The ex-hubs had a friend who, around this time of year, would leave dozens of pamphlets all about how Halloween was an "open invitation to demonic activity" every time he would break into the ex-hubs' apartment to cover the Pier One-sourced Meso-American statuettes with washcloths, which he'd do approximately twice a month.
We would laugh, but we knew that Friend belonged to a church that had relieved him of the "burden" of an inheritance and, when he was living in the woods under an abandoned school bus, assured him that it made him "purer" to be without possessions, like John the Baptist... so he rejected our offers of help in order to maintain his churchly purity.
Friend was later arrested for trying to chop down the cross in front of a local Catholic church. Not one of the nasty loonies who encouraged him in his religious endeavors, took his money, and cheered him on when he made his plans gave him so much as a dime toward his defense. The only reason he didn't go to jail was because the Catholic church's priest convinced the DA that Friend needed therapy more than jail time.
Even with court-mandated therapy, it took YEARS for him to get free of that "church."
These foot soldiers are not sane people....and the people behind them, who encourage them and promote them are among the most immoral humans in existence.
Christians are just going to deal with it. There is this little thing called Freedom of Religion.
Conservatives can sulk and whine but the U.S. was built on the foundation of freedom from religious persecution BY THE CHURCH.
All those early American settlers weren't fleeing Witches or atheists. They were fleeing the Catholic and Protestant churches.
Now those churches are trying to control everyone just like the churches in Europe 300 years ago.
I've been an eclectic solitary Wiccan since 1988. I grew up in the Southern United States. Wicca the only thing that saved me from turning into horrible Trump worshipping Southern Baptist.
I actually thought Halloween was when kids were the LEAST likely to be abducted by snatched off the streets, you know, on account of all the cops out patrolling them. Not to mention all the people outside who would witness such a crime. And while we're dispelling (ha!) myths, no one is purposely passing out their expensive, pot-infused confections to 10 year olds. And the only people poisoning children with candy are their parents/guardians, usually for the insurance payout.
Historical note: Over time, Satanists have killed and tortured a lot fewer people than Christians have. This is still true today. I believe they also whine a lot less.
"...one day, then you'll find they'll allow horoscopes, horror movies, sorcery, witchcraft and they've got healing crystals instead of calling on the name of Jesus,..." Sweetie, we already have all that. It comes under freedom of religion (or freedom of woo, if you will).
I don't know what they get so fussed about: while it is sometimes associated with the Celtic festival of Samhain, and some of the traditions appear to be nicked from traditional pagan celebrations held at about the same time, Halloween is in fact a Christian holiday: it's a shortened form of "All Hallows Evening" I.e. the evening before "All Hallows Day", an old term for the Christian festival of All Saints Day on 1 November. Its association with the dead is because the "saints" are the venerated dead and All Saints Day is immediately followed by All Souls' Day on 2 November which commemorates all the dead generally, so the whole season got associated with honouring / remembering the dead. (Historians dispute whether the pagan festival of Samhain - which was historically on 1 November, not 31 October - was in fact about the dead at all: it may in fact have been a straightforward harvest festival with the spooky stuff a Victorian invention, possibly by their confusing it with pagan Germanic festivals commemorating the dead that took place around the same time.)
Er. Samhain predates Christianity. The Christians adopted it, as they did with Solstice (Christmas). Well, actually Christians adopted Mithras' birthday for Christmas; the mithraic religion got it from Solstice. And why Mithras? He was an extremely popular god among Roman soldiers.
People don't even bother to file off the serial numbers.
Samhain predates Christianity, but All Saints Day is not Samhain. The whole Mithras / Christmas thing is a complete pile of tosh: 25 December never had anything whatsoever to do with Mithraism. The only known pagan festival on 25 December was the anniversary of the inauguration of the cult of Sol Invictus, a completely different god, as an official Roman religion in 274CE, and the evidence of the date being celebrated as a festival are in the mid 4th Century, by which time Christians in Rome had been recognising 25 December as the anniversary of Christ's birth for almost 200 years. The consensus among historians is that if the dates aren't a complete coincidence, the promotion of 25 December to celebrate Sol Invictus is likely an attempt by the then pagan emperors to distract from the Christian festival, not the other way around.
Well that's six of one and half a dozen of the other - except that much worse things have been done in the name of Jesus than in the name of crystals or astrology.
Sure, bad things have been done in the name of woo-y spirituality. But organized religion has always had the ability to take "awful" and "harmful" to the masses. It's like the difference between writing a story in your diary and publishing through Penguin Random House.
There’s always some asshat tryin’ to suck the fun out of everything. They never recall that ol’ Yeshua turned H2O in to VINO ‘cause they didn’t have cars to make another run to local grog shoppe, and he would’ve danced at that wedding, WITH OTHER MEN, because Jewish men and women didn’t dance together. Ewwww!
We bought 12 lbs of Hershey stuff to give away tomorrow night.
But it's libs who can't spot a joke.
The ex-hubs had a friend who, around this time of year, would leave dozens of pamphlets all about how Halloween was an "open invitation to demonic activity" every time he would break into the ex-hubs' apartment to cover the Pier One-sourced Meso-American statuettes with washcloths, which he'd do approximately twice a month.
We would laugh, but we knew that Friend belonged to a church that had relieved him of the "burden" of an inheritance and, when he was living in the woods under an abandoned school bus, assured him that it made him "purer" to be without possessions, like John the Baptist... so he rejected our offers of help in order to maintain his churchly purity.
