jamesinclair
Banned
*Title is a TV reference
Bruce Watters used to simply hand out candy on Halloween, just like his neighbors in St. Petersburg, Fla., until he decided the holiday's ghoulishness really didn't jibe with his Christian beliefs.
But rather than skip the neighborhood ritual, he's put a Christian stamp on it. For the third year in a row, kids will leave his porch with a piece of candy, plus a religious tract - a concise, colorful handout telling how to attain salvation through Jesus Christ.
Halloween, long associated with pagan traditions, is now high season for an old American tradition of evangelizing through tracts. The nation's four major publishers of tracts say they sell more at Halloween than at any other time of year, including Christmas and Easter. And the push is on to grow the seasonal market. This year, thanks to new glow-in-the-dark tracts, the Texas-based American Tract Society expects to set a new Halloween record by shipping out more than 4 million tracts.
...
One telling sign: About 50 Southern Baptist congregations have been in touch with denominational mission offices this month, and every one plans to share the gospel through some form of trick-or-treating, according to Toby Frost, senior director of strategic evangelism for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
For his part, Watters regards Halloween as "a satanic celebration" that he tries to counter by displaying a cross and an angel statue on his porch. He also asks parents for permission to pray over their children. He got the idea from friends in St. Petersburg, Pam and Bill Malone, who have been encouraging Halloween evangelism since they first observed a pagan circle in San Francisco 16 years ago.
"After we saw the evil side of this night, we decided we were going to bring light to it," Pam Malone says. The Malones now set up tables in their front yard, play recorded Christian music, and hand out doughnuts along with collections of scripture verses to trick-or-treaters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20061030/ts_csm/atrickortract
Why cant they just give the kids their candy.
Bruce Watters used to simply hand out candy on Halloween, just like his neighbors in St. Petersburg, Fla., until he decided the holiday's ghoulishness really didn't jibe with his Christian beliefs.
But rather than skip the neighborhood ritual, he's put a Christian stamp on it. For the third year in a row, kids will leave his porch with a piece of candy, plus a religious tract - a concise, colorful handout telling how to attain salvation through Jesus Christ.
Halloween, long associated with pagan traditions, is now high season for an old American tradition of evangelizing through tracts. The nation's four major publishers of tracts say they sell more at Halloween than at any other time of year, including Christmas and Easter. And the push is on to grow the seasonal market. This year, thanks to new glow-in-the-dark tracts, the Texas-based American Tract Society expects to set a new Halloween record by shipping out more than 4 million tracts.
...
One telling sign: About 50 Southern Baptist congregations have been in touch with denominational mission offices this month, and every one plans to share the gospel through some form of trick-or-treating, according to Toby Frost, senior director of strategic evangelism for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
For his part, Watters regards Halloween as "a satanic celebration" that he tries to counter by displaying a cross and an angel statue on his porch. He also asks parents for permission to pray over their children. He got the idea from friends in St. Petersburg, Pam and Bill Malone, who have been encouraging Halloween evangelism since they first observed a pagan circle in San Francisco 16 years ago.
"After we saw the evil side of this night, we decided we were going to bring light to it," Pam Malone says. The Malones now set up tables in their front yard, play recorded Christian music, and hand out doughnuts along with collections of scripture verses to trick-or-treaters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20061030/ts_csm/atrickortract
Why cant they just give the kids their candy.
