Nice job. You're so cool. :)

honestly.. I am not sure where I am at with all of this. I totally was on the side of most of the folks that left comments on the 1st post and then I read Melissa's post and felt really convicted. Because that would totally be me to turn off my lights and hide because there is so much evil involved in the day. You have given me something to think and pray about.

...Did the pagan origins of the Greek language taint the meaning of the words too much for them to have any real value as God's words in the New Testament? A person could go on and on like this. Also, would it have been better of God *didn't* redeem the originally-pagan practice of crucifixion? Maybe redemption can be the very best of things, period-- not just a second-best solution that's good only because of how well it addresses evil. Or maybe it is second-best: total untainted perfection is the best. Or is it? There's the question of whether people could truly love and choose God if they were already perfect; how God gave us free will--which lets in evil--instead of 'programming' us to only do good. Is redemption even better than perfection, at least on Earth?

First of all, I want to say thanks for allowing your blog to be a safe place for discussion on this somewhat touchy subject. I really appreciate your friendly tone toward readers on both sides of the table, especially because I grew up celebrating and continue to celebrate Halloween.

When I look back, I have completely happy, innocent memories of Halloween. From the time I was just a few months old, my mom dressed me up in silly costumes ranging from a sheep to a Nebraska Husker cheerleader to a "candy investigator." The hunt for the perfect costume was always one of my favorite parts of the holiday. My parents are very thrifty, so we usually hunted thrift stores, Goodwill, hand-me-down bags, and my parents' closets for accessories. My parents wouldn't let my siblings and I dress as anything scary, such as witches or zombies, but we didn't really mind. Then, we went to Halloween class parties at school. I LOVED those parties! It was so much fun to show my friends my costume, play games, and eat the treats the parents brought. Because my teachers didn't want to offend kids of various religious beliefs or scare kids, we didn't have any frightening activities. It was all light-hearted fun. Then, my siblings and I would trick-or-treat together at night. I loved visiting entire blocks of the small town where we drove to trick-or-treat at (I lived in the country), but the highlight of the night was always visiting the older people from my church. They would spoil us by giving us HANDFULS of candy rather than just one piece. In return, we would share all about our school year, our costumes, etc. It was such a fun way to build relationships with some of the elderly people in our church. To this day, my strongest memories of some of those people, were formed on the nights when we trick-or-treated at their houses

As for the redemption of Halloween, I think that it is totally possible. When one thinks about the world, literally every single thing is negatively affected by or created as a result of the Fall. For example, there is a pen on my coffee table. That pen is a writing utensil. It was created, because people are unable to remember everything. We are not perfect. We are not completely whole. The pen is a reminder of that. It can be used to record things, so that humans do not forget. It can be used to write nice things and bad things. Like that pen, holidays such as Halloween and, yes, even Easter serve as reminders of the Fall, human weakness, and our need for God. I believe that if we, as my parents did when I was a child, pray that God can use us during holidays like Halloween to witness and to encourage, God can and will redeem the holiday. To sum up my thoughts, I'd like to add that I think it's very important for Christians to consider whether or not they have balance in their perspective in Halloween. A few questions that might help jumpstart this thought process are: What do I dislike about Halloween? Is this thing(s) that I dislike about Halloween enough to hold me back from celebrating the holiday completely? If not, how might I might remove this thing from my celebration? How might I witness to others on Halloween? How might I encourage others on Halloween? By choosing to celebrate or not to celebrate Halloween, how am I changing the relationship between myself and my non-Christian friends? Is this a good or a bad change?

I don't know if there is a right or a wrong answer to this conversation, but I'm really excited to read what everyone writes. =) Thanks again, Shelley, for hosting this conversation!

I enjoyed your discussion here too. I'll admit I'm not a big "Halloween" fan either. Not that I have anything against fun costume parties, pumpkins, etc, but when it starts crossing over to the dark side, i get a little cold feet. I have a hard enough time fighting them off already. ;) But with that said, I know that there are a lot of people who trick or treat with their kids and it's simply a fun tradition that they were probably raised with, and in no way are they trying to pay tribute to the devil. I had to think of the scripture about eating meat offered to idols. Don't know if that applies here or not, but if it's offensive, than by all means don't participate. I guess I just hate seeing it become a point of contention. Blessings, Teresa