Friend was later arrested for trying to chop down the cross in front of a local Catholic church. Not one of the nasty loonies who encouraged him in his religious endeavors, took his money, and cheered him on when he made his plans gave him so much as a dime toward his defense. The only reason he didn't go to jail was because the Catholic church's priest convinced the DA that Friend needed therapy more than jail time.
Even with court-mandated therapy, it took YEARS for him to get free of that "church."
These foot soldiers are not sane people....and the people behind them, who encourage them and promote them are among the most immoral humans in existence.
Christians are just going to deal with it. There is this little thing called Freedom of Religion.
Conservatives can sulk and whine but the U.S. was built on the foundation of freedom from religious persecution BY THE CHURCH.
All those early American settlers weren't fleeing Witches or atheists. They were fleeing the Catholic and Protestant churches.
Now those churches are trying to control everyone just like the churches in Europe 300 years ago.
I've been an eclectic solitary Wiccan since 1988. I grew up in the Southern United States. Wicca the only thing that saved me from turning into horrible Trump worshipping Southern Baptist.
Merry meet, my friend.
Sealed with the Blood of Jesus.
I think someone needs to talk about Blood magic.
"horoscopes, horror movies, sorcery, witchcraft and they've got healing crystals instead of calling on the name of Jesus,"
`
Yup.
Everybody else's beliefs are just ridiculous, made-up nonsense.
Not yours, though.
""Police officers and the EMS can tell you that is the day [Halloween] they have the most kidnappings, child abductions and murders."
`
Got any evidence to back that up?
We'll wait.
I actually thought Halloween was when kids were the LEAST likely to be abducted by snatched off the streets, you know, on account of all the cops out patrolling them. Not to mention all the people outside who would witness such a crime. And while we're dispelling (ha!) myths, no one is purposely passing out their expensive, pot-infused confections to 10 year olds. And the only people poisoning children with candy are their parents/guardians, usually for the insurance payout.
Yeah, but Tim Curry looked just great reprising his Frank N. Further role.
Historical note: Over time, Satanists have killed and tortured a lot fewer people than Christians have. This is still true today. I believe they also whine a lot less.
Hand to god, I thought they were Demon Teats
"...one day, then you'll find they'll allow horoscopes, horror movies, sorcery, witchcraft and they've got healing crystals instead of calling on the name of Jesus,..." Sweetie, we already have all that. It comes under freedom of religion (or freedom of woo, if you will).
She ended the "calling on spirits to rise and come into their bodies" in favor of calling on JESUS! to rise and come into her body!
i find it incredibly creepy that he has trained his TWO YEAR OLD to talk about sealing things in blood
Or incredibly average that he would completely make that crap up.
I don't know what they get so fussed about: while it is sometimes associated with the Celtic festival of Samhain, and some of the traditions appear to be nicked from traditional pagan celebrations held at about the same time, Halloween is in fact a Christian holiday: it's a shortened form of "All Hallows Evening" I.e. the evening before "All Hallows Day", an old term for the Christian festival of All Saints Day on 1 November. Its association with the dead is because the "saints" are the venerated dead and All Saints Day is immediately followed by All Souls' Day on 2 November which commemorates all the dead generally, so the whole season got associated with honouring / remembering the dead. (Historians dispute whether the pagan festival of Samhain - which was historically on 1 November, not 31 October - was in fact about the dead at all: it may in fact have been a straightforward harvest festival with the spooky stuff a Victorian invention, possibly by their confusing it with pagan Germanic festivals commemorating the dead that took place around the same time.)
Er. Samhain predates Christianity. The Christians adopted it, as they did with Solstice (Christmas). Well, actually Christians adopted Mithras' birthday for Christmas; the mithraic religion got it from Solstice. And why Mithras? He was an extremely popular god among Roman soldiers.
People don't even bother to file off the serial numbers.
Samhain predates Christianity, but All Saints Day is not Samhain. The whole Mithras / Christmas thing is a complete pile of tosh: 25 December never had anything whatsoever to do with Mithraism. The only known pagan festival on 25 December was the anniversary of the inauguration of the cult of Sol Invictus, a completely different god, as an official Roman religion in 274CE, and the evidence of the date being celebrated as a festival are in the mid 4th Century, by which time Christians in Rome had been recognising 25 December as the anniversary of Christ's birth for almost 200 years. The consensus among historians is that if the dates aren't a complete coincidence, the promotion of 25 December to celebrate Sol Invictus is likely an attempt by the then pagan emperors to distract from the Christian festival, not the other way around.
I have seen these facts presented differently, but your mileage may vary.
I can never tell if it's a grift or the real thing with these people.
Healing crystals or calling on the name of Jesus?
Well that's six of one and half a dozen of the other - except that much worse things have been done in the name of Jesus than in the name of crystals or astrology.
Sure, bad things have been done in the name of woo-y spirituality. But organized religion has always had the ability to take "awful" and "harmful" to the masses. It's like the difference between writing a story in your diary and publishing through Penguin Random House.
There’s always some asshat tryin’ to suck the fun out of everything. They never recall that ol’ Yeshua turned H2O in to VINO ‘cause they didn’t have cars to make another run to local grog shoppe, and he would’ve danced at that wedding, WITH OTHER MEN, because Jewish men and women didn’t dance together. Ewwww!
We bought 12 lbs of Hershey stuff to give away tomorrow night.
Milk Duds RULE! Mozeltov asshats!