As frequent readers might remember, I sometimes listen to Christian AM radio. I'm not quite sure why, but I sometimes find it interesting to hear things from a different perspective.

My favorite times, by far, to listen to Christian radio is a) when the latest Harry Potter book comes out, and b) Halloween. Lots of hanky-wringing and "won't someone think of the children" and so forth. It's great.

Last night, on my drive home, the host was inviting callers to call in and discuss whether celebrating Halloween was a good or bad idea. One lady called up and said that lots of Christians have problems with Halloween, citing it's pagan roots. She then went on to list a number of examples of other pagan rituals that are practiced all the time by Christians (particularly wedding rituals: wearing white, flowers, carrying the bride across the threshold, etc... I don't know the veracity of these claims, but she sounded like she knew what she was talking about). Pretty interesting.

The next caller was awesome. I was in tears, laughing. He called up, saying his parents never celebrated Halloween, and he'd never celebrated Halloween, but his 7 year old son really wanted to trick or treat. Not only that, but he wanted to dress up as Jesus. The host, who wasn't against trick-or-treating by any means, thought this sounded like an ok thing, and could even be used as an evangilizing tool. The caller continued: "Well, he doesn't want to go as only Jesus..." The host asked what he meant. "I'm a little embarrassed to say... he wants to go as... Evil Jesus. In, like, black robes and stuff..." He kind of trailed off, ashamed.

There's no possible way I can adequately describe the perfect moment of silence that followed.

The host reacted with aghast horror, shock, and disgust: "No! NO! I... That's... Where.... How did he come up with this idea?!"

They then discussed the possibility of where the kid got the idea that Jesus could be evil, how he heard it from a friend at school, and how that friend was probably part of a cult, or had parents were were really messed up. I kind of stopped listening at this point. It was priceless.

Switching gears... when I was in high school, and my mom was teaching a health-living class for elementary school kids, she felt guilty about giving away candy for Halloween, and decided to give out pencils. I strongly protested (mostly for protection of our house against eggs), and we compromised on a choice of pencils or candy. I wouldn't have believed how those pencils flew into their bags.

This year and last year, Diana and I have done sort of the same thing, giving a choice of either candy or tangerines. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself, but at least half the kids took the tangerines over perfectly respectable candy.

Kids these days. Go figure.