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WHAT DO AL GORE AND HALLOWEEN
HAVE IN COMMON?

           The following is from a recent edition of Christian
            Crusade Newspaper, P.O. Box 977, Tulsa, OK
            74102. The newspaper is in its 42nd year of
            publication and can be E-mailed on
            America On Line as BJHargis, on Compuserve at
            72204,541, on GEnie through K.Wilkerson3 and
            via the  Internet as [e-mail] .

            Permission is granted for this article to be used in
            newsletters, on computer BBSs or  other otherwise
            published, provided that attribution to
            Christian Crusade Newspaper is included.

            copyright 1993 Christian Crusade Newspaper.
            All rights reserved.

from CHRISTIAN CRUSADE NEWSPAPER
by Keith Wilkerson, editor

      What does Halloween have to do with the Clinton
administration or the decline of America?
      Has Vice President Al Gore been duped by earth-
goddess worshipers and the Norman Lear crowd, which is
pleading that America return to spirituality ╤ as long as
it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, whose status as
╥the only way╙ offends Moslems, Hindus, Unitarians and
the new ╥pagans╙ of the New Age Movement?
      Some would have us believe that the forces of terrible
evil are finally moving in for the kill ╤ howling in
unheard, demonic delight that the United States has
finally turned its back on the one true God who made this
land great and good.
      They say Halloween has been used to desensitize
generations of Americans to demons, evil spirits and
witches. They say that today╒s new generation, including
such well-meaning people as Al Gore, has been carefully
prepared for a New Age pseudo-religiousness which will
drive Christianity from America.
      Is Halloween truly evil? I╒ve watched school
administrators ╤ whom I knew to be devoted Christians
╤ squirm uncomfortably under public accusations that
they are insidious agents of darkness, attempting to coach
our tender children in the occult. Their sin? They
permitted the PTA to have a fund-raising Haunted House
or allowed the eighth grade to throw a Halloween costume
dance.
      At school board meetings and in church we have heard
people we respect complain about Halloween observances,
particularly now that the public schools have been forced
to purge anything Christian from holiday observances.
      ╥Jesus has been kicked out the schools,╙ goes the
complaint, ╥while Satan has been invited in.╙
      Just yesterday, a friend from our Wednesday night
home fellowship group called me, upset that her second
grader had brought home a ghost-story book that ends
with a chapter speculating that there may be some truth
to out-of-body experiences, seances and life after death.
She wanted to know if I thought the teacher was a New
Ager. I suggested that the worried mom do some
volunteer work at school ╤ and that she would probably
find that the teacher is a devoted Baptist or Methodist.
      I personally have always liked Halloween.
      I loved trick-or-treating as a child. One year, I
gathered two grocery sacks of goodies. My grandfather,
who taught the adult Sunday school class at a little
fundamentalist church in rural Iowa, would laugh and tell
me about sneaking around on Halloween, tipping over
privies and soaping windows.
      But I remember my grandfather worrying that the
tricksters seemed to get a little more malicious every year.
I remember talking with him about news accounts of
Detroit╒s annual Devil╒s Night ╤ and how the fire
department was battling hundreds of arson fires on
Halloween. I remember how he took to sitting under the
mercury light at his used car lot on Halloween night,
reading his Bible with a loaded shotgun on his lap.
      I have edited a number of books on the occult ╤ such
as evangelist Nicky Cruz╒s Devil on the Run about his
childhood in Puerto Rico, raised by spiritualist healers in
communication with demonic spirits. I share his
conviction that Christians cannot dabble in darkness and
remain in communion with Almighty God. I also edited
Lester Sumrall╒s book Exorcism, in which he recounts his
numerous encounters with demonic entities and warns
that Christians must have nothing to do with the occult,
which he says is real and powerful.
      And I have listened to the strident arguments that
Halloween is evil.
      But I have four children who look forward to dressing
up on Halloween and going door-to-door gathering treats
from our neighbors. Our friends always invite my kids in,
pretending to be scared by my second daughter dressed up
in her lion suit, or acting like they don╒t recognize my
youngest son, who is peeking out from under his turban
and lisping ╥twick oh tweat.╙
      This year again, I will go with my kids, standing back
as they knock on each door, reminding them, if they
forget, to say ╥Thank you.╙ We will probably dress up like
Bible characters again. In her lion suit, my daughter
explains that she is one of the lions that did not eat
Daniel. I may put on my old Boy Scout uniform and again
tell people I am Joshua ╤ the boy who was a scout for
Moses in the book of Exodus.
