<p>The evangelical leaders are all about the money. The easiest way to raise money is to have a defined target and the devil is always the best. Halloween was targeted for that reason - another defined enemy and another example of the us against them mentality that works so well for fundraising. The only reason television is not the devil is because it is too important to fundraising. The church I attended as a kid was conservative, but we were not evangelical. There is a difference between evangelical and fundamental/conservative. My church held Halloween parties and the pastor took kids trick or treating. IMO, the whole Halloween controversy is completely made up by those who use it to divide and conquer.</p>
<p>It’s off the main point of this thread, but here are two different takes on the dangers of celebrating Halloween:</p>
<p>I learned from my daughter on Saturday that Halloween is gang-initiation time in the Bronx (where she is now working as a teacher). There was massive police presence on the streets on Friday, and at some schools (not hers) teachers were given police escorts in and out of school. Most of her students are frightened to go out at all on the 30th and 31st; some stayed home from school on the 30th. Needless to say, the school did not officially celebrate Halloween.</p>
<p>We were having this conversation on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, where parents with little children were going door-to-door at the stores on Broadway. Most of the stores had treats for them. I’ve never seen that before! I know that retail is important as a civic building-block in a neighborhood, but I had never seen it take the place of actual neighbors!</p>
<p>They have trick-or-treating in the shopping malls around here.</p>
<p>I think that cartera45 is spot-on in post # 81.</p>
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<p>IME, our suburban malls have had door-to-door treats / events for kids for years. Not a fan of it, but there you have it.</p>
<p>We had one family at our doorstep (2 adults and 3 kids) who mentioned that this was their first time trick or treating at homes rather than the mall. The ten year old kid was shocked that real people in the neighborhood were so nice. Kind of sad. I’ve always looked at the Halloweens on our block as a great chance to introduce families to one another and build on neighborly trust. (AND a great opportunity to pass on candy blessed by Satan himself!)</p>
<p>I am no fan of Evangelicals but I give them credit for having beliefs not merely wanting to raise money through scare stories. A big part of creating fervor and identity with a group is to draw lines that separate the rest of the world.</p>
<p>The “gang initiation” thing is an urban legend.</p>
<p>[snopes.com:</a> Halloween Gang Initiation](<a href=“http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/halloween.asp]snopes.com:”>Halloween Gang Initiation | Snopes.com)</p>
<p>Nice to hear. Except my daughter didn’t hear it on the internet; she heard it from her principal and the kids in her classes. And she saw the police response. And she talked to a friend teaching at another school who received the police escort. To clarify – she was not told that x number of people were going to be murdered or anything like that, just that gang wannabes were expected to do some sort of cred-establishing crime.</p>
<p>This sort of urban legend can easily convert itself to truth. If gang members believe that Halloween is the traditional time for gang initiation, then they can make it true even if it wasn’t before.</p>
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<p>If it’s true, then that would explain why we elders don’t recall Halloween being shunned by anyone. True?</p>
<p>“just that gang wannabes were expected to do some sort of cred-establishing crime.”</p>
<p>I live in S Cal where we have our share of gangs. There was no anticipated up tick in gang crime.(and no resulting up tick) It is an urban legend and unfortunately school administrators and their students are just as guilty as anyone else in exploiting this kind of hysteria. D had a school principal who spread a particular urban legend (about gangs riding around in cars at night with no lights and if you flashed your lights you were to be an initiation target) by posting a warning online to all students and parents. I posted the snopes link right back to him. No response. I’m sure there are still kids and parents who believe that story to this day.</p>
<p>OK, maybe she and her students were part of the urban legend mill. Her entire pre-college education occurred in “bad” neighborhoods in Philadelphia, and she went to college on the Chicago South Side, but she had never heard anyone talk about Halloween gang initiations before. She is teaching at a school where gangs aren’t something that happens somewhere else; her students are in daily contact with them. The police presence was real – the conversations began when she asked why there were 20 police cars in the three blocks near the school on Friday.</p>
<p>That story goes around my students and coworkers who live in Newark, too. It never comes to pass ( thank the lord), but that doesn’t stop the texting and the kids kept home from school, and the fear.</p>
<p>Unfortunately.</p>
<p>And I’m not naive. My D was beat up in the park near our house, on a random summer afternoon, in a crime deemed a gang initiaton. Stuff happens, but I think that giving creedence to the rumor mill just distracts us from reality (and keeps kids out of school.)</p>
<p>Edit: JHS, kudos to your D for taking that job. it’s not an easy one, in any circumstances. And they need more smart, well-educated teachers like her.</p>
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<p>When I was in high school our school administration put around the same warning (about the flashing lights and gang members). This was before the internet was widespread and I’m not sure if Snopes even existed yet, so I thought it was for real. (Of course, nothing happened.) I’m not sure how/where the rumor originated, but of course kids were spreading it like wildfire. Chain letters, maybe?</p>