist on the literal word of GAWD jumping off the page and crushing the statues on the church grounds!

[paleotn]

61. No it's not.

Unlike Saturnalia, which was completely replaced by Christmas, Halloween is still pagan in form and practice. All Hallows Eve was merely attached, as Christianity could never completely eradicate the old Gaelic custom. And protestants, for the most part, had completely dumped the entire Allhallowtide. Halloween is based on the old Celtic celebration Oíche Shamhna in Irish Gaelic and Oidhche Shamhna in Scots Gaelic. It's pagan in origin and documented in old Irish writing since the 9th or 10th century.

[obamanut2012]

69. No, it isn't -- it is Pagna and is still Pagan

It is 100% NOT a Christian holiday.

November 1 is All Saints Day, and November 2 is All Souls Day. The former is a Church Holy Day, and the latter is in some countries. Halloween is not part of that, it is Pagan.

[Retrograde]

82. It's the eve of All Saint's Day

which honors all the people in heaven who aren't important enough to have their own separate feast days. The notion that Halloween is entirely a co-opted Celtic holiday is a western European thing: the Catholic church operated in a lot of other places that didn't have Samhain celebrations.

IMHO, it's tied in a lot more with ancestor rememberances, which are more universal. Two days after Halloween is the Catholic observance of All Souls Day, in which the devote are supposed to remember and pray for all the dead. Among the Creoles in New Orleans this used to be a time (and maybe still is) to visit cemetaries, tend the graves, and have a bit of a party with the relatives. When the Spanish conquered Mexico, they noticed a similar Aztec religious observance occurring at about the same time, and the two observations eventually merged to become The Day of the Dead. Unlike the Puritans, Catholics tended to adopt local practices that didn't directly conflict with their basic tenets.

[MontanaMama]

8. I've got SO much Halloween happening

in my front yard and porch. It takes me a couple days to get all of it set up, lighted and working correctly. The Jehovah's Witnesses especially enjoy coming to my house when they have to run the gauntlet of ghouls and noisy goblins to get to my front door.

[blaze]

14. Oh, how I miss my best Halloween neighbors!!

They had lights and music and fog and a spider that flew across the sidewalk!! And sometimes Mom dressed up and told fortunes. And Dad occasionally dressed up as the scarecrow that would suddenly come to life. Gosh that was so much fun.

[MontanaMama]

17. Those are my people.

They sound fabulous! Did I mention I give out full size candy bars?

[Johnny2X2X]

11. Well's Hall preacher at MSU

When I was in college there was a preacher who stood on a box outside one of the science/math halls. He'd scream scripture at people and call students liars and whores. He thought he was making a difference, people would stop and debate with him, but he'd resort to screaming when he couldn't win.

Christianity at its heart is violent and confrontational.

[get the red out]

37. Screeching preachers

We had a hate-preacher married couple that practically lived outside the student center at the University of KY when I was a student in the 80s. They yelled scripture, and also basically said that college students were the most vile, Satan controlled people on Earth, and called young women whores as they walked by the "free speech" area to get into the student center.

These hatemongers are scary people! And they are still doing exactly the same nastiness at universities all over the country even now in 2019. Religious nuts can call people horrible names and harass the shit out of them under the cloak of "faith" and it's called free speech.

[GulfCoast66]

68. I saw the same couple in the same place!. Called himself Brother Jim if I remember right.

Traveled with his wife who was there with him. Still remember him talking about her reclaiming her virginity thru Christ before he married her! Or something equally as crazy.

I guess I actually owe him some thanks because he was one of the myriad reasons I became a freethinkers and rationalist.

I was there in the mid 80s as well!

[get the red out]

79. YES!

I almost added that she said she was a "born again virgin". They certainly added to the pile of things that made me deeply suspicious of religion.

Go Big Blue!

[Blue_true]

71. That guy wasn't named Jed Smock by any chance, was he?

A guy named Jed Smock would periodically turn up on the rectangle at the University of Florida when I was in college there in the seventies. As best I could figure, he did a circuit of colleges. He was a youngish guy, maybe 30ish at that time.

[tavernier]

12. It's pretty clear they they distanced themselves from Christ and his teachings

many years ago.

[Blue_true]

72. Any that support Trump can't be true to the faith they claim.

Trump has violated every single Ten Commandment at least once. Just violating one once was supposed to doom a person's soul to purgatory.

[redstatebluegirl]

13. I have always found it weird that Halloween is such a big deal here in Oklahoma.

Some of the biggest bible thumpers in our department come dressed up for Halloween. Kind of odd I think. Halloween is not a big deal for us, we don't have kids so we have never had a reason to go trick or treating.

