Mrs Lovett, what a charming notion!

Eminently practical and yet appropriate as always...

Every year towards the end of October, articles about Hallowe'en start appearing all round the conservative-homeschool-Christian blogosphere. Most are anti-Hallowe'en, saying that Christians shun everything to do with it because of the origins. Some say that trick-or-treating is harmless and fun or that though some of Hallowe'en's history is related to paganism, its origins are also Christian. Meh. I haven't looked into it and can't say for sure.

For my family, though, it's an Opportunity. Or at least, it is for my dad, and as he goes, so goes the rest of this small empire. Five of us and three friends were recruited to hand out DVDs to high schoolers today. About hell and the afterlife. While wearing ghoulish costumes. What fun! Right? Of course right.

I watched said DVD not long ago. It was mostly a collection of film clips, all showing man's view of death--including "Yeah I'm a good person, I'll go to heaven" said about fifty different ways. At the end they said what the Bible taught about death and what would happen after, and a few quick answers to common objections about Christianity. (Extra points because they quoted C.S. Lewis.) All that sounds preachy but it somehow wasn't. Just matter-of-fact about the whole thing, with no "you need to accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Saviour!!!!" Besides the fact that that's not really biblical, Christians acting like a cult with their own weird jargon is not going to win any points with anyone. [/slightlyofftopicrambling]

The kids are going out again tonight. One Grim Reaper costume, two balaclavas, some spooky cloaks... I went as Mrs Lovett, not that anyone recognised me, but she's certainly spooky enough. Perhaps I ought to have brought the rolling pin along.

(Bad pictures; it looked better in real life, but even so one's costumes are sadly limited when one has zero sewing skills.)

Thus we went to one of the local high schools, I took some classes there last term actually. My Saguine friend Sascha is far too good at this sort of thing. She walked up to a massive group of Young People (half of them were wearing more interesting than ours) and shouted, "Hey! Anyone want a free DVD? About death, it's really spooky!" How does she do that? (Did I mention that she was dressed as a mad scientist? Very impressive.) But behold, we were surrounded by an army of hands, all willing to take the thing. One boy asked for two and then smashed them both on the ground. Another girl looked at the cover and said, "Hell? How cool is that?"

We've done a lot of evangelism endeavours like that but I've never seen people so willing to accept things.

We haven't really advertised this escapade to most of the people at church, and I can see how it would scare some off. To non-Christians we're religious extremists (ha, ha). To Christians, we're using methods that are, at the least, unorthodox. It's also the hell thing that gets them. Maybe in past centuries the fire-and-brimstone aspect was over-emphasised, but now people seem to conveniently forget the other half. Is God merciful and loving? Sure. Is He also just and unable or unwilling to disobey His own laws? Absolutely.

Of course the best way to evangelise--as if there was a prescribed formula that each person has to follow!--is getting to know the person, loving them, showing them the gospel at all times and if necessary using words. Still, if you can't do that then I think that this is not a bad substitute. It's not meant to magically convert people, or anything of that sort. But perhaps it will plant a seed.

Happy Reformation Day, All Saint's Day, and/or NaNo Eve to all and sundry.

(Two blog posts in two days--shocking I know. My brain went into "Get some blogging done before NaNo murders me!" mode.)