He said:
Halloween is coming up and Jesusween is a movement to make the day more religious by handing out Bibles to trick-or-treaters instead of candy on Oct. 31, and spreading the gospel to youth. I'm not sure they will consider that a treat or a trick.
First off, Halloween is all about giving junk to kids, so why not throw in a Bible for good measure?
If you thought handing out apples at Halloween got you some crooked looks from unhappy pirates and fairies, or whatever kids dress up like now, but if you hand them a Bible that look is probably going to be many times more venomous.
Whether you're religious or not, Bibles aren't fun, and that's exactly what Halloween is. It's no easy feat to mix something kids love, with something kids probably consider a chore. Either way, Scripture is probably something that is a little mature to be giving a child who is dressed up as a dinosaur wearing snow pants. I remember an uncle in the U. S. saying he had a bit of a problem with his son reciting the Pledge of Allegience because it had some pretty powerful words my cousin couldn't possibly comprehend. Well, religion is about as appropriate as that for children.
I remember Halloween as being lots of fun when I was a kid. It was like Christmas, but you had to put in the work to get your gifts by laboriously trudging from one house to the next. It made receiving the candy all the more rewarding.
Jesusween is going to spoil all that fun. There are plenty of days that are marked for religious reasons and parents, if they so choose, can teach their children about those traditions at that time.
It's true that religious holidays are losing their meaning in our modern world, but I don't think Halloween was originally a celebration of something from the Bible. So rather than pilfering secular holidays religious people should probably be doing more to strengthen the traditions of the days they already have.
She Said:
Jesusween, a movement to give Christian works away on Oct. 31 rather than buying costumes and candy, is essentially pointless. It isn't going to replace Halloween, which I understand to be one of the motives. Halloween has lasted this long, and all I can see happening is a couple more Christian books being recycled Nov. 1.
I remember returning from trick-or-treating every year and sitting in the living room with my sisters to take stock of the cool Halloween candy we'd received that evening. It was a fun and special time during which we'd brag about how many full-size Twix bars we'd gotten and, at least in my case, "trade" away some of the less desirable treats.
And if someone had somehow slipped a Bible in among my candy, it was either disregarded among the half-opened Tootsie rolls, or recycled, because even as a child I was environmentally-minded.
My own current religious views aside, I didn't ignore Scripture-among-my-candy when I was a kid because I hated religion or anything like that. I just wasn't interested in some passive-aggressive preaching when I had sweets to be munching.
I wasn't the only kid like that, and I know for a fact that many of the children I used to venture out with would skip over houses that were notorious for leaving Bibles on the step. Bibles aren't candy. And so we didn't want them for Halloween, a night devoted strictly to candy.
Even in Saskatchewan, when too often we have to pull our costumes on over our snowsuits, Halloween is a blast. Jesusween is against wearing costumes. Even at my advanced age, wearing a costume on Halloween is hilarious fun, and I think the overwhelming majority would prefer to spend their money on a fun night out than a couple of novels to pass around to people who aren't going to read them. And the people who would read them probably already have a copy. So it's just a waste of time.
