It's Halloween. Ever since the mid 90's, every Halloween my mind wanders back to earlier years. I grew up looking forward to Halloween; it ranked right up there with Christmas. That may sound awful, but what could be more fun to a kid than dressing in a scary outfit and going to people's houses and getting candy? I loved it, and our family participated in it every year until us kids grew out of it. It was after I grew out of it that things changed. My teens and twenty's years were in the 70's and 80's. During that time there was a very popular Christian evangelist/comedian named Mike Warnke. Warnke was sort of the Christian Forest Gump. He had done everything in his short life, and hearing his humorous stories about his many escapades delighted church audiences everywhere he spoke. Warnke traveled all over giving his personal testimony about how God had delivered him from being a satanic high priest. He also warned us about Halloween; on this night witches and Satan worshippers would regularly murder children in satanic rituals. To participate in this high satanic holiday on any level was to participate in the demonic. Warnke became the expert on all things Satan; we all believed him and he influenced a whole generation of Christians. Because of his testimony many churches chose to either have no event on October 31, or they went out of their way to make sure the event had nothing to do with Halloween. How could we have fun knowing that all those children were being sacrificed?

Since that time Warnke's testimony has come under great scrutiny. The Cornerstone Magazine article (vol. 21, issue 98,1992) exposed Warnke's Satan testimony as at the very least full of embellishments, but more probably complete fabrications. Although Warnke has admitted to some embellishment, he still hangs on to much of his previous line. I happen to believe that Cornerstone did a very good job of exposing Warnke's testimony and lifestyle as something far less than credible. I hold nothing against Warnke. I of all people know that nobody's perfect. God certainly forgives, so I do to.

The problem of Halloween, however, came up again when Sue and I began to have kids. At that time, to a great degree still under the influence of Warnke's testimony, we questioned whether our children should participate in Halloween. Did we want to raise them with a lack of sensitivity to evil things? Were we exposing them to the demonic by allowing them to trick-or-treat? Would allowing them to dress up like Spiderman, Frodo, or Mickey Mouse, and collect candy from the neighbors damage them spiritually? At this point in my life I must admit that such questions sound rather ridiculous. But for those of the "Warnke Generation" they were very serious indeed. Our choice was to allow them to participate in just the same way as we had while growing up. As of yet, as far as I can tell, no serious damage has been inflicted. In fact, I've found that Halloween is one of few times of the year that people in some places get out of their houses, walk around the neighborhood and meet one another while their children have a little fun. Maybe there's a way to redeem Halloween by making it a time to meet people in your community and renew acquaintances in the neighborhood. Ask people how they're doing and if you can help them out. Every Christian holiday either by date or by symbolism has vestiges of a pagan holiday that has been redeemed. Why not Halloween?