Halloween and organ recitals

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

For some time I have been disquieted by events such as Holy Trinity Wall Street hosting Cameron Carpenter dressed up as a ghoul doing Halloween organ recitals, as really that is not the way to go, Cameron Carpetenter himself rebelling as far as he can be seen to against God.

It was in this context that the following email extract resonated . . .

Best wishes,

David P

www.liveprayerchurch.com



Halloween - Part 2 of 2

A Christian's response to Halloween. As I was in prayer nine years ago about
Halloween and what God wanted me to share during that time, part of my focus
was on satan and how he operates. The Bible calls him an "angel of light."
He is a great imitator. He takes the perfection of God and perverts it. So
as I was praying, God poured into my spirit that it is time for Christians
worldwide to rise up on the most important day of the year for satan,
Halloween, and claim that day for God!

The first step, is to make it a special day for Christians worldwide. If
Hallmark cards and candy companies can make up holidays to sell greeting
cards and chocolate, why can't the church? I am proud to announce that until
our Lord returns, October 31 will now be "Witnessing for Jesus Day." This
holiday was started nine years ago by the 2 million worldwide who are part
of Liveprayer, and we will continue to promote it as well as follow through
to make this a legitimate, recognized holiday every October 31!

The goal is for Christians to share their faith in Jesus Christ with at
least 3 people during the day. If every Christian worldwide shared their
faith in Christ with 3 people, it would literally turn the world upside down
over night. The world will be "witnessing" their rebellion of God with their
Halloween parties, their costumes, and satanic services. THIS IS THE PERFECT
DAY for Christians to witness to this lost world that we live in, that Jesus
Christ is "The Way, the Truth, and the Life."

What else can Christians do on our new holiday? PLENTY! Every community
needs churches to put on "Hell House" or "Judgment House" productions to
counter the haunted houses the world promotes. Make sure your home is well
lit and inviting for children out trick or treating. In addition to candy,
give them a gospel tract or a little "Gospel of John" booklet. Also, pray
with each group of kids before they leave. Your church should have the
resources to get tracts and the Gospel of John booklets at a very low cost.

NO CHILD SHOULD COME TO YOUR HOME AND LEAVE WITHOUT KNOWING THAT JESUS IS
LORD!

For those with children, take them out trick-or-treating! Have them dress up
as Bible characters. Let them go door to door for candy, BUT, in return for
the candy, they should give the homeowner a tract or a Gospel of John
booklet. GOD CAN USE THESE CHILDREN TO HELP SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST TO
PEOPLE THAT WILL NEVER GO TO CHURCH!!!

Churches, instead of holding an alternative to Halloween party at the
church, should get the children involved in evangelizing their
neighborhoods! They have the perfect excuse to go door to door on this
night. God can use these children to share the hope and love of Christ with
people that will never hear the message any other way. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE
HOW GOD CAN USE THE CHILDREN ON THIS NIGHT!!!

So, let's review. We now have a new Christian holiday. It is, "Witnessing
for Jesus Day," and will be celebrated every year on October 31st. It will
be a day for Christians worldwide to witness to others what Jesus Christ has
done in their life. We will have churches in every community putting on
"Hell House" or "Judgment House" productions as an alternative to the
haunted house productions of the world. Christians will make their homes
inviting for children out trick or treating, and in addition to candy, give
them a Gospel Tract or Gospel of John booklet. Children of ALL AGES will
become mighty witnessing agents for the Lord. They will dress up as Bible
characters and go out into their neighborhoods to get candy, BUT, will give
the homeowner a Gospel tract or Gospel of John booklet.

I love you and care about you so much. There is no reason a Christian should
have to fear Halloween, nor is there any reason a Christian should have to
participate in the way the world celebrates Halloween. It actually is a
perfect opportunity to go on the offensive and make this a day to celebrate
witnessing our faith to this lost and dying world. What better day than the
day the world celebrates rebelling against God--HALLOWEEN!!!

I will be praying for you. I pray that you become bold and part of the ninth
annual "Witnessing for Jesus Day." For the Christian, sharing our faith is
not an option, but is a commandment from God. It is something that we should
be doing EVERY day. But there is no better day of the year than Halloween
for Believers worldwide to share their faith in Jesus Christ with this lost
world. THAT, my friend, needs to be a Christian's response to Halloween!!!



In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

You're not alone in your concerns, David.  Halloween is potentially far from "harmless fun".

