Pat Robertson Reminds Viewers That Halloween is Really About Worshipping Satan

Impact

Southern Baptist reverend and evangelical leader Pat Robertson, known for his controversial views on gays, Alzheimer's, assassinating foreign leaders and pretty much everything else, seems fairly sure he has this Halloween thing all figured out.

The 700 Club host took to his show on Thursday to tell his audience that the holiday is an opportunity for millions of citizens the country over to get out there and "celebrate Satan."

Mic/YouTube

"It used to be called All Saints' Eve. Now we know it as Halloween and Saturday is Halloween," Robertson said.

"That's the day when millions of children and adults will be dressing up as devils, witches, and goblins to celebrate Satan," he continued. "They don't realize that's what they're doing."

(Crap. How did he figure it all out?)

While Robertson may have been unintentionally summarizing the plot of terrible horror movie Halloween III: Season of the Witch, his views are not necessarily out of step with some of his fellow evangelicals, reports the Washington PostA recent survey of Americans conducted by a polling firm named LifeWay Research found that 21% of those polled "try to avoid Halloween completely," with another 14% "try to avoid the pagan elements" of the holiday.

The Catholic Church opposes Halloween as well. In 2009, the Vatican actually went so far as to urge parents not to let their kids celebrate on Oct. 31st, saying the holiday carried occult tones and encouraged consumerism. Amid last year's festivities, Pope Francis warned that too many people thought the devil was a "myth" and "the devil exists and we must fight against him."

But Robertson has always been especially vocal on the dangers of Satanic influence in society. In 2014, Robertson took to his show to link Halloween to the ritualistic murder of sheep and other "demonic rituals."

"The whole idea of trick-or-treating is the Druids would go to somebody's house and ask for money and if they didn't get money they'd kill one of their sheep, that was the sheep and it was serious stuff," the preacher said, according to Right Wing Watch. "All this business about goblins and jack-o'-lanterns all comes out of demonic rituals of the Druids and the people who lived in England at that particular time."

h/t Washington Post