Dear Diane Medved,

I listen to your husband's radio program regularly via the internet and I want you to know that I enjoy listening to your annual disagreement with Michael regarding Halloween. I enjoy it in the same way that I enjoy hearing my pastors Sharon and Billy Joe Daugherty “team teach” at Victory Christian Center in Tulsa! The example of respectful disagreement on heartfelt issues is good, but I have to admit, Diane that while your naivete is charming, I think that you are becoming aware as a psychiatrist that you are wrong about Halloween. Diane, no matter how secure you are in your own covenant with G-d, you have to admit that there is a world out there that is going it's own direction and it is away from G-d. ...

Not since leaving home, and yes I am in the baby boomer generation, have I lived in a neighborhood where I would feel comfortable sending a child out to trick or treat, and I think, Diane, that you would have to admit that most people don't do this anymore. I did purchase Halloween costumes for my grandbabies whose parents like Halloween (a happy orange jack-0-lantern and a peek-a-boo ghost), but I do think that the deception inherrent in the idea of the holiday is wrong and any deception is dangerous in the long run. Incidentally, even though my daughter and son-in-law had purchased treats and dressed up their babies, they had no "trick-or-treaters" in their nicely renovated "historic" but not gated neighborhood.