      Am I guilty of compromise?
      ╥There are a number of reasons why I think it is
unwise for Christian parents to permit their children to go
door to door collecting candy on Halloween,╙ says
conservative Christian author and minister John
MacArthur. ╥First of all, dressing up like witches, ghosts,
or goblins is incompatible with a Christian╒s testimony.
      ╥╘I think it is wise for parents to give their children a
creative alternative to celebrating Halloween,╙ says
MacArthur. ╥They shouldn╒t feel like they╒ve missed
something because they are Christians. Our family likes to
spend Halloween together. We plan special activities that
are more fun for the kids than begging candy.
      ╥In the past, we have all gone out together for ice
cream, or we might stay home and have a special evening
together doing something just for them. That way when
the children face the inevitable pressure of talking with
their friends about what they did on Halloween, they can
share their faith in positive terms, rather than having to
speak of what they can╒t do because of their parents╒
Christian faith.╙
      Former occultist William J. Schnoebelen agrees, ╥Take
back this night for the glory of God and remember that
╘greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!╒╙
(1 John 4:4).
      One successful alternative used by a number of
churches is a ╥Faith Festival╙ in which children dress as
their favorite Bible character and gather for a special
children╒s service with puppets, a Christian film, or a
Bible-centered carnival.
      My own youngsters attended a large church╒s elaborate
Harvest festival when visiting their grandparents last year.
At various booths in a big tent on the church lawn, they
learned how  to shear sheep, milk goats, spin thread,
weave cloth. hammer copper into sheets, throw pottery on
a wheel ╤ and make unleaven bread. All four kids came
away with hand-sawed crosses hanging around their necks
from leather strips.
      I believe it gave them a chance to see that being
Christians doesn╒t mean they have to sit at home while
everybody else in their class is having fun.
      ╥Many Christians will allow and even encourage their
children to pay respect to the devil on October 31 without
knowing they do so,╙ writes researcher Gloria Phillips of
Bay View Church in Mobile, Alabama. ╥Churches will fully
sanction the event with parties that will be decorated with
witches, cats, brooms, jack-o-lanterns and bobbing apples.
What is the harm? How did this originate?╙ she writes on
the Computers for Christ of Chicago network.
      She writes that the custom of Halloween is traced to
the Druid festival of the dead. Samhain, a Druid god of the
dead was honored at the autumnal equinox  in Britain,
France, Germany and the Celtic countries. Samhain called
together all wicked souls who died within the past year
and that were destined to inhabit animals. Suitable food
and shelter was provided for these spirits or else they
would cast spells, cause havoc, steal infants, destroy crops,
kill farm animals and create terror as they haunted the
living ╤ just like ╥Trick-or-Treat╙ today.
      After the Romans conquered them around 43 A.D,
there came Christians who discouraged converts from
participating in heathen activities. Some new believers,
however, hung onto tradition, transferring their old
festivities to the Christian festival of All Hallowed╒s Eve,
which was celebrated on October 31, the night before the
Christian holiday of All Hallowed╒s Day.
      Pranks and mischief began to by played out to
represent the mischievous behavior attributed to the now-
banned spirits, witches and the fairies. Prosperity was
promised to all who were generous donors, and tricks to
all who refused during trick-or-treating.
      Traditional Halloween symbols started showing up in
the U.S. during the late 1800╒s ╤ perhaps with Irish and
Scottish immigration. Witches, black cats, death╒s head
cut from a pumpkin, candles, masks, parties and pranks
were used. In rural areas, aggravating and destructive acts
were done, such as removing gates and placing them atop
barns. The same was done with outhouses and wagons.
      Phillips believes that it is heathen to celebrate a
holiday with pagan roots.
      ╥The Bible instructs us to have nothing to do with the
deeds of darkness,╙ she writes. ╥Both Christian and Jew
are forbidden to participate in the occult practices listed
in Deuteronomy 18:10. Some may reply, ╘But we only do
this in fun...we don╒t practice witchcraft.╒ However, that
which represents Satan and his domain cannot be handled
or emulated ╘for fun.╒ Such participation places you in
enemy and forbidden territory and that is dangerous
ground.╙
      What about the idea that as believers, we can make
Halloween an opportunity to provide a creative alternative
to this celebration of darkness?
