Halloween Cults

[adrian]

so does that mean that we at halloween.com are cult like then?.... hahaha jk

[Rising Dead Man]

He isn't with WBC (they are notorius for "God hates fags") but he is a Southern Baptist and in my area they tend to be the most vocal about condemning people to hell.

Westboro Baptist Church

More like Westboro Crazy Church

I saw them on the news last night. They were upset over some gay marriage.

[Pumpkin_Man]

You're right. It is quite sad, and it goes very contrary to Christian teachings to condemn some one becasue of their cultural differences. I have no problem with cultural diversity and I have respect for everyone. I work at a college where we have Christians of all demoninations, Jews, Muslums, Buddahists, Hindues, Peagans, Wiccans, Athiests, Agnostics, you name it. We have students from China, India, France, England, Germany, and a whole host of other countries, andour Culinary Arts program is well known through out the entire world.

Having respect for those cultures and nationalities is very important, BUT, I also have a culture. I also have a nationality, and I also speak a language. Respect if a two-way street.

I've seen it happen so many times. I had a student get mad at me two Christmasses ago because she was offended by my use of the expression "Merry Christmas." I won't say what her belief system was, but she was insensed by it. Called me a bigot and everything else on the head of it.

Go figure.

Mike

[shanda]

I am a Christian. I feel I have made my choice to be a Christian because of a personal experience with God.

Now, after saying this, I also feel that we as Americans have the right to educate ourselves and our children and follow whatever teaching we choose.

I have no problems with anyone who does not believe the same things as me.

I do have a problem with stupidity. Learn about each other. I don't have to worship the same ways to appreciate the beauty and rituals you have.

In all religeons there is good and evil. action and reaction. blessings and consequences.

[DemonSlayerMau]

Far as I'm concerned, as long as you believe in God, that's good enough. Or heck, as long as you have a belief that doesn't harm anyone or anything else, that's fine with me. I don't really care if you pray to Zeus or Bastet, as long as that's not harming anyone else.
It's when someone practices something that I think is wrong that I raise my red flag. By wrong I mean things like animal sacrifice, or murdering another person, or treating women badly or something along those lines.
I have a jewish ancestry myself, but I was raised a Christian. I'm proud of my jewish heritage though, even though I don't practice jewish customs and traditions.
You have every right to say Merry Christmas Pumpkin Man, and if they criticise you for it, then they're being the bigots.

[shanda]

I agree.
That goes back to education. Some crazies feel that they have to kill things or people to please their "God".
As a Christian I know that the Creator does not ask for blood sacrafices. Everything else is false teachings.

[Pumpkin_Man]

WitchyMama makes some interesting points about the word "Cult." Jimmy Jones, and the Peoples Temple is a prime example of a bad cult. Children were actualy force fed that poisened coolaid under the guise of protecting them from the government. It was truely a horrid way to die, and a truely horid way to live. And when I say that, I'm not just talking about the mass suicide. I'm talking about the horific conditions that the People's Temple cult members lived in. They worked long hours in an equatorial climate. As a punishment, children were lowered into a well that they were told was the enterence to hell, and one of the closest followers of Jimmy Jones was down there dressed as a demon to scare them. People who tried to leave the People's Temple complex were gunned down.

So I guess a "cult" is only bad if it leads to such a strong fixation that you will harm yourself or others in order to maintain the belief system professed by that cult. By the way, that's NOT limited to religious cults. The Nazie Party is nothing short of a cult that worships Hitler. It was a Cult when they rose to power and it's a cult now.

Mike

[Autumnal_whispers]

DemonSlayer, Halloween has nothing to do with cults, or the sacrofice of animals. Besides that, the most dangerous cults are unfortunately based in Chrsitianity, and have an all out ban on the celebration of Halloween. I'm not going to name any in particular because I don't want to offend anyone, and I also don't want to turn this into a religious debate. Sufice it to say, that Halloween is actualy considered a holy day by many Christians, and especialy Catholics.

Mike

Thank you! I haven't heard of any cults that are rooted in Paganism, and every Pagan that I know is a god-loving human being. (Yes, they do worship a higher power, just not the Christian god. That doesn't automatically make them a cult though!) And they're just practicing their religion, not participating in a cult. One of their main religious holidays is that their god symbolically dies on that day and will be reborn on Yule, which is around December 21st. There are no sacrifices, because a lot of Pagans don't believe in harming an animal or a human being. Plus, I should remind you that animal sacrifices were common in Christianity as well (and human sacrifices! Passover anyone? God ordered that the first born child in the homes were slaughtered. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I have just a vague memory of the story). It's so strange that most cults are based on Christianity, of all religions.

[Halloweennut08]

I agree a lot of things could be called cults, This is my opinion after studying up a little bit about the subject. No one should join a Bad cult that wants to hurt people or destroy someone's image and the other stuff is common sense. But I never did any but seriously leave the Witchcraft and voodoo alone. That stuff is dangerous and you can't control it don't even try it I just read enough material a lot of bad things can happen when you do that stuff. And if your religious any other form of praying unless to your god or Jesus it is really bad. Sorry to get all preachy and religious but I think its really not a good idea for anyone.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Autumnal_Whispers, I think you got some very bad information. First of all, Passover is a Jewish holiday that coincides with Easter. The Passover tradition is based on the Bible story of how the Hebrews, who were slaves of the Egyptains, were freed at the hand of God. Ramsees, the reigning Pharo ordered that all the first born of the Hebrew Slaves were to be killed as a punishment for all the plagues that Egypt was sufffering at the time. God turned the tables on Ramses by sending the "Destroyer" to place the final and most fatal plague on egypt, the death of the first born. Animal sacrifice was common in ancient Hebrew culture, and it was ordered that a ram be slaughtered, and it's blood smered on the door lintel of every house so the Angel of Death would pass over that house. Any house that did not heed that advice, lost all their first born children.

The Passover, for many generations fter the flight from Egypt was celebrated by the smearing of blood, and the partaking of a sacred Passover meal. Most of those traditions are still observed by the Jewish faithful today, only they do not practice animal sacrifices any more, and they NEVER practiced human sacrofice. There was one story where God did ask Abraham to sacrifice his first born son, but he was stopped from doing it when God saw that Abraham was truely obediant. And of course, Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself to save humanity from sin and to open the gates of Heaven, but all in all, hunan sacrifice has never been a part either Jewish or Christian tradition, and animal sacrifice was never part of Christian tradition.

Mike