Valentine's is Pagan - So What?

[Darris McNeely] It's Valentine's Day, a major commercial holiday in the world. Steve, what do you think is the best thing about Valentine's Day? You know what I think the best thing about Valentine's Day is?

[Steve Myers] What's the best thing?

[Darris McNeely] The next day, everything is half priced: candy, chocolates, even the roses. I think that probably speaks as much of the value of the day as anything else.

[Steve Myers] There's no doubt - it may seem that we're just down on all of the holidays, but actually the day after Easter, the day after Halloween, the day after Valentine's Day is much more important because of the half priced candy than anything that happens on those days because of where they come from.

[Darris McNeely] They come from practices and customs deeply rooted into paganism and we understand a lot of people don't care about that anymore, but God cares. His word shows us that we should care as well. And the absurdity of all of these customs, whether it's Valentine's Day, Halloween, or some of the others that are rooted in pagan worship is that God thinks they're absurd and actually they're worth less than half price.

[Steve Myers] Absolutely. When you think about "Well, I don't worship on Valentine's Day. I don't do anything like that. So you know I'm just trying to be nice, trying to be nice to my wife, trying to be nice to people." But wait a second. It does tie in with what God says. Here's what He says in Jeremiah 10:2, He starts out by saying, "Don't learn the way of the Gentiles." Other translations say don't follow those practices. Don't act like the other nations. It also says in The Message, "Don't take on the godless nations as your models." Why is that important with Valentine's Day? Because it comes from pagan practices. It was brought right into the Catholic Church under the guise of a saint, and yet…

[Darris McNeely] It goes all the way back to Rome.

[Steve Myers] All the way back to the Roman gods. So we don't want any part of that whether we're blatantly religious about it or just having a nice holiday by giving our spouse some flowers.

[Darris McNeely] The point is if you're going to show your husband, your wife love and show them respect, that's a daily 365 day a year issue. It's not relegated to just one day, and certainly don't take a day that has pagan origins and try to make it something when really in the reality of it in today's society it becomes nothing more than a commercial venture as absurd as the reality of going out the next day and trying to find everything for half price, even though you would save a little money doing that.

[Steve Myers] That's right. So get rid of that. This is a discounted holiday. Get rid of it all together. Love always. Don't be cheapskates, and do what's right. Don't pick up these practices in any form. Get rid of them in your life and you'll be much happier.

[Darris McNeely] That's BT Daily. Join us next time.