I don't rant very often. Usually the only time I rant is silently in my head. You know what I'm talking about... when you can't really do anything about the situation, but it makes you so mad that you go on and on in your head all the time getting more and more upset, and you say the perfect things and put everyone in their place and you're the best debater in the world... in your mind. Come on, you know you've done it!
So this is my rant. I love Halloween. It's so much fun to be festive and spooky (and you know us... we're all about festive) and to get my girls excited about dressing up and getting candy! I love Halloween!
But there is a side of Halloween that I really dislike. And it seems to get worse and worse every year... and that's the gory, gruesome, horrific side of Halloween. Halloween is certainly a holiday with creepy beginnings, but it seems that so many people take that as license to run with it, like crazy!
Here's a little doctrine for you: Satan doesn't get a mortal body, and neither do his angels. And this makes them angry. What's the next best thing for them to do? To see us mortals abuse the precious ones we have. And I'm totally serious about this, I believe that all the grotesque things we see in horror films, spook alleys and haunted forests is inspired by the devil. And I don't mind a little bit of it, if it's all in good humor and generally kid-friendly, but sometimes it's out of hand. I've been to some haunted houses where I have truly felt a spirit of darkness, and the gore becomes no longer just "scary" or "ewww!" but more like, "abominable", and "devilish". Halloween seems to have become nothing more than an avenue for people to express the vomitous refuse of their Id.
And that's the part I don't like about Halloween. I don't like the disfiguring, distorting, pulling apart, chopping, mutilating, or eating of the human body. I don't care if it's "pretend," that doesn't make it okay, for the same reason I teach my children that it's not okay to "kill" each other when they're playing.
And I especially draw the line at children. I don't care if it's "not real." Don't you ever bring children into your filthy movies, or haunted houses. If a child is involved, he or she should always be innocent and safe. It makes me greatly upset whenever I see a child who is possessed, an evil minion, the living dead, or generally displayed in grotesque ways. If you want to use adults for disgusting props that's one thing, but using children is another. I won't go on about this. I just think it's wrong to display such a precious and innocent thing as a child in that manner.
Here, this is a quote from Susan W. Tanner, (who presents the argument in a much gentler and less rant-like way) “The Sanctity of the Body,” Ensign, Nov 2005, 13:
"With the fulness of the gospel on the earth, we are again privileged to know these truths about the body. Joseph Smith taught: “We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the Celestial Kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The Devil has no body, and herein is his punishment” (The Words of Joseph Smith, ed. Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook [1980], 60).
Satan learned these same eternal truths about the body, and yet his punishment is that he does not have one. Therefore he tries to do everything he can to get us to abuse or misuse this precious gift. He has filled the world with lies and deceptions about the body. He tempts many to defile this great gift of the body through unchastity, immodesty, self-indulgence, and addictions. He seduces some to despise their bodies; others he tempts to worship their bodies. In either case, he entices the world to regard the body merely as an object. In the face of so many satanic falsehoods about the body, I want to raise my voice today in support of the sanctity of the body. I testify that the body is a gift to be treated with gratitude and respect."
There you go. The General Authorities always say it better! Some people will say, Jaicee, you're just being ridiculous and a stick in the mud. I say, I just know that it doesn't sit right with me. I love the good fun, the candy, the Charlie Brown side of Halloween. I try to steer clear of the other. And that's the end, thanks for letting me rant.
7 comments:
Amen Sister! Testify!!!
I completely agree. Well said!
I love you Jaicee!!!!!! First, I totally do that in my head all the time! But like you it always stays there. Second, I am with you 100% on your thoughts, infact I had a discussion about this exact topic last night with steve after I came home from a Halloween girls night out party. I went as a candy corn and many others were dressed as hookers, wenches and they really stretched there modesty just because it was a party for girls. I felt a little out of place in my sweet candy corn costume. Wow, I think I just ranted..... Anyway I hear you girl!!!!
Don't worry sista, I'm pickin up what you throwin down. Interestingly enough, I once had a conversation with a Jehovah's Witness around halloween time that said the holiday was entirely of the devil. My immediate response was, "So you're telling me a little girl dressed like a princess asking for candy is a devil-worshipper?"
Sadly enough though, there are many who would invite not a spirit of fun and festivity, but a spirit of evil into their homes with such practices as you've mentioned. So amen and amen, and may we celebrate this holiday and still have the spirit with us.
You said it! I completely agree and you're right - it does seem to be getting worse every year.
I know exactly what you are talking about. We went to a Halloween store here in town just this year to look around, and just walking in I could feel the evil. I told Kenny I just had to leave, and I had to get our kids out of that store because I felt like Satan himself was in that store. And that was BEFORE I saw the display of grotesque, disfigured, snarling, bloody infant gnawing on peices of flesh. It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen, and I have never felt such an evil presence as I did there. Also, why do all the women costumes have to be "slutty" versions of something??
you are fantastic! You just summed up everything I have been feeling about halloween.
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