Contagion

I was raised in a small po dunk town on the very furthest northern tip of Vancouver Island. Oh you've never heard of it? I don't blame you. There isn't much to do in Port Hardy except for fish and run around in the great outdoors. When it came to halloween there were two options: trick or treat or go to the "Harvest Party".

The way I see it...the cool kids trick or treated. I went to the Harvest party. Every year I'd dress up as a cowboy or a bear or some other "harvesty" type character. It was great fun. We'd get goody bags that were actually bags loaded full of peanuts with a few candies sprinkled on top. It actually makes me laugh when I think about the whole ordeal. The thing is that this trend is still around. Providing an alternative for Christian kids so they don't get subjected to the wickedness of the world. I have a few thoughts on this matter.

1. Since when does having a harvest party in a church mean you aren't celebrating halloween? And what on earth does celebrating halloween look like?

2. Do we really think that keeping our kids off the streets is going to keep them from evil? When was the last time you turned on the T.V.? You better lock them down in some silo somewhere if that's the goal of not letting them trick or treat.

3. Some people want to let their kids go trick or treating but not let them dress up. How is not letting them dress up keeping them from participating?

I could go on forever but this is the way I see it.

• The world is dark.
  
• It's messed up no matter what way you look at it.
  
• Bad stuff happens on other days too!
• Keeping your kids away from Halloween doesn't make it go away.
• As far as I'm concerned, Harvest parties are as much of a "celebration" as trick or treating is
• Are we really glorifying Satan if we go door to door asking for candy dressed up like tinkerbell? What about the couch potato watching too much T.V. every other day of the week?
• Christians are supposed to be light in the darkness. How can the dark get lit up when the light is running scared?

Someone once said that there is no other day of the year when neighbors will actually come out of their little bunkers called their homes to converse with their neighbors as openly as they will on Halloween. It's the perfect day for the kids to meet their neighbors and for the adults to actually be civil with each other. It's not impossible, but it probably unlikely that you are going to see multitudes decide to give their lives to Jesus on Halloween. But at least we can somehow, in some way, be light in the dark.