      ╥When I was a new Christian, I was astonished at how
many churches celebrated Halloween. Some had costume
parties. Others went so far as to sponsor ╘Haunted Houses╒
to raise funds for projects,╙ writes Schnoebelen. ╥Perhaps
I was more sensitive than most because I had been an
actual witch!╙
      ╥Children are very sensitive,╙ he continues, ╥and we
cannot know what damage we do to them by exposing
them to bone-rattling terror on Halloween. 2 Timothy 1:7
teaches that ╘God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind╒ We are
promised in 1 John 4:18 that ╘perfect love casteth out
fear.╒
      Innocent thrills are one thing, but in many cases
terrifying experiences can open up doorways for Satan to
come in and mess around with their minds. I know that
my first attraction to witchcraft came right after my being
utterly terrified during a Halloween night experience.
      ╥Even more fear has emerged recently with the
realization of the very real danger of children being
kidnapped for Samhain sacrifices at this season. Our
ministry has dealt with several cases of either alleged
ritual kidnapping or ritual abuse by witches and
satanists,╙ writes Schnoebelen.
      ╥In the midst of all this, we Christians can know that if
we bring up our children prayerfully, in the knowledge
and fear of the Lord and don╒t expose them unnecessarily
to Satan╒s ministry of fear, we have in us a power that can
effortlessly turn aside Halloween╒s evil.
      ╥Jesus said, ╘In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but
be of good cheer; I have overcome the world╒ (John 16:33).
Plead the blood of Jesus and the victory of His cross and
resurrection over your kids daily. Send them out into the
world with a hug and the knowledge that you love them
and that Jesus loves them and lives within them. Do
spiritual warfare against Samhain and against all the wiles
of the devil and know that in Jesus we can tear down and
smash all of the machinery that Satan has devised to come
against us and our families.
      ╥Though many Christians today think of witches as
fairy tales with no more reality than the Smurfs, the fact
is that witchcraft, or Wicca as it is known to its followers,
is a major religion counting thousands of worshippers.╙
      Indeed, attendance at September╒s Parliament of the
World╒s Religions by members of a witches sect was cited
as the reason that Greek Orthodox  Church
representatives left the Chicago conference.
      ╥It would be inconceivable for Orthodox Christianity
to establish a perceived relationship with [such]
groups╔╙ the delegation said in an official statement.
╥The presence of such groups seems to compromise the
integrity of the parliament╒s intended purpose.╙
      So, the conservative Orthodox delegates left.
      And the witches stayed.
      More trouble followed when the witches demanded the
right to dance under the full moon in Chicago╒s Grant
Park. The American Civil Liberties Union swooped in to
their rescue ╤ threatening to sue. The matter was
dropped when the Chicago Park District apologized to
Phyllis Currott, high priestess of the Covenant of the
Goddess, described by the Associated Press as ╥followers of
Wicca, who worship female deities.╙
      ╥Wicca is the fastest growing religion in America but
still very misunderstood,╙ said Currott. ╥This is an
important opportunity for people to learn who we truly
are.╙
      Because of the proliferation of such pagan groups,
unless there is a turnaround very soon, America is in very
real danger of becoming a pagan society, says MacArthur.
Already our entertainment media glorify paganism ╤
while never missing an opportunity to paint Christians as
dull, stupid, legalistic naysayers.
      Recently a group of 150 scholars calling itself the
Fundamentalism Project published the results of its five
years of research and branded religious fundamentalists as
dangerous threats to the stability of society.
Fundamentalists, under the project╒s definition, includes
most evangelicals and certainly the Southern Baptists,
Assemblies of God, Churches of Christ ╤ and even the
Roman Catholic Church, because of its militant stand
against abortion and extramarital sex.
