The Mwamba children’s choir of Uganda Africa is planning its first tour to Los Angeles and they need your help.

If you are part of a church, school or organization that would enjoy hosting the choir, including a live band specializing in traditional and contemporary African sounds, then give them a call (805-380-5873) or visit their website at mwambachildrenschoir.com/latour/ .

These children have been orphaned or abandoned by their parents are and coming to America to perform their music and make lasting friendships.

This has become a bright spot in their lives and in the lives of those who have hosted them. The World has become small enough that we don’t have to travel beyond our own community to effectively help those in need outside of America. Please, consider hosting the choir and helping them achieve their dreams through musical expression.

To help, please call(805-380-5873) or visit their website at:mwambachildrenschoir.com/latour/

SHOW NOTES:

Every year around the holiday known as Halloween, I receive emails, calls and tweets asking about the origins of this celebration and if it OK for Christians to partake in it.

And like many things surrounding your life in this world, and your faith, there is some controversy. But is the controversy, in this case, necessary?

Are the roots of Halloween found in Paganism, yes. Does this automatically mean a Christian cannot partake in any part of a Halloween celebration? Of course not.

Most historians believe Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced SOW-in, SAH-vin, or SAM-hayne meaning “End of Summer”). During this festival people would light huge communal bonfires and wear costumes, mostly comprised of animal heads and furs, to ward off roaming spirits and ghosts.

When the eighth century rolled around, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as “All Saints’ Day”, this was to be a time to honor all of the saints and martyrs who had passed on. This new holiday incorporated many of the traditions of the Samhain festival.

{Think of it this way, it’s much easier to paint an old building and put up a new sign than it is to tear it down and start from scratch. This was nothing new and had been done many times before. For instance, many Pagan customs were combined with Christianity when Constantine converted the official Pagan religion of the Roman Empire to Christianity between 320 and 330 A.D.}

Now, the evening before “All Saints’ Day was known as All Hallows’ Eve and this later became Halloween. Over the centuries, Halloween has evolved into a secular and very commercial celebration embraced by communities as more of a child-centric holiday with activities like trick-or-treating or decorating your home to look spooky.

The truth of the matter is, with healthy parental involvement, Halloween can be a fun and creative time for children. I assure you, kids aren’t parsing the multi-faceted theological underpinnings of the possibility of an antecedent Pagan genesis…they just want to play dress-up and get free sweets.

The problem the God of Christianity has with Paganism, or any other belief system for that matter, is not with the general practices of the belief necessarily, but the fact that they worship another God all together.

Exodus 20:3
“You shall have no other gods before me.”

God wants you to celebrate and glorify Him in everything you do. 2,000 years ago, Pagans sacrificed animals, but so did our Jewish brothers and sisters under God’s command. The same act with different intent was a “pleasing aroma” to God as it says in Genesis 8:20-21.

Genesis 8:20-21
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

So it’s not just the act itself, it is the intent and purpose of the act that matters to God. Sacrifice to idols or false gods, not good. Sacrifice to the one true, holy and righteous God, good.

Discarding something just because Pagans or any other faith did or does it, really isn’t the balanced approach, any more than vegetarianism is bad because Hitler adhered to a primarily vegetarian diet.

You probably don’t even know how many things already in your life come from Pagan origins. If you are wearing a wedding ring you are wearing something with origins in Paganism and ancient magic. The circle is seen as endless and timeless and suggests a kind of repetitive, unbroken time and space, you can see it in many Pagan uses like Stonehenge.

Even in Christianity there are symbols and practices that came from or were used by Pagans.

In his 1878 Essay on the Development of the Christian Doctrine, John Henry Newman, who was originally a priest in the Church of England and later a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, wrote:

“The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; ….holy days and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields, ….the ring in marriage, …. are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.”

Even the cross that adorns many churches has Pagan origins. Also the beloved fish symbol used by many to identify themselves as Christians on clothing and on their cars was used by Pagans generations before Christianity.

The New Age movement, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists and others use the symbol of the fish to express their beliefs as well.

The symbol for Virgo, the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac, has a Pagan fish in it.
In the Dictionary of Symbols it states that:

“Virgo, is based on the Hebraic letter ‘mem’ and the Phoenician symbol meaning ‘fish’. It became, early on, a sign representing Jesus and the mystery of His virginal birth.”

So as you can see you will have to run very far to try and distance yourself from anything that has Pagan roots or is associated with religions other than Christianity.

How much more important is it that the things and customs in your life are all dedicated to God rather than looking for the devil under every stone.

Celebrations like Halloween can seem like a contradiction to Christianity at first, but really it is more how it is celebrated than where it came from that matters.

When churches shy away from Halloween opting instead to celebrate a “harvest festival” or the like it gives children more of a reason to be curious about why everyone else is celebrating something they are not and maybe even seek out more about Paganism than they would have otherwise…not to mention celebrating the harvest has Pagan origins as well.

Everything in life can be used for good or evil, a knife can either kill in the hands of a mugger or heal in the hands of a surgeon. Remember, how you use or partake in something and your intent is important.

1 Corinthians 10:31
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”