Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look, and an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

To the Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street.

Well, each year around this time, the ritual begins again.

The weather cools off, the leaves change color.

Christians start arguing about Halloween.

Look, many people love this night.

It gives them an excuse to host parties, kick off the holiday spending season, and provide economic stimulus for the dental industry.

Of course, others use it as an excuse to flirt with things much darker than plastic skeletons and creative jacko lanterns.

And still others, far too many adults, use Halloween as an excuse to throw out common standards of modesty.

What's the history behind Halloween? What's all this decoration and tradition really about?

Is there something spiritual behind all the ghoulishness? Back when I was a kid, there was a series of comic book-style tracks that went around and claimed that Halloween was a pagan holiday called Samhine,

when ancient druids used to carry out human sacrifices under a full moon. That story, as even

modern pagans who love Halloween will admit, is mostly made up. The very name Halloween

actually means holy evening. It was a throwback to when Catholic Christians prepared for the

feast of all saints on November 1st. A few years ago, Kirk Cameron urged Christians to make the most

of Halloween's Christian origins and to throw what he called the biggest Halloween party on the block.

Not only is it a great way to make fun of the devil, he argued, but it offers Christians a wonderful

opportunity to proclaim Jesus' victory over sin and death to our neighbors.

And our Christian forebears probably would have agreed with Kirk Cameron.

In his book, for the glory of God, historian Rodney Stark argued that Christians in the early

centuries of the church frequently

reacted to pagan practices like fortune-telling, alchemy, even sorcery, by making fun of them,

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