      ╥They want to change society,╙ said Martin Marty,
noted religion scholar and professor at the University of
Chicago Divinity School. ╥And they believe they ╤ and
they alone ╤ have the answer. Everything in the
fundamentalist╒s world is we vs. them, God vs. Satan,
black vs. white. They don╒t want to be popular. ... To be
persecuted or spoken against is a sign they have THE
truth.╙
      He told the Associated Press that the project has
helped produce three of six projected volumes on
fundamentalism,  program leaders have written two
spinoff books, consulted on a TV and radio series, and
their work is believed influential in State Department
circles.
      Marty predicts fundamentalists╒ hard-line attitudes
will shake up in the world in upcoming decades. ╥They╒re
going to keep ripping up governments,╙ he said. ╥They
will win some governments. They will change some
constitutions. There will be a lot of turmoil. There will be
a lot of blood. There are generations of rough stuff ahead,
no doubt about it.╙
      Such growing hostility toward Christians is not
limited to academic circles.
      ╥We have to be careful about how we say ╘Jesus,╒╙ says
the Rev. James Wieging, a police chaplain in suburban
Detroit, ╥because I╒m never sure that the person I╒m
dealing with is even within the Judeo-Christian heritage. I
can even offend by referring to Scripture too quickly.╙
      At a recent meeting of the International Conference of
Police Chaplains, he and several hundred other chaplains
talked about the challenges of ministering in an American
society that is increasingly less Christian.
      Chaplain Edward Lemerise, a consultant with the
FBI╒s employee assistance program, said the most
important contribution a chaplain can make to a police
officer trying to recover from an addiction is ╥to bring up
God.╙ Lemerise said every addict suffers from ╥spiritual
bankruptcy.╙
      ╥We have to get people to start to realize they have to
heal their relationship with their Creator,╙ he said.
However, chaplains have to be careful to refer to God in
unoffensive terms, which usually means not mentioning
Jesus.
      When pro-life activist Michael Griffin gunned down
Florida abortionist Dr. David Gunn, Christian groups
nationwide recoiled in horror at the murder in Pensacola.
╥The violence of killing in the name of pro-life makes a
mockery of the pro-life cause,╙ proclaimed the U.S.
Catholic Bishops Conference.
      Yet their statement went largely ignored by the news
media.
      ╥Indeed, the tragedy in Pensacola reveals the vacuum
in American intellectual discourse created by the growing
contempt for Christianity,╙ says Ralph Reed of the
Christian Coalition. ╥A dark thread runs through the
conventional explanation for Michael Griffin╒s behavior:
He was a devout Christian. Anthony Lewis of the New
York Times opined hysterically that the murder in
Pensacola showed that ╘religious fanatics╒ want to impose
╘God╒s word on the rest of us.╒ One news account related
that Griffin educated his children at home, a practice
╘largely associated with Christian fundamental beliefs.╒╙
      How can such hostility to Christianity exist in
America?
      ╥We have experienced as a nation over 150 years of
strong Christian Biblical influence, but that is rapidly
declining,╙ says MacArthur. ╥People still attend religious
services, they still say they believe in God when they are
polled, but for the most part, whatever vestiges of
Christian religion still pervade our culture are weak and
compromising, if not cultic and apostate.
      ╥Our nation is now affirming through its leaders,
through its congresses, its legislative bodies, its courts,
and its judges a distinctively anti-Christian agenda.
Anything, and everything that is distinctively Christian is
being swept away.
      Indeed, already our schools are bound up by multiple
layers of Supreme Court decisions that have expelled
Jesus Christ from classroom ╤ but allow for the
indoctrination of our children in humanism, the occult,
and Eastern meditation, which only a few decisions have
acknowledged as forms of religion.
      ╥The Christianity that once was part of the fabric of
our nation is now gone,╙ says MacArthur. ╥Biblical
morality is assaulted constantly. Materialism, family
breakup and breakdown, is epidemic. Abortions go on,
sexual evils, drugs, crime, and pagan education is flooding
our nation like the Mississippi River, and we can╒t come
close to coping or dealing with this flood of evil.
      ╥We have torn down all of the standards and now we
can╒t figure out what is right, so we don╒t know what to
teach. We now have a generation of people who have taken
the agenda and are running with it. We don╒t have enough
standards to control them. We don╒t have enough police
to arrest them. We don╒t have enough courts to process
them, and we don╒t have enough jails to keep them in.╙
      Presbyterian author C.S. Lewis, seemed to understand
that eventually Christianity would be challenged by the
forces of darkness. in the final days, this would become a
conflict of fundamentally incompatible faiths.
