[Steve Myers] The fall weather has arrived here in North America and thoughts turn to the big holiday at this time of the year and that's Halloween. So many think of Halloween as harmless fun, and yet, is it really? Can we really relegate Halloween to just a fun time and especially as we think about it for our kids? So many times people will think, "Well, why would you want to take fun away from the children? You know, it's all done in good fun. It's not serious. It really should be something that we do as a fun experience for our kids." And yet, is that really how we should look at Halloween?

[Darris McNeely] It's hard for me to, as a grandfather, to really figure out why a parent would want to have fun with their kids in the midst of ghosts and demons and macobb figures that people dress up and disguise themselves behind on this particular festival.

[Steve Myers] Yeah, in fact, even some churches will try to take Halloween and Christianize them. Well, is that a right way of thinking? Can we Christianize Halloween? Can we make Halloween just a fun, harmless experience for our kids? I think that's a vital question that we've got to ask ourselves because if we say we can do we just discount the fact that it's based in spiritism, that it's based in demonic practices? I mean, you've got to kid yourself and say, "Well, that doesn't really matter," if you're going to celebrate this event.

[Darris McNeely] But of course we are living in a post-Christian culture right now. And even professing Christians feel that it's alright to evangelize almost in a sense by melding together pagan ideas and pagan customs like this, and this is probably along with Christmas one of the major examples on the cultural calendar of the world where people try to mix in something that comes from ancient paganism and occult practices of the spirits coming out during this dark of the year as we enter into the dark months of the winter - All Hallows Eve, or All Saints or All Souls Eve, and people's desire to in a sense protect themselves from the influence of the dead spirit world coming back at that point by hiding behind a mask. These are some of the origins of this practice that churches have attempted to Christianize and evangelize with, especially today.

[Steve Myers] And so many times we overlook the aspects of the occult that are involved in this. When you dress up or masquerade as an evil being, what is that saying? What does that say about us as people that we're willing to accept a little bit of evil in our lives? We're willing to dress up as though we might be evil or satanic or a murderer or a witch or you name it? And yet the Bible is so clear - over and over and over again it tells us to avoid these kinds of things. There's a passage in Ephesians 5:11, here's what it says, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." So what do we want to expose our children to - the right way of life, a good way to live, the righteousness of God the Father and Jesus Christ or the darkness of the world of occult? That's the choice we're faced with.

[Darris McNeely] I'd say if you're tempted by your traditions and your culture and you want to put on a mask this time of year and go out and party, take on the identity of some figure, some image from the dark world, don't kid yourself. There is a dark side to the spiritual world. If that's what you want to do, ask yourself if that's what God wants you to do. If you want to put on a new identity, put on the identity of Christ, which is an identity that's involved with light and not darkness and avoid the identity or identifying with the dark side.

[Steve Myers] That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.