Teenage Ghouls Don’t Buy Christian Values

Earlier this year, after much soul-searching, I made a decision to not participate in the Halloween game of trick or treat anymore. My decision was based on Christian values and was not monetary. I did not try to impose my convictions on anyone else.

I have had a lifetime of Halloween fun, dressing up for parties, making costumes for my kids when they were small and sitting at the door handing out candy by the fistful. In my own heart things have changed. My study of what Halloween is really all about impressed on me that I can no longer validate the day with my participation. I shut the door this year to trick-or-treating. I placed a note on my door stating there would be no candy given out. Little knocks at my door went unheeded. My decision was firm and final.

A little after 8:30 Halloween night, there was a very loud knock at the door. My husband went into the bedroom in order to determine who was on the porch.

Before he could look out the window there was a loud crash. The hoodlums had kicked in our front door, breaking the bolt inset and the door frame and destroying the molding around the door. As he ran out on the porch, a lady who was parked at the curb in a van, pointed at three kids who were running away down the street. They appeared to be two teenage boys and a younger companion.

My husband called the police, but they refused the call, saying they were too busy with other things. They wouldn’t even take our name or a description of the damage. In fact, they asked, “What did you do to provoke these kids?”

Excuse me! We had only made a decision not to hand out candy.

I have to ask: By the time our children become teenagers, what have they learned about Halloween? That if they don’t receive a small candy bar they have the right to be destructive, malicious and violent? Is that what they perceive about Halloween? My heart and soul are filled with horror at the thought. Do they really take it that seriously? The more questions come to my mind, the more frightening it becomes.

Am I alone in my sense of values about this night? Is there anyone else out there who cares? xxxx