      He predicted that Christianity would be challenged by
the old pagans.
      The New Age worship of pagan gods, Lewis wrote, ╥is
almost as old as we are. It may even be the most primitive
of all religions ... It is immemorial in India. The Greeks
rose above it only at their peak ... their successors relapsed
into the great Pantheistic system of the Stoics. Modern
Europe escaped it only while she remained predominantly
Christian.╙
      And now, it is sweeping American politics. In Vice
President Al Gore╒s best selling book, Earth in the
Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit, he proclaims on
page 258 that ╥The richness and diversity of our religious
tradition throughout history is a spiritual resource long
ignored by people of faith, who are often afraid to open
their minds to teachings first offered outside their own
system of belief.╙ What?
      Gore says Christians have been afraid to open their
minds to the possibility that there is truth and spiritual
wisdom in pagan beliefs. He says that we have been
ignorant by limiting ourselves to biblical Christianity.
Furthermore, he says, we should no longer be so limited.
Here are his exact words:
      ╥But the emergence of a civilization in which
knowledge moves freely and almost instantaneously
throughout the world spurred a renewed investigation of
the wisdom distilled by all faiths.╙
      Then, if you can believe this, Gore actually embraces
the worship of ancient goddesses. ╥A growing number of
anthropologists and archeomythologists,╙ he writes,
╥argue that the prevailing ideology of belief in prehistoric
Europe and much of the world was based on the worship
of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the
fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all
living things. A goddess religion was ubiquitous
throughout much of the world until the antecedents of
today╒s religions ╤ most of which still have a distinctly
masculine orientation ╔almost obliterating belief in the
goddess. The last vestige of organized goddess worship
was eliminated by Christianity...╙
      Does anybody really worship goddesses these days?
      Indeed, there is quite a resurgence of such worship,
and one of the high days on which pagans do it is
Halloween. The Samhein Ritual, which is also celebrated
by some at the autumnal equinox, is preceded by a
ceremonial supper, then ╥with the usual power raising
dance,╙ according to a program outline obtained by
Christian Crusade Newspaper.
      During one part of the Samhein Ritual, one of the
celebrants chants: ╥We gather tonight to celebrate the
turning of the year. The  harvest has been brought home,
and now begins the season of rest. This is a time for
reflection on the past year, and a time to speak once again
with those who have passed during that time, for on this
night, the Veil between the worlds is the thinnest.╙
      He then invokes the presence of various pagan deities
╥as we celebrate the ancient rites of Summer╒s End. Let us
praise the Earth, our mother, and give thanks for all that
She has provided for us in this year passing. (All bend and
kiss the Earth.)╙
      Another celebrant takes a chalice, then salutes various
entities, including ╥gods and goddesses of other lands. We
acknowledge your presence╔╙
      What follows gives an insight into the  apparently
fearsome nature of these pagan deities: ╥Be at peace with
us and tarry not here this night.╙ In other words, the
pagan gods and goddesses are politely asked to move along
╤ and not stay. In other portions of the lengthy rite,
celebrants salute by name a pagan deity which they then
call the ╥goddess of life, war, death and rebirth. Shelter us
beneath your wings as we speak with those beneath your
guidance.╙
      The rite concludes with ╥(All to meet at Dance
meadow for post-rite chanting. Special instructions to be
given at briefing. Party to follow.)╙
      That╒s certainly a ceremony unworthy of the Vice
President of the United States, wouldn╒t you say? Can you
imagine John Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman,
Richard Nixon or any other American vice president
suggesting that his fellow Americans participate in such?
      ╥Though I appreciate Al Gore╒s good intentions, I╒m
concerned about his beliefs,╙ writes Christian researcher
Berit Kjos. ╥Will his convictions fuel America╒s growing
enchantment with earth-centered religions?╙
      What does Gore say that he believes? ╥My own faith is
rooted in the unshakable belief in God as creator and
sustainer, a deeply personal interpretation of and
relationship with Christ,╙ ╤ well, that is wonderful, until
you read the rest of the sentence, in which he embraces
the ancient paganism that God is in everybody as well as
in the trees and rocks and streams. Here is the complete
sentence, ╥My own faith is rooted in the unshakable belief
in God as creator and sustainer, a deeply personal
interpretation of and relationship with Christ, and an
awareness of a constant and holy spiritual presence in all
people, all life and all things╙ (p.368).
