Halloween and Fear of Man by Ted Slater on 10/24/2006 at 7:54 AM

I personally don't celebrate Halloween for the same reason I don't celebrate Ramadan — they're both meaningless.

Maybe Halloween is good for some people who suffer greatly from "fear of man." Having neighbors initiate communication by coming to your door is helpful for those who are too timid to initiate communication themselves (by asking a neighbor for an onion or egg, by stopping and visiting when they're working in their yard, by giving them a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift, and so on).

For these individuals, Halloween can be the first "baby step" toward growth in the area of overcoming "fear of man," and can lead to healthy relationships with neighbors. As for me, I've been working on overcoming "fear of man" for years, so I don't need the crutch of Halloween as an excuse to engage the neighbors in conversation.

So how can we overcome this fear apart from Halloween? Carolyn McCulley quotes from Ed Welch in a recent Boundless article:

The most radical treatment for the fear of man is the fear of the Lord. God must be bigger to you than people are.... Regarding other people, our problem is that we need them (for ourselves) more than we love them (for the glory of God). The task God sets for us is to need them less and love them more.

I don't need a pagan holiday (is that an oxymoron?) to help me grow in godliness. I need the fear of the Lord.