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Halloween has suffered from more persecution than other public celebrations in the United States. Normally, the persecution comes from the religious communities in the different states. The focus is often the so-called 'satanic' overtones of the celebration.

Understanding the persecution

For those in the modern world, it would be very difficult to understand what these small churches mean by 'satanic'. If one would briefly summarize western Christian thought, then it would appear that anything that did not look Christian was the devil.

Imagine looking at a vast horizon from within a small room. Because you don't understand the outside world, the vast horizon is dangerous. The whole horizon is the devil. This may be confirmed by studying the evolution of the image of the devil through the centuries.

Complete removal?

The religious Right had wanted for a long time to completely remove the Halloween festivities from schools. The reason for this is the 'pagan' themes of Halloween celebrations. The 'ugly' beings like goblins and ghouls are considered evil and Satanic.

Logically, if you're working with this theoretical framework, then children who wear masks and costumes are being subsumed by the forces of Evil. It's absurd, but these religious communities have a sizeable following.

Reaction

However, not everyone is supportive of the conservative, extreme religious Right. According to the Atlanta Constitution, a newspaper:

"Halloween may have begun as a pagan festival, but in the United States it was now a festival of fun, feasts, fancy frocks, and frivolous fright. Ours is not just a Christian nation, but a nation born from the search of religious freedom. Let the kids have some fun."

Because of such strong, critical views of Halloween, the celebration has been saved from unjust persecution and complete immolation.

Fighting back, more and more

Since all efforts have failed, the religious communities have taken other measures to make sure that they have their say as to how the Halloween festivities are to be carried out. These communities are purely reactionary, meaning; they don't have a clear program.

They react based on the superficial circumstances and not to the deeper structures; and thus, they fail to address the problem. Anyway, these reactionary communities try to combat Halloween by doing the exact opposite of modern Halloween practices.

For example, the adults want their children to wear "happy" clothes instead of Halloween costumes. In addition to this, these religious adults alter the basic concept of a haunted house to integrate their own ideas.

For example, the Trinity Christian School in Texas has been known to organize a yearly Hell House. The Hell House antagonizes the frequent motifs and themes in popular culture such as the following:

- Drug-ridden raves
- Sex before marriage
- Homosexuality
- Family violence
- School shootings

The point of all this is to lead children and bewildered teenagers to so-called paths of righteousness. Are they effective? To a certain degree, they are. Because out of 75,000 individuals who have been recorded at one time, about 15,000 have become members of the community.

These are the most modern weapons of evangelism today; apart from the presence on the World Wide Web.