      And Gore says this is where all religion must end up
eventually.
      ╥Far from being the final religious refinement,╙ wrote
Lewis, paganism ╥is in fact the permanent natural bent of
the human mind; the permanent ordinary level below
which man sometimes sinks, but above which his own
unaided efforts can never raise him for very long.
      ╥It is the attitude into which the human mind
automatically falls when left to itself. No wonder we find it
congenial. If ╥religion╙ means simply what man says about
God, and not what God does about man, then Pantheism
almost is religion. And religion in that sense has, in the
long run, only one really formidable opponent ╤ namely
Christianity.╙
      Why? Because it is only Christianity that refuses to
bend to the others. It will not be homogenized into the
New Age hodgepodge ╤ because true Christians will not
surrender one vital tenet of faith: That Jesus Christ is the
only way to earthly happiness, salvation by grace, and
everlasting life.
      ╥As born-again disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
will soon come face-to-face with seemingly irrefutable
evidence of our own irrelevance,╙ warns MacArthur.
Society will decide that it does not need Christianity.
      And we are all going to face new challenges far, far
more threatening than whether or not to let our children
go trick-or-treating. But as we are presented with these
challenges, we must week the Lord╒s wisdom ╤ just like
parents wrestling with whether or not to let their children
observe Halloween.
      Only by depending on our great and mighty God will
the coming generation survive and even thrive in a pagan
America. God will protect our kids and grandkids, just as
he protected Joseph in heathen Egypt and Daniel in pagan
Babylon.
      But we must pray fervently for revival. Russia was
pagan a thousand years ago, then Christian, then suffered
through 70 years of godless communistic tribulation ╤
but now is experiencing incredible revival. Throughout
Africa, great revival is also underway ╤ in a land known
for its heathenism. In China, the underground home
church movement is sweeping that land of legendary
paganism.
      So, if there is hope for Russia and Africa and China,
then there is hope for America!
      The Bible warns us that we can realistically expect the
bulk of humanity to reject Jesus Christ in favor of false,
easy religions that pander to the pride and perversity of
man╒s fallen nature.
      Jesus spoke of two roads: the narrow way which leads
to life, and the broad way which leads to death. Just as
there is only one Truth, there is really only one lie,
though it may take many forms. Although the broad road
has many ╥lanes,╙ they all lead to the same place in the
end.
      Are the forces of terrible evil finally moving in for the
kill ╤ howling in unheard, demonic delight that the
United States has finally turned its back on God? Consider
the strange new utterances coming from one of American
Christianity╒s chief opponents, TV producer Norman Lear.
      Recently, he criticized newspaper columnist Charles
Krauthammer for scoffing at Hillary Clinton╒s call for a
╥new politics of meaning╙ to cure the ╥spiritual vacuum╙
afflicting America. ╥We need to make room in the culture
for a public discussion of our common spiritual life,╙
wrote Lear in a guest column in the Washington Post.
╥We need to rediscover together what is truly sacred.╙
      Re-discover?
      ╥For most Americans there is no need to rediscover
the transcendent,╙ retorted Krauthammer. ╥They live with
it.╙
      It is called Christianity.
      ╥A liberal, radically alienated from religion, may need
to rediscover the spiritual,╙ wrote Krauthammer. ╥But for
the 94 percent of Americans who believe in God and the
nearly half who go to church on Sundays, there is no need
to rediscover anything. Now, if Norman Lear were just
some Hollywood mogul, this might be dismissed as yet
another Beverly Hills bubblehead pronouncing himself in
the Age of Clinton.
      ╥But Norman Lear is no ordinary Hollywood liberal,╙
noted Krauthammer. Lear is the founder of People for the
American Way, a liberal advocacy group that calls for a
strict separation of church and state. In the recent Lee v.
Weisman case before the U.S. Supreme Court, People for
the American Way argued successfully that prayer by
clergy at high school graduations should be declared
unconstitutional.
