Clergy Haunting

A Spectral Mashup

Photo by Sandra Mosconi on Unsplash

I wrestled with this piece last Friday. When I woke to finish it on Saturday, news broke that left me thinking it had passed its write-by-date. Judges had ruled that the current Administration could not elide the law. Contingency monies meant SNAP benefits would not be withheld.

Over the next hours we learned what we should already be accustomed to,

Not so fast.

The latest update is that new math means SNAP recipients may receive two-thirds of their regular benefits rather than the fifty percent first thought. For those of us who rely on SNAP assistance, this means a great deal. There is no firm date as to when the assistance will be available on EBT cards. Those who budget their meager resources are not behind.

My original intent was to point out the three reasons last Friday, October 31, may be considered an interesting mashup. Last Friday was the last day of Pastor Appreciation Month, Halloween, and Reformation Day.

My piece began.

Yesterday was the last day of Pastor Appreciation Month.

The first Pastor Appreciation Sunday occurred on the second Sunday of October in 1992. According to Wikipedia, Focus on the Family encouraged churches to show appreciation to pastors during October in 1994.

Jerry Frear Jr., through Under His Wings ministry, called for a day similar to Secretaries’ Day for pastors. One synopsis is offered under a piece titled ‘History of Pastor Appreciation Day’ from 2019, over at Church Relevance.

Each year, the second Sunday in October marks a special day of recognition for church pastors known as Pastor Appreciation Day. This Hallmark holiday dates back to 1992 when it was originally known as Clergy Appreciation Day. The idea behind the holiday is that church congregants take at least one day per year to show gratitude for everything pastors do for their church. Many churches celebrate their pastors throughout the year, but this holiday provides a specific day for recognition.

Over time, cultural views of clergy have changed.

Reasons for the change vary, but certainly include scandals, both financial and sexual.

That October 31 ends Pastor Appreciation Month and is also Reformation Day makes for not just a little dissonance. Protestants point to abuses in the Church, not the least of which were financial.

When the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.

Indulgences anyone?

I continued.

Yesterday was also Reformation Day. It was the 508th anniversary of the date Martin Luther was to have nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. If ever there has been need for reform, it is hard to argue against our present day. Read just a few pieces from the Roys Report. Just when we think one group will correct the errors of another, we read about the current rupture in the ACNA.

Across denominations today, we witness divisions over how conservative or liberal a particular group within these larger groups will be or become. Non-denominational churches express the same when a new church is birthed out of the dissatisfaction over real or perceived lapses toward liberalism. It is 95 Theses all day, every day.

Pastor Appreciation Month and Reformation Day in 2025 are haunted. Calling on people to appreciate pastors is haunted by the clergy abuses. Reformation Day is haunted by clearly lack of unity bound up in the ever splintering between Us and Them.

As I neared the end.

Yesterday was Halloween.

A recent conversation included a fifty-something recalling that Halloween was once a children’s holiday. The goal of getting as much candy as possible has been eclipsed by adults who have helped push Halloween as a lucrative holiday. One friend opined that Halloween had become more of an adult event. He noted the amount of money spent not just on candy but also on costumes. It is estimated that Americans spent $13.1 billion, averaging $114 per person. Breaking down the numbers, it is expected that totals will reveal that more was spent on costumes than on candy by $400 million.

Many felt the transition from Halloween as a max candy event to a day to be avoided. Suddenly, in the same churches, within the same groups, Halloween was considered the Devil’s Day. Queue up Mike Cosper’s recent long-form podcast series titled Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, an expose on the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s.

Some are haunted by fun memories. Others have shaped by a different emphasis where observing the autumnal equinox was somehow okay if named Fall Festival. Maybe those adults who have helped push Halloween as another major revenue source for vendors are actually re-living a cultural holiday they missed during the Satanic Panic.

And in Conclusion.

Not much has changed between last week and this. October is past and with it Pastors Appreciation Month, Reformation Day, and Halloween. The emphases of these days seem to haunt one another. Trust in clergy is down for much the same that spawned a reformation. Both are haunted by what was intended but not yet have become.

Maybe there is a place for Halloween. We think ghosts and goblins are the stuff of a certain genre of fiction. But what if we returned to the understanding that God has infused creation with Godself in such a way that the goodness of God haunts our world to proclaim a love that leaps out from unexpected places?

Moving away from a trustworthy clergy and toward the need for a reformation of love rooted in grace, calls for a hallowed world where we do not miss that Jesus is the spectral force that haunts our lack. No, Jesus is no ghost. But reading the calloused comments of Christians reveals that the Way of Jesus surely does not haunt our habits and practices. On the eve of the end of SNAP, most seemed more ready to be out in full costume pretending to be someone they are not, while millions will wake tomorrow wondering if the Church and Christians are still pretending.