Every Blessing

Tony

[Holditch]

Yes anything to get rid of the current practices with regards to random cold callers at Halloween would be a good thing! However I do get lots of different religious denominations knocking repeatedly at my door also, so maybe nothing new there with regards to liveprayerchurch's radical change to things

However surely it is a light hearted affair and should only be seen as such, and in terms should not be taken seriously?

Best Regards


Marc

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Some of us have had to try and pick up the pieces following a person's involvement with the occult.  It's potentially far from harmless - especially as the current secular approach trivializes and makes fun of it. As to "trick or treat" - we spend 364 days of the year telling children to beware of strangers - and on one day encourage them to knock on stranger's doors!  Not to mention that ToT has a clear relation to demanding money with menaces.

Certainly, given the prohibitions in the Old Testament about involvement with anything occult, halloween "celebrations" are totally out of place in the Christian church.  A celebration of the eve of All Saints' Day is where we should be.

Every Blessing

Tony

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

Perhaps I should make clear that I do not at all follow blindly all that I read and nor do I take on board all that "Liveprayer" publishes - but on both occasions recently when I have reposted here, the sentiments expressed are clearly pulling in the right path in a tide that is accelerating in the other direction.

If at best people are simply swimming in a sea of agnosticism or not caring, even if not in direct rebellion against the good path, it's often said that for evil to flourish it only takes a good man to do nothing.

The other evening at Nice airport the plane was delayed and whilst waiting I noticed an older man with his video camera filming the desolate waiting area. I asked him what film he was making, why he was filming. He replied that he wanted to film the way in which people were not interacting . . . the reason for which was that they were plugged into their communication technology, phones and computers. In the old days, he said, in such circumstances people would be talking to other people, meeting a wider circle of people. We chatted. He was clearly a man of self acquired wisdom so I asked him "Have you found Heaven yet?". He responded after a little thought that Earth is Heaven.

We have to keep it that way . . .

I am wondering if Halloween has its commercially celebrated origins in America and where its origins are within that context. If so, I wonder whether it arose as a remnant of "older" religions preserved in the guise of a Christianity as had the old ideas within Cuban drums http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,339.msg4465.html#msg4465 and it certainly marks the death of the trees and vegetation generally at the end of Autumn before the resurrection of life in Spring in terms of the Golden Bough http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,319.0.html. Perhaps it's great that Christianity can encompass and include old ideas but now in the absence of understanding of Christianity at all, even less how inclusive it can be, the old ideas remain apparently cherished but merely in a superficial and ephemeral reflection of their meaning that could be understood in terms of  All Souls Day.

It's for this reason that the idea to be rather more evangelistic about Halloween rather than allowing it to be an apparent flourishing of the reverse of what it should be seems to be increasingly relevant.

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

I read this thread with great interest but for whatever reason I had a difficult time thinking of a meaningful response and then in another thread David wisely put words together which... made me take another look...

The Christian (or other believer) with a true sense or understanding of God (and bearing in mind the Delai Lama is not by definition "Christian" and that the protests and problems about which they resonate are now a global problem in a global perspective, I'm being deliberately non-denominational in suggesting an understanding of God) will have a purpose in mind that helps him or her to create a particular vision of order in their lives as they interlock with others' lives and the harmony created thereby, a decrease of entropy, whilst those without an understanding of "the idea" - the a-theist (of the sort Rifkind might have been referring to) - working against "the idea", however well meaning, without a view of the wider picture and the light which is "the idea" will wander around, some more directionless than others, in the darkness, bumping into things to a greater or lesser extent, and leading to the increase of disorder, the increase of entropy, the death of the system.

I am wondering if Halloween has its commercially celebrated origins in America and where its origins are within that context. If so, I wonder whether it arose as a remnant of "older" religions preserved in the guise of a Christianity as had the old ideas within Cuban drums http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,339.msg4465.html#msg4465 and it certainly marks the death of the trees and vegetation generally at the end of Autumn before the resurrection of life in Spring in terms of the Golden Bough http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,319.0.html. Perhaps it's great that Christianity can encompass and include old ideas but now in the absence of understanding of Christianity at all, even less how inclusive it can be, the old ideas remain apparently cherished but merely in a superficial and ephemeral reflection of their meaning that could be understood in terms of  All Souls Day.

One begins to see that the purpose of "Halloween" is to recognize there ARE "things that go bump in the night"... Entropic forces seeking to bring to the world "disorder"...  In short, this "holiday" seeks to make "real" the fact of the existence of evil, and the purpose of evil: "the death of the system".

What has happened with Halloween is that "we" have somehow managed to marginalize its true meaning, along with many of the "Holy Days"...

One would hope that Churches using this as an opportunity to "get people in the door" use this opportunity to properly educate the public as to the holiday's significance...

