Where I Use The Word "Douche" For The First Time... In A Blog

Saturday is Halloween. A time when hundreds, if not thousands, of Christians will choose to annoy and alienate children of all ages by giving out "tracts" or small booklets that explain why Halloween is wrong, Satan is using them and Jesus loves them.

I was raised to believe that Halloween is just a night for fun when kids are given the opportunity to dress-up, play pretend and get candy. Many Christians like to point to Halloween's origins and costumes of witches, vampires and other "creatures of evil" in order to claim Halloween as an evil night. In truth, Halloween's historical origins have as much to do with the holiday today as the Pagan origins of Christmas (see: Saturnalia) have to do with us celebrating the birth of Christ. But that's a rant for another time.

I get excited about Halloween every year. I love the kids in costumes. I love Abbot & Costello meet the Mummy. I love Nightmare Before Christmas. Truth be told, I have no problem with people giving out religious tracts to kids at Halloween. But don't be a jerk, throw some candy in with them. Parents: If you don't want your kids reading such things, throw them out. (Much as you would an apple with mysterious puncture marks.) That's part of parenting. Your kid will be faced with a lot of information. Filter it as you see fit. It's not a big deal.

My point here is that Halloween is fun. It's supposed to be fun. Fun for the kids. So, as a Christian, feel free to give them some info about Jesus. There's nothing wrong with that. Just, again, throw in some candy and realize that, in most cases, the religious tracts are going in the garbage with the fruit and home-made popcorn balls.

Actually, I guess my real point is that you can't, and shouldn't, convince anyone that Jesus is the right path for them by trying to terrify them into it with the threat of Hell. People should come to Jesus because they realize that He's God and they're meant, built, for a relationship with Him. "Love" out of fear is not really love. It's not healthy. Love is pure. The song says that we love Jesus, "because he first loved me." Not we love Jesus, "because I didn't want to burn for eternity."

Happy Halloween everyone! Go out, or stay in, and have some fun! Make sure whatever you do doesn't detract from the fun and joy of a child. (And don't be the douche-bag who turns out their lights and pretends not to be home. If you're home it's five bucks for a bag of candy! For five bucks you can make a kids night!) Er... um... yeah. Happy Halloween.

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