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"What we do with Halloween is a kind of microcosm for our positioning in the world as Christians," Fischer said. "It all comes down to why we are here. Are we here to enjoy life in as safe an environment as possible? … Or are we here to bring Jesus to the world, however dangerous that might be?"

He recommends that believers use the opportunity to renew relationships with longtime neighbors and meet new ones. "If anything is good about this day, it is a day that brings people out," Fischer wrote. "It would be a shame for Christians to be absent from the neighborhood when this happens."

On CBN.com, Regent University communications professor Andy Freeman says that Christians should look to Jesus as an example. "He would never have said, 'run and hide, it's Halloween!'" Freeman wrote.

"The biggest trick played on Halloween is Christian kids and adults being bottled up inside churches or homes all night. Hiding from the devil … is a victory for old Beelzebub. He's got the church right where he wants it: inside the four walls, hunkered down behind the stained glass."

Freeman suggests that Halloween is an opportunity to socialize with—and evangelize—neighbors and not to "hustle the kids over to church before nightfall [and] turn out the lights."

Fischer encourages Christians not to be scared off by Halloween, but to seize it as an opportunity. "Why allow those [darker elements] to drive me away from my home on a night I am guaranteed to have visitors?" Fischer wrote. "Which is more of a victory for Satan, I wonder—a shining Jack-o-lantern and five costumed kids at my door, or a dark house where the light should be?"

Todd Hertz is assistant online editor for Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christian History Corner: Festival of Fears | What's scarier than Halloween? The anxieties that drive it. (October 26, 2001)

Howling Over Halloween | Devil's playground or child's play? (October 30, 2000)

Good News for Witches | Every Halloween, thousands of Wiccans descend on Salem, Massachusetts—and local churches reach out. (October 23, 2000)

Is Halloween a Witches' Brew? | Or have Christians been spooked out of celebrating a part of their rich tradition? (October 22, 1982)

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October (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45