Halloween Special: Remember when it was all about the candy?

This might be old news for some, but it was a new one for me.

Apparently, out in the god-fearing heartland, there are churches that are trying to counteract the dangerous satanic overtones of Halloween by organizing 'Hell Houses' where the the goal is to "scare the hell out of people" by depicting the consequences of an unrepentant life.

Wikipedia provides the following explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_house

Here are a couple of other articles: http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_he.htm; http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/hallow4.htm.

And lest anyone think I'm just quoting secular sources, here's one directly from Baptists: http://www.baptiststandard.com/1999/10_27/pages/halloween.html.

Another from a church that puts one of these things on: http://www.potosisbc.com/jh2.html.

In all the years that I went out trick-or treating (until I was about 25) I never took any meaning from it other than lots of free candy and maybe some fun throwing toilet paper over the neighbors house.... and maybe some fireworks under cars and other assorted acts of vandalism.... OK, they might have something here..... But the point is, I never started worshiping Satan over it. I mean, great guns!!!

As always, these people really need to lighten up.