Linguists and anthropologists have developed a phrase used to describe the social and cultural significance lying behind various cultural forms which they have dubbed, 'cultural scripts.' These are those unspoken assumptions that are attached to a great many things in society.
Talk alcohol as an example. Alcohol carries very different cultural scripts in the UK than in the US. In America, there is a bit of a negative stigma associated with alcohol, and indeed some church communities are very against its use. However, in the UK alcohol does not carry such a cultural script. In England, alcoholic beverages are just that, beverages. It is not at all uncommon for alcohol to be served at elementary and college functions, and even my very conservative church in the UK would serve wine along with coffee and tea at the end of service.
At Ambassador church for instance, we would never dream of serving wine at the close of one of our services due to the very different cultural script associated with alcohol in the UK and the US.
Now take Halloween. I know of many Christians who are opposed to doing anything on Halloween – they don’t allow their children to dress up, keep their house black and do not answer their door for Trick or Treaters. Their reasoning behind such a decision is that Halloween had its roots in pagan and occultist practices not fit for a Christian. My argument would be that the cultural script for Halloween changed from a pagan holiday to an American fun holiday centuries ago. In celebrating Halloween one is not giving credit to evil or the occult in my opinion due to the fact that the cultural scripts associated with the holiday no longer include the many dark aspects it may have once had.
We must ask ourselves, what is it that you are communicating about Jesus and the Church if you use Halloween as an instrument to protest paganism and the occult? Is that the message you are intending?
“Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive. -- 1 Cor 10.23
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2 comments:
Growing up I was only told that Halloween was bad. I do not for my children's sake to only associate the bad with this holiday. I want them to use their imaginations on their costumes and fun, but I also have a moral obligation when they are older to let them know what the original purpose of this holiday was. When we do talk to them we need to keep in mind to let them know that this is how "our family" celebrates this holiday but not all families do it the same. Anyways I would just like to point out I am the first person to make a comment!!!! Thanks for putting these up Jeff.
Never mind on the first person thing, I saw James's afterwards. Congratulations James Chung!!!
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