Halloween and the Syncretist Appeal to the Church Calendar

https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/why-halloween-is-the-most-christian-holiday-on-our-calendar/3510.article    

This is a common apologia for Halloween - an attempt to tie it to the Church Calendar and thus argue the holiday has Christian roots. But this begs the question concerning the legitimacy of the Church Calendar to begin with.

It assumes the insufficiency of Scripture - that the New Testament does not prescribe an ecclesiology but this entire area of doctrine, Church, and the Christian life is left wide open for development, the establishment of tradition, and even (as some argue) human creativity.

Is this the view of the New Testament? Is this the kind of emphasis we find with apostolic teaching?

And once we bring in tradition and innovation (or creativity as some would have it) then we quickly open the door to syncretism and that (in the end) is what the Church Calendar is all about.

Its proponents argue that it represents the sanctifying of time within culture - despite the fact that the keeping of days and times is something that the New Testament dispenses with and condemns. And that was in connection to Jewish holy days of the Old Covenant variety. Paul nowhere can imagine an attempted appropriation of pagan days and festivals. Indeed in lieu of the Seventh-Day Sabbath, we're exhorted to count every day as 'Today' so to speak.

Halloween typifies this kind of syncretism and as Protestants have long argued the cult of saints represents another kind of syncretism that has often incorporated pagan and folk tradition within Christian worship - sometimes switching names and nomenclature even while retaining the old pre-Christian forms.

And finally we should note that the Cult of Saints isn't just about remembering Christians who went before - which is of course a fine thing. And it's not uncommon for Protestants to pay lip service to this notion and the larger calendar even while divorcing it from its theology.

In Roman Catholicism, the saints are mediators and the larger theology is tied in with the concept of the Treasury of Merit wherein the saints have (in practical terms) earned enough merit to supersede the requirements of salvation. To be fair the merits in question are not earned only by the saints, but also by Christ and the Virgin Mary.

This can in turn to be dispensed by the Church.

And let us also remember the saints (as the concept was developed under the aegis of Roman Catholicism) are those who are not or no longer in Purgatory - not merely those who Protestants reckon as 'saved' and in heaven.

So we can play little redefinition games when it comes to these traditions and yet we're only fooling ourselves when we do so. The origin of these traditions and their theological content are rooted in serious anti-Scriptural errors and we shouldn't subsequently use them to justify additional practices like Halloween. That's just piling error on top of error or using bad theology to justify bad practice.

Over the past couple of weeks I've heard numerous radio interviews on the subject. Basically there are those Christians who deem it harmless and just part of the culture and don't give it a second thought.

Evangelicals attempt to find a way to redeem it, a way to keep the cultural practice (and the respectability that goes with being part of the mainstream) while doing so in a 'clean' manner - by eschewing the worst elements or pretending like their keeping it is somehow being a witness to the community. In the end (I would argue) the community just sees someone celebrating Halloween and (at best) they seem to have some hang-ups about it. The overall message is clear - it's okay.

The Fundamentalist response (which Evangelicals are constantly trying to argue against) is to reject Halloween in toto, to not give out candy, etc.

The Evangelicals don't like this because it marks a rejection of culture and makes Christians look like separatist, misanthropic cranks - as they see it.

But in reality this is the only viable theological and ethical option, and it's the only one that actually bears witness against the cultural practice and (potentially) opens up opportunities to explain why we don't think the occult is fun or funny. Most people will think it odd, but is that something new or surprising?

The worst kind of arguments are the Evangelical ones typified by this linked article.