[cwydro]

23. Maybe because it's a lot of fun?

Man, what a bunch of wet blankets around here...it’s a fun time, no one needs to make this about any religion.

[oswaldactedalone]

15. I'm more excited about the day after Halloween

when we unleash the first assaults in the War on Christmas. Artillery prepped, bayonettes affixed, attack plans in place. Santa’s going down as we attack local malls shouting, “Happy Holidays!”

[Archae]

16. But Bill O'reilly and his groupies WON!

At least he says so...

[Maeve]

21. Don't forget the cheap candy!

Lots and lots of cheap candy

[maryellen99]

30. Yes!! Give me all the half off Kit Kats!

[negromiconomics]

59. My locals have forgotten .. until Nov 1!

It's all $4.99 a bag at my local place. Because I live in a blue state I not only lose my mortgage deduction.. there are fewer AIPORT SIZED Wal-Marts where I can get fresh candy cheap!!!!!

[Blue_true]

73. I saw a banner erector putting up a holiday banner over one of the main drags

in the city that I live on the edge of. It said "Happy Holidays". Oh gosh, the war on Christmas patriots are going to be pissed when they read that.

[unitedwethrive]

18. What is it with the righties?

"As Americans dress up to celebrate Halloween, religious right figures warn that what seems like harmless fun is actually a dangerous participation in demonic activity and Satan worship. This year’s warnings seem a little higher-strung than usual given the ongoing religious right panic about President Donald Trump being targeted by witchcraft."

Because we didn't think they were stupid enough?

[GulfCoast66]

25. I grew up in a red southern state. No one thought a thing about Halloween

Hell, even our Baptist Church hosted a pre-trick or treat party with no talk of SATAN!

But the nuts have become nuttier since the 70’s. I work with people who believe this crazy shit and many of the evangelicals in this purple part of Florida see the whole thing as Satan worship. That said, I have never seen them berating those participating in the holiday. Just a matter of time I imagine.

On nice thing about being a freethinker. I don’t have to worry about Satan!

[Turin_C3PO]

28. Our local non-denominational church

and the Pentecostal one are the ones against Halloween here. I’ve never seen our local Southern Baptist church go against it. Mormons, on the other hand, love Halloween. They always do “trunk or treat” from the church parking lot.

[get the red out]

34. Same with me

People saw Halloween as a fun thing for kids back in the 1970s. I don't recall Churches being hysterical about it at all back in the 70's in Kentucky. (Maybe the crazy Church that forbade their kids to go to school dances, but everybody viewed them as extremists back then).

[negromiconomics]

52. Where the Religious Authorities Were Safe and Stable...

... there were was not so much agita about Halloween. As long as the local churches had their say and could put things in their frame without much worry about divergent influences there wouldn't be much reason to get frantic about trick or treat or pumpkins. But of course.. the great geographic and demographic "sort" that has affected our politics and social structure... so too does the religious competition lead to more novel doctrines of religious purity.

[GulfCoast66]

64. Excellent point. But ironically self defeating. As the churches go off the deep end,

They drive out so many of the young. Even the not young. I’m in my mid fifties and less than half of the kids I went to Southern Baptist church with still attend an evangelical church. Some joined a more mainline Protestant church and others don’t go at all.

Of course it was a large rather prosperous church in the largest city in the state.

My experience is the attrition rate is smaller in rural southern areas.

[Retrograde]

58. It does seem to be relatively recent

I went to a conservative Catholic grammar school in the early 60s: we wore costumes to school on Halloween, and the only concern raised about trick or treating was whether we'd be in church the next day, All Saint's Day.

[GulfCoast66]

62. Or eating too much candy and getting sick...

[phylny]

78. Our ecumenical church has "trunk or treat" every year

because it’s a rural area where house-to- house trick or treating is impossible.

[OriginalGeek]

27. I just realized something

my wife wants us to move to a 55+ community. Does that mean there will be no trick or treaters? Will I still have an excuse to buy bags of candy? This is very worrisome! I need that yearly peanut butter cups infusion!

[Blue_true]

74. Just buy a bag of peanut butter cups.

A word of warning, NEVER refrigerate peanut butter cups before eating them, the flavor of chilled cups is insanely addicting, you will have to force yourself to stop buying them.

[OriginalGeek]

80. uh ohhh

too late....and now they make them with bits of Butterfinger in them....been nice knowing y'all!

