1.
On Friday night, one of the 19 year-old boys entrusted with the security of my apartment building was distributing Halloween candy and gospel tracts--which, by the way, look a lot more professional than they used to. In my day, gospel tracts resembled something the Bazooka Joe people might have dashed off during a lunch break. Nowadays they look at least as nice as those astrology booklets in the checkout line at the grocery store. The tract I received on Friday is called Are You a Good Person? Try the Ultimate Test . . . Here (SPOILER ALERT!) is a quote:
You may say that you are good, but God says you're not.So one of you is lying, and the Scriptures tell us that it is impossible for God to lie.
Remember that all liars will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
At least the kid had the good sense to leaven this grim message with candy. When I was growing up, my pastor would pass out gospel tracts on Halloween instead of candy. Now, it may be true that leading people to salvation is, in the long run, better than giving them a Snickers. In the here and now, however, it's a recipe for getting your house egged if ever I heard one.
Besides, doesn't Jesus already get Christmas and Easter? Now He wants to bogart Satan's big day too? Don't they have sharing in heaven? I say give the devil his due.
2.
Then on Saturday, Kito and I had to throw together some costumes to wear to a Halloween party that night. Kito went as an Indian (woo-woo, not red-dot), and I went as a stereotypical version of Kito. He's Puerto Rican, you see, but non-Latinos tend to assume he's Mexican, so I wore a sombrero and a serape and a Zorro moustache and told people I was Kito.
I liked it because it was easy, but most of all because it was racist.
Happy Halloween, everybody!
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