my neighborhood had a family of Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to give out candy on Halloween. I always made a point to sacrifice an extra Christian baby to Satan just to spite them
And of course, following where this line of thinking goes, that if those parishioners would throw money at this guy who did all that stuff, he must be doing a great job convincing them he's really doing gods work. Terrible, credulous people all.
Dressing up like the devil, if "in the service of God," is probably okay, seeing as how they make things up every Sunday and few call them on it.
And I'm not taking the piss about scripture, here. Just about every sermon that tries to use biblical stories often has the officiator pretty much writing his own fanfic about Jesus or a given saint, prophet, whatever and putting words in their mouths they didn't say and giving them opinions that don't exist even in the most poorly translated texts. This isn't just interpretation (which is another thing literalists get their panties in a wad over), this is wholesale making shit up to scare/persuade/entertain the congregation, and it leads to some of the most out-there beliefs about what is and isn't in the Jesus FAQ.
But were I a member of this church, I wouldn't be so worried about the costume so much as what plans he has for the whip after filming is over.
I'll have to go looking for my ex-girlfriend's crazy Bible study friend who I believe is on youtube somewhere explaining the satanic evil of the Christmas tree. It's pretty fabulous.