      The latest edition of Lear╒s newsletter, ╥Right-Wing
Watch,╙ warns that Christian groups are searching for
ways to get around the Weisman decision. The newsletter
also cautions against such Christian threats as the ╥See
You at the Pole╙ event, a nationwide evangelical event
encouraging students to arrive at their school╒s flagpole
for a prayer session before the start of class.╙
      Lear╒s fear of such a prayer circle, writes
Krauthammer, brings us ╥to the crux of the liberals╒
problem with spirituality. They want a spiritual revival,
but are discomfited by religion, the most reliable and
enduring carrier of spirituality known to man. Lear is so
embarrassed to talk about religion that the word does not
once appear in his column on the new spirituality. Instead
we get mush about how ╘we need to rediscover together
what is truly sacred.╒ To quote Tonto in the old story,
╘What do you mean we, paleface?╒╙
      Lear and anti-Christian activists like him, writes
Krauthammer, are undermining what remains of the
Christian ties that hold Americans together. Having
succeeded grandly at stripping public life of Christianity,
╥they wake up one morning surprised to discover that our
common life is spiritually empty. Their solution ╤ some
newfangled, New Age, new spirituality ╤is a guilty and
pitiful substitute for what they have wantonly
dismantled.╙
      True, but it accomplishes a long-term goal ╤ a
populist religion without Jesus Christ. This is Satan╒s
greatest desire, for mankind to follow after a renovated
paganism that spurns Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
      Will the opponents of Christ, such as Lear and
company, succeed in establishing their New Age
spirituality? Perhaps, but remember that the very gates of
Hell cannot prevail against the Church. The battle may
become intense very soon, but we are guaranteed the final
victory.
      Has Halloween been used to desensitize generations of
Americans to paganism? Has today╒s new generation been
prepared for this New Age religion which will attempt to
drive Christianity from American soil? Like Israel, which
witnessed God╒s miracles as it conquered the Promised
Land, is America turning away from the God of our fathers
and instead to idols?
      The situation does look grim.
      But false gods do not satisfy the yearning in men╒s
hearts for communion with the One True and Loving God.
Without Him, every man and woman on earth suffers
from an emptiness that only the Almighty Father can fill.
So let us pray that this generation, which has been taught
to question all authority, can be counted on to continue
searching for answers when those offered by Al Gore and
Norman Lear turn out to be empty and meaningless.
      After all, communism inflicted such an incredible
spiritual void on people that today millions from Albania
to Mongolia are doing all they can to learn about Jesus.
      So, this Halloween, let us pray that our nation╒s
unfaithfulness to the God of our fathers will not result in
the destruction that God unleashed on His Chosen People
in ancient days.
      This Halloween, drop inspirational, child-oriented
tracts into trick-or-treater╒s bags ╤ along with a special
candy treat that tells kids that Christians are even more
generous than other people. Check with your local
Gideon╒s International╤ some local chapters or ╥camps╙
of this Bible-distribution organization will provide you
with little New Testaments for Halloween giveaway.
      Ask your pastor if you can help organize an October 31
Faith Festival ╤ and give your congregation╒s children a
place to bring their friends in out of the darkness. This
will be hard work ╤ expect to entertain scores of children
for up to three hours. You will need to enlist lots of
volunteers. Anticipate spending five hours in preparation
for every hour that you will host the kids.
      If you stay home, as each trick-or-treater leaves your
doorstep, offer a special, silent prayer over them. Ask the
Lord to protect and guide them and lead their feet along
the narrow path of righteousness ╤ as they venture out
into contemporary America╒s pagan, dangerous and
unknown future.



WHAT IS CHRISTIAN CRUSADE NEWSPAPER?
      Christian Crusade Newspaper is in its
42nd year as a monthly voice of Christian conservativism.
It has a worldwide circulation and is published by
Christian Crusade, P.O. Box 977, Tulsa, OK 74102.
     The newspaper is distributed free, without charge, to
subscribers as a result of the conviction of its founder
that the newspaper was not to put a price-tag on
the gospel. For your free subscription, just ask.
     We can be E-mailed a number of ways:
          on America On Line as BJHargis,
          on Compuserve at 72204,541,
          via the Internet as [e-mail] ,
          on GEnie via K.Wilkerson3,
          on Accuracy in Media╒s AIMNET via Rob Kerby,
          on ABBA II via member Jay Tower, and
          on Computers for Christ via subscriber Jay Tower