Last year, I ruffled a feather with my tongue-in-cheek Halloween post. I'm still not sure why letting my daughters dress up like fairy princesses and giving them candy pleases the dark lord Satan so much, but I digress . . .

This year, I'll let someone else ruffle the feathers for me.



Michael Spencer offers a full-on, unashamed Halloween "taunt" at the Boar's Head Tavern blog. Minus the introductory paragraphs, which include links to Cornerstone's expose of Christian huckster Mike Warnke and Snopes.com's Halloween urban legends page, here's most of Spencer's rant:

Now....I taunt you.



Remember all the fun YOU had as a kid? One day God is going to ask you why your kids didn't have fun on October 31? Why you went door to door getting candy, dressed like a Pickle or a monster, and it was so exciting you couldn't wait for it. You prepared for weeks. You went to parties. Your public school went all out. There were contests and pumpkins everywhere. Ghosts and witches and goblins....all pretend, all fun, all a great part of childhood. What awesome memories! But whoa to the Christian with a pumpkin on the porch this Oct 31. Who knows what evil influences are being invited into the home of a person who is daring to play with Druid and Celtic witchcraft in all its dark forms and powers.



Blah blah blah.



My church went all out! We had haunted houses and haunted hayrides and scary movies. This was the fundy church that wouldn't less us do anything normal! But we could have Halloween. Of course, this was all before Mike Warnke told us we were a bunch of ritual Satanists, and just didn't know it. We had so much fun as kids. Admit it. We had a blast. I dressed up like a scarecrow every year. It was great. Can't do it anymore, though. Can't even show Don Knotts in "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." God only knows what demonic forces that might unleash.



And now your kids are stuck at church (again), dressed as Bible characters (again), pretending to enjoy themselves (again) as you act out the book of Ruth. How could you do this? How could you believe all this nonsense? How could you buy what has to be the greatest collection of urban legends ever foisted upon a group of people? What kind of person suddenly believes that a simple American tradition is a boiling pot of Satanic ritual, and that we must hide and say our prayers, or at the least go to the church and have some deacon dressed like Martin Luther read the 95 Theses to us?



I vote for a full-blown return to Halloween as a great American Holiday where we dress up, have fun, make light of the dark side, and assert the victory of Jesus by simply enjoying ourselves. I want children to have Halloween back! I want my entire generation to apologize for believing this blather. Yes...that means you back there with your books and tapes.



There...you've been taunted by the best. Now go have a drink.

I'm not sure I'm in line with everything ranted here. I'm unsold on the "making light of the dark side" thing. And I think there's a "fear factor" that must be considered in letting our little ones participate in scary stuff like witches and what-not.



But other than those nitpicks, I thought this was actually pretty funny and refreshing.



Now -- let the flaming begin.