Eric
KB7DQH

[David Pinnegar]

Dear Eric

Your linking of these ideas is on the ball . . .

On http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,1038.msg4632.html#msg4632 I have added a further note for exploration

Best wishes

David P

[Janner]

Dear David,

Quite by chance this morning I happened to listen to Prayer for Today, and it brought me back immediately to this discussion.

It suggests quite a different view of Halloween and may still (31/10/11) be heard on listen again at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b016kkb8

I do not put it forward in order to advance any personal views on the debate, but simply as something which may be of interest to yourself and the other contributors.

Best regards,

J.

[David Pinnegar]

It suggests quite a different view of Halloween and may still (31/10/11) be heard on listen again at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b016kkb8

Hi!

Yes - brilliant and thanks for posting. A very valid viewpoint - in essence if I might precis in a few words - that Halloween provides a safe environment for learning for children that satirises evil. It fits in with Eric's post rather well in terms of an educational experience and leading to the understanding of decay. The Times today referred to it in its business section as being particularly promoted by chains of shops to provide a quarterly theatre in the High Street - and perhaps its from there that we see mass production of the symboligy without the meaning nor educational result promoted. And its in a similar vein that inspired my sympathy for the thought that the organ in a church in New York is possibly not the appropriate place for a freak show at Halloween . . .

The BBC link is only a few minutes and certainly worthy of people clicking on . . .

Thanks and best wishes,

David P

[Michael H]

I cannot go along with this suggestion of getting children to 'evangelise' on this day.It is just another extreme with no depth - a form of indoctrination or coercion, and just another example of how shallow people have become in the name of Christianity.

[David Pinnegar]

I cannot go along with this suggestion of getting children to 'evangelise' on this day.It is just another extreme with no depth - a form of indoctrination or coercion, and just another example of how shallow people have become in the name of Christianity.

:-) I mentioned elsewhere that whilst I find the occasional "liveprayer" email a source of inspiration, like yourself in guarding against indoctrination, I don't go along with all I read. Certainly, however, on this occasion it has provided a valid point for debate.

If the "liveprayer" viewpoint is capable of being percieved as "how shallow people have become", then also so is the High Street view of Halloween itself that the "liveprayer" viewpoint set to redress.

The reality, however, is that the High Street view is driven by the illusory distraction of the worship of Mammon fed to and largely swallowed by an unquestioning man-in-the-street. This is perhaps the issue that the St Pauls protesters lay at the doorstep of both the City and possibly inadvertently but by the reaction of St Pauls itself, a blatant challenge to the Church itself. The issue results from places of worship having lost the attentions of the population to the materialist seduction . . . and the organ has its part to play.

I am fully convinced that the power of organ music and other music capable of inspiring "deep thought" is capable of changing people by way of conscious or subconscious understanding or "knowing". Not only was Bach encoding the eternal into his music but the Mahler symphonies were grappling with it and on a psychological level their phrasing (particularly no 3) echos the processes of interleaving of brain processes of thought.

Last night an audience to a piano recital at Hammerwood by Kazimierz Morski, unknown in England only on account of the unpronouncability of the apparent spelling of his name and his incapacity in English language, witnessed an extraordinary experience. Not only was the piano tuned to an unequal temperament but the bass was tuned specifically to resonate with sets of harmonics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz0B0SwKpww, a technique that I am refining increasingly. The result is that certain chords lock, lock solid, as one sound rather than as a collection of notes. The ability for the sound to lock depends on the key . . . :-) !!! Kasimierz (pronounced Kazimeer) picked up on this in his playing, emphasising chords and tempi particularly in Schumann and also in Chopin where passages moved through circles of chromatic keys to then come around to lock solid, and start another circle again. The locking and fluidity giving a different sense of long term rhythm to the piece just as the Mayan calendar had short and long cycles within its perceived rhythms of time, and the performance spoke of eternity.

Two children were in the front row. I was warned about them at the beginning of the concert . . . with mobile phone or iPlayer in hand together with earbuds to listen to it to. I told them to put it away for we were about to experience a concert of astounding depth and then introduced the concert by speaking of the 2 minute concentration span . . . of which the only cure is to engage on some thought process of longer periodicity, of which the music we were about to hear was an example. The children appeared to enjoy it and the parents did not take them away in the interval. . .

In the hidden noise of the earbud generation, the softly softly approach simply does not get through and one does have to be willing to be quite outspoken at times if we are to change what we don't like that we see going around us.

So "personal views on the debate" are not just allowed, but actively encouraged!

Best wishes

David P