[Blue_true]

81. Take care, you're going to need it. nt

[maryellen99]

31. I worked at a nursery school and we had a fundie co-worker who take Halloween off Nt

[Thomas Hurt]

33. The War on Halloween...

all about proselytizing...the existence of which is insulting to anyone who is approached.

[Niagara]

35. There's a street located in Romeo, Michigan named Tillson

The entire street elaborately decorates their homes for the Halloween season. It's called "Terror on Tillson". Neighbors help neighbors move heavy Halloween props and with the set up of numerous displays. They estimate that they get around 2000 Trick or Treaters and they help fund-raise for various causes by selling t-shirts and cookbooks. They've been targeted by being called devil-worshipers and the like. Personally, this sounds like the type of street that I want to live on. I'll throw in a few links if anyone's interested in reading about their event.


What It's Like Living on Romeo's Terror on Tillson street: https://www.hourdetroit.com/web-exclusive/tillson-street-romeo-halloween/


About Terror on Tillson Street: http://www.terrorontillson.com/

[Locrian]

36. ok that's it... I made up my mind...

this year I'm dressing up as ZOMBIE JESUS! Let then try to figure that one out...

[LakeArenal]

39. Gosh I hope they are right.

Imagine....Demons taking over....

Hey... wait a minute...MAGA!!!!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

40. Witchcraft is

Appealing to more people than christianity . Churches are losing as people are leaving churches in droves. I think many are sick of the right wing jesus freaks and thier sick sad religion and money grubbing hypocrite hands.

[essme]

41. Well, my spells haven't worked yet- that's

for damned sure.

[murielm99]

42. We have a fundie church in town

that strongly discourages Halloween. Their members are not afraid to voice their opinions, but I have never seen any of them doing any public shouting.

I used to go out with my kids. We would try to avoid the houses where they handed out religious tracts. I think that is a mean thing to do. Don't turn on your porch light. Don't answer the door. But don't give your trashy tracts to my children.

[Mariana]

48. Chick tracts are prime Halloween loot.

They're funny as hell. A little collection of them provides hours of entertainment.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

67. Chick Tracts are the greatest!

https://www.chick.com/products/category?type=tracts#&&Language=English&Status=Stock&SortBy=A-Z&PageNumber=1&Category=Halloween&ShowCount=12

There's a whole assortment of Halloween fun!

[ToxMarz]

43. "given the ongoing religious right panic about President Donald Trump being targeted by witchcraft."

Really, this is a thing with them?

[orangecrush]

47. Oh, but he is!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/12192364

In case you didn't know, Alexander Dugin, Putin's strategist, is an adherent of "Chaos Magic".

Turnabout is fair play.






https://www.democraticunderground.com/12192364

[sinkingfeeling]

44. Didn't know that Trick or Treat was the same as mass shootings.

[Collimator]

50. There was a "Boston Legal" episode. . .

. . . In which an extremely Christian couple joined forces with an extremely Pagan couple to get the Halloween activities in their children's school cancelled.

The Christian couple felt Halloween was satanic and the Pagan couple felt the holiday demeaned the "True Pagan" meaning of Samhain.

The judge told them both to knock it off and let the kids enjoy their candy.

[mac56]

53. Yup

“Give Gospel tracts along with treats to children who come to their homes, and make Halloween an opportunity to witness for Christ.”

Sounds like a great way to get your house egged.

[3catwoman3]

54. At the pediatric office where I work, we can dress up if...

...we choose, as long as it is not gory or obscene (common sense, duh). Most of us do. I usually stick with a generic peaked black hat and cape of some sort.

One year, I had a very dour-faced mom inform me quite sternly when I came in to the room to examine her child, "We don't celebrate the Devil's birthday."

I very quickly decided there would be no point in trying to explain to her that Halloween is not the devil's birthday, and simply replied, "Neither do I."

[paleotn]

60. I'm still pissed they stole Saturnalia

and turned it into Christmas. Saturnalia was much more fun......and based as much in reality as the Christian impostor.

[Claritie Pixie]

66. Well ya know, fear is their #1 emotion. It rules their lives.

Being a god-fearing Christian requires it. They view the world and everyone in it, unless they've been "saved", as hostile.

Halloween terrifies them. Demonic spirits everywhere!

[Blue_true]

70. I have encountered people that do alternative Halloween stuff for their kids.

It's all so fucked up. If Halloween is so evil, why do they even bother acknowledging it with events for their kids.

I think the day descended from mideval harvest festivals where people eventually dressed up as ghouls and did trick (of jokes) on other people.

[Martin Eden]

75. Oh, if only

Wiccans had the power to turn Donald Trump into a disgusting orange toad.

Oh, wait. Nevermind.