Bad for my blood pressure

Church is bad for my health. It must be bad for my heart. 

It seems every time I go, I leave with boiling blood pressure and steam coming out my ears.

I guess it's no real surprise then, that my attendance is sporadic at best.

Just over two weeks ago, I decided to check out a new church in my city. I not long ago moved here, so I'm still doing the rounds before settling on a place of worship.

I should've guessed, as it was Halloween, that the church sermon would leave me less than impressed. 

In fact, it motivated me to write the Pastor an email. As of now, no reply.

Subject: "This email is brought to you by the letter H"

Pastor XX,

I attended XX Church in XX on October 31. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the message.

I applaud the intention of the sermon – which was obviously to warn the congregation against the perils of evil. Evil can often appear appealing and deceptive – so people must tread carefully when dealing with things such as the occult, even in a fictional environment.

I agree entirely with that, however I have a few problems when it comes to the delivery of the message.

What I take objection to, is the self-confessed “black-and-white” approach, the immediate dismissal of other points of view and the implicit assumption and judgement that anyone who disagrees with the message is dabbling in “evil.”

I felt the sermon painted God in a legalistic and petty fashion, a God who appears to despise the letter “H” - disapproving of Halloween, hypnosis, and Harry Potter.

The congregation was told to be “innocent about what is evil” – once again, this is laudable and important advice. However, we were offered no explanation as to why the trio of H-words were “evil.”

Instead the congregation was presented with a few scraps of scripture which condemn the practising of witchcraft – and we were left to draw the implied oh-so-tenuous connection.

I felt that the message offered no strong biblical basis for why people should distance themselves from these things. I found this strange, considering the wide array of opinions held by Christians on these issues:

Halloween

I can only assume that your matter-of-fact dismissal of Halloween as a legitimate celebration is connected with Halloween’s pagan background. However, All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and the ancient pagan festival of Samhain are NOT the same.

The establishment of Christmas and Easter in Europe had pagan connections but we do not  abandon these holidays. To condemn Halloween but embrace Christmas and Easter is inconsistent.

“Evil” themes in current secular Halloween celebrations were not always present – many children still dress up in costumes which are not sinister.

Why should Christians allow others to claim Halloween as their own?  We should not. By separating All Hallows Eve from the pre-Christian pagan practices, Christians can take comfort in understanding the historical Christian remembrance that is associated with All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day.  We Christians can also view Halloween as a fun event for children by having events in churches or in our communities where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and share some treats in a safe place.

Hypnosis

I was somewhat shocked at the inclusion of hypnosis here – the implicit assumption being that hypnosis is somehow spiritual or connected in some way to witchcraft.

Though many people believe it to be a form of demonic mind-control, this is an ill-advised and incorrect assumption. Hypnosis has been a form of treatment for several hundred years with numerous successes.  In 1958, the American Medical Association acknowledged hypnosis as a psychological and scientific modality.

Harry Potter

Christians love to put the bespectacled teenage wizard in the “Do Not Touch” box.

However, many of those same Christians adore the Narnia series and own the Lord of the Rings DVD box-set! Both those series contain wizards and witches and overtly spiritual themes.

The Harry Potter series is about wizards. But the magic in Harry Potter bears little resemblance to occultism, being more in the vein of fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White, or to the previously mentioned works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

It is a series which promotes compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship, and self-sacrifice. While many fundamentalist Christians have disparaged the books, it must also be noted that an equal number of Christians hold them up as marvellous traditional children's stories.

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Pastor XX, you are a pastor of a large and vibrant church. You are a gifted communicator and have a very important role.

You spoke in “black-and-white” terms, but the world is not black and white. We live in a world of greys – and hypnotism, Halloween and Harry Potter all fall somewhere within that greyscale.

The seats of your church are filled with young and impressionable minds – surely your role is to equip them with the tools, knowledge and good judgement to come to their own conclusions about questionable or controversial issues.

That would surely be more beneficial than merely standing in front of a crowd and telling them how to think as if your opinion was gospel.

With all of this in mind, I must reemphasize that I felt the overall thrust of your message was well-intentioned and well-delivered. It is definitely important for people to remain wary when it comes to spiritually murky issues and that message was well-received.

Kind regards,

Emcee