Truly Scary

The day after Halloween (I guess that would be All Saints Day), I was walking to the subway in the morning, and as I turned down one of the quiet, leaf-strewn residential streets that leads to the station, I was noticing all the Halloween decorations that survived the previous night's activities (does anyone do tricks anymore?). On the corner of one street, I noticed one house had a hand-made bristol board sign fixed to the porch pillar beside the front steps; affixed there, I assume, the night before to greet any trick-or-treating kids. It was about the size of a placard one would carry in a picket line.

At the top was a hand-drawn stop sign with the word "Halloween" slashed by a red diagonal stripeóthe universal "No --------" symbol. Below, in hand-written marker strokes, this is what it said:

Stop glorifying Satan
Father of lies
Glorify God the Father instead

Now that is scary.

Do these people actually believe that Halloweenólittle kids going door-to-door collecting candyóis actually "glorifying Satan"? It doesn't take much research to edumacate oneself about the origins of Halloweenóand it has nothing to do with Satan. Spirits, yes. But the Bible has lots to say about spirits and people rising from the dead, and stuff like that.

And even in the contemporary observance of Halloween, the Devil is no more real a presence than Frankenstein, Dracula, Austin Powers or George W. Characters in a pantomime.

Seems to me the only ones "glorifying Satan" are those who actually believe he exists. And I'm the guy with 666's popping up every time I turn around!

It may have been useful at one time for us to incorporate personifications and anthropomorphizations of Good and Evil into our lives, but we'd all be better off when we realize that Good and Evil aren't external entities to be worshipped and/or feared, but powers and potentialities that live in the hearts of humankind.

Or, as Tom Waits said, "There ain't no Devil; that's just God when he's drunk."