As thousands of excited schoolchildren from across south Bucks prepare to don their spooky costumes and go trick or treating this evening, a pastor from Penn has slammed Halloween as "immoral."

Pastor Peter Simpson, from Penn Free Methodist Church, has criticised the annual tradition for being "unhealthy." 

He said: “Death, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, face masks designed to terrify: there is nothing happy about Halloween, and it cannot be dismissed as just harmless fun.

"The Bible tells us that if people want to focus their thoughts on unwholesome subjects, it indicates a deeper problem within them, namely hearts which are in rebellion against God." 

He also claims trick or treating should not be encouraged among children and criticised the "unhealthy preoccupation with death in the observance of Halloween." 

He added: “The ‘trick or treat’ principle is in itself immoral - ‘Give me what I want or suffer the consequences’.

"Why instil such a notion in children’s minds? Halloween has become so popular in recent years, precisely because as a society Britain has increasingly abandoned the worship of God and the authority of the Bible”.

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