How do you misrepresent holiness by refusing to participate in occultic activities?
No, you do right to refuse to participate in occultic activities. You misrepresent holiness by condemning that which is not forbidden and making something into an occult activity when no one actually involved in the activity understands or intends it that way.
Read what Paul has to say about this whole matter in 1 Corinthians, when he talks about the problem of meat offered to idols. He doesn’t make a blanket condemnation of eating such meat or hazarding even accidental contact with anything that might have some unknowing connection to false religions. Rather, he cautions only that we are bound to avoid that which is
understood by others to be offered to a demon or a false god, even if there is no truth to it. We are not bound, however, to refrain from things that no one present even slightly understands to have a thing to do with demons or false religions. If we do not give scandal, we can eat. We don’t have to get so scrupulous that we fear there is some demonic connection that no one present intends or that is being done without our knowledge.
If an unbeliever invites you and you want to go, eat whatever is placed before you, without raising questions on grounds of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This was offered in sacrifice,” do not eat it on account of the one who called attention to it and on account of conscience; I mean not your own conscience, but the other’s. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake thankfully, why am I reviled for that over which I give thanks? So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10:27-31
That is the plain sense of the whole section of 1 Corinthians 8-11. It does not get more patristic than that!
Now, I will concede that what you are seeing in your local Halloween celebrations might be a horse of an entirely different color from what I see around here. Still, I have never read any Satanist or even a Wiccan who exults, “See, the Christians celebrate Halloween, they worship demons!” No. Not only do we not think this is what we are doing, it is not what the secular public thinks we are doing and it is not what people who actually
do practice pagan religions think we are doing. The only people who think that Halloween is Satanic or pagan is the people who have nothing to do with it. The people celebrating it think no such thing.
If anything, the pagans express offense because Halloween is so totally removed from “real” celebration of Samhain as to connect their celebrations with an intentional farce or the making their witches out to be evil sorceresses when they aren’t! At any rate, if you read what pagans write in their discussions of Samhain, which really is a pagan celebration, they make a clear and adamant distinction between Halloween and what they’re celebrating. They would say that Halloween is the children’s farce at best and a direct attack on pagans at worst, while Samhain is their religious observance, and never the twain shall meet.
Of course you have to avoid things that intend to make a connection to the occult. So you can’t decide the question of Halloween outside the context of your understanding of a particular celebration and the understanding of those with whom you celebrate. But please do concede that the night before All Saints can include a bunch of dressing up and candy and ugly-faced pumpkins without fear of some connection to the devil that absolutely not a single person involved intends whatsoever. That goes beyond what the Apostles taught or cautioned us against.
At first they thought I was strange, but soon they thought I was pretty awesome! A couple of kids asked me how they could get their parents to like that music!
