Post by Tomspy77 on Nov 2, 2016 14:48:56 GMT -6
Halloween ‘has become a night when the devil rejoices,’ according to Pat Robertson
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www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/31/halloween-has-become-a-night-when-the-devil-rejoices-according-to-pat-robertson/
ZXfXaYc 104Each year, Dianne lets her teenage son attend a Halloween event with friends at a local theme park.
But this year seemed different, she explained in a letter sent to the Christian Broadcast Network.
Rumor had it, she wrote, that the theme park was going to have a haunted house “based on Satan and demons.” But this wasn’t just any rinky-dink production put on by neighborhood high school kids. There would also be “girls” in suggestive demonic attire selling “drinks” and even listening to techno music, wrote the mother, who identified herself only as “Dianne.”
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As if that wasn’t bad enough, she explained, a “demon DJ” would be in attendance — one who planned to do use his electro-magic dubstepping wizardry to “encourage people to dance.”
“I know my son is a good boy, and he will be disappointed if I don’t let him go,” she wrote. “How can I make him understand that keeping him away is the best thing for him?”
[What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation.]
The answer, according the anti-Halloween crusader known as the Rev. Pat Roberston, is simple: “Tell him the truth.”
“Explain to him who the devil is,” Robertson said on his program, “The 700 Club.” “Explain to him the devil wants to destroy you. The devil seeks who he may devour. He’s out to kill you and he’s going to put everything nice in your way that’s going to seem like fun.”
“The answer is, mother, don’t let you babies to grow up to be demon worshipers, if I can quote from Willie Nelson,” he added. “Don’t let them do it. That’s just the way it is.”
This is hardly the first time that the conservative televangelist has attacked Halloween. The 86-year-old former Southern Baptist minister — who once blamed the 2010 Haitian earthquake on a “pact to the devil” — adds new verses to his epic rant against Oct. 31 almost every year.
“That’s the day when millions of children and adults will be dressing up as devils, witches, and goblins … to celebrate Satan,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club” in 2015. “They don’t realize what they’re doing.”
Unlike last year’s attack on Halloween, Robertson recently offered a solution for parents worried about the soul-corrupting holiday.
“There needs to be alternative Halloween celebrations in churches, where they have all the games and all the fun and all the nice pretty girls and all the handsome boys and all that,” he said. “They all come together and they’re praising the lord as opposed to worshiping Satan.”
“Halloween has become a night when the devil rejoices,” he added.
Robertson is far from alone among Christian pastors who believe in encouraging alternative Halloween activities, according to a new LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 senior Protestant pastors.
The survey revealed that each Halloween, two in three Protestant pastors encourage their congregants to attend church events such as a fall festival or a judgment house.
Half of those surveyed said they tell their church members to befriend trick-or-treaters at their doors.
The survey revealed that one in 10 pastors instruct their flock to skip Halloween altogether.
“Most pastors see Halloween as an opportunity to reach out,” says Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “This is a time when your neighbors literally come to your doorstep. Pastors don’t want their church members to waste that chance to make a connection or invite someone to church.”
[Jimmy Kimmel takes Pat Robertson hilariously out of context
But this year seemed different, she explained in a letter sent to the Christian Broadcast Network.
Rumor had it, she wrote, that the theme park was going to have a haunted house “based on Satan and demons.” But this wasn’t just any rinky-dink production put on by neighborhood high school kids. There would also be “girls” in suggestive demonic attire selling “drinks” and even listening to techno music, wrote the mother, who identified herself only as “Dianne.”
Acts of Faith newsletter
Conversations about faith and values.
Sign up
As if that wasn’t bad enough, she explained, a “demon DJ” would be in attendance — one who planned to do use his electro-magic dubstepping wizardry to “encourage people to dance.”
“I know my son is a good boy, and he will be disappointed if I don’t let him go,” she wrote. “How can I make him understand that keeping him away is the best thing for him?”
[What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation.]
The answer, according the anti-Halloween crusader known as the Rev. Pat Roberston, is simple: “Tell him the truth.”
“Explain to him who the devil is,” Robertson said on his program, “The 700 Club.” “Explain to him the devil wants to destroy you. The devil seeks who he may devour. He’s out to kill you and he’s going to put everything nice in your way that’s going to seem like fun.”
“The answer is, mother, don’t let you babies to grow up to be demon worshipers, if I can quote from Willie Nelson,” he added. “Don’t let them do it. That’s just the way it is.”
This is hardly the first time that the conservative televangelist has attacked Halloween. The 86-year-old former Southern Baptist minister — who once blamed the 2010 Haitian earthquake on a “pact to the devil” — adds new verses to his epic rant against Oct. 31 almost every year.
“That’s the day when millions of children and adults will be dressing up as devils, witches, and goblins … to celebrate Satan,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club” in 2015. “They don’t realize what they’re doing.”
Unlike last year’s attack on Halloween, Robertson recently offered a solution for parents worried about the soul-corrupting holiday.
“There needs to be alternative Halloween celebrations in churches, where they have all the games and all the fun and all the nice pretty girls and all the handsome boys and all that,” he said. “They all come together and they’re praising the lord as opposed to worshiping Satan.”
“Halloween has become a night when the devil rejoices,” he added.
Robertson is far from alone among Christian pastors who believe in encouraging alternative Halloween activities, according to a new LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 senior Protestant pastors.
The survey revealed that each Halloween, two in three Protestant pastors encourage their congregants to attend church events such as a fall festival or a judgment house.
Half of those surveyed said they tell their church members to befriend trick-or-treaters at their doors.
The survey revealed that one in 10 pastors instruct their flock to skip Halloween altogether.
“Most pastors see Halloween as an opportunity to reach out,” says Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “This is a time when your neighbors literally come to your doorstep. Pastors don’t want their church members to waste that chance to make a connection or invite someone to church.”
[Jimmy Kimmel takes Pat Robertson hilariously out of context
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www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/31/halloween-has-become-a-night-when-the-devil-rejoices-according-to-pat-robertson/