Today is October 31st. Most people know it as “Halloween” but it also has long been known as The Festival of the Dead. The Celtic tribes and their priests, the Druids, celebrated this day as a marker for the change from life to death. November 1 was the beginning of the New Year, so Halloween or “Samhain,” was like New Year’s Eve. It was both a time of death and new beginnings.

The young would wander the countryside disguised in scary masks, carrying turnips carved into scary jack-o’-lanterns to frighten off ghosts and goblins. They believed that the veil between the living and the dead was believed to be the thinnest at this time, and therefore one could most readily communicate with loved ones in spirit. Deuteronomy 18 warns us not to be involved in any activity that includes divination.

The term Halloween is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before “All Hallows’ Day” also known as “All Saints’ Day.” Pope Gregory moved the day from May 13 to November 1. This made Halloween the eve of this celebration. November 1 became “All Hallow Mass,” and October 31, became “All Hallow’s Even.”

Today, Halloween has become one of the more celebrated holidays. We are told that people spend more on decorations at Halloween that any other holiday except Christmas. And often the Halloween celebrations have included more and more occultic activity. Christians have two options: to ignore Halloween or to provide an alternative. Many churches now provide a Fall Fun Festival.

I hope you have thought about what you will do today. Don’t just go with the flow. Make an informed decision about what you will do on Halloween.

In a thought-provoking new e-book, Christian Overman addresses the important issue of “The Lost Purpose for Learning.” He begin with a 19th century quote from Princeton theologian A.A. Hodge: “It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of natural popular education will be the most efficient and wide instrument for the propagation of Atheism which the world has ever seen.”

This statement by Hodge certainly turned out to be prophetic. Christian Overman points out that before the federal government took over the schools, education was primarily a Christian endeavor. That isn’t to say that all teachers were Christian. But it means that there were certain foundational ideas about God and the world that were part of education in America.

When we turn to the topic of Christian education, we find that sometimes it hasn’t done much better. The reason is the acceptance by so many Christians of a sacred-secular dualism (what he calls the SD infection). They put spiritual things in the sacred realm and things related to the physical world in the secular realm.

You end up with Christian education where the class begins with prayer, but the teaching is essentially no different from secular education. The academic material is similar to what is provided in the public schools and only have a little bit of Christianity sprinkled on the top.

Christian Overman is pleading for a holistic Christian education. Here is how he would evaluate a Christian school. He says he would ask the headmaster: “What specific training have your teachers received for designing lesson plans that will help my children see God’s purpose and intentions for what it is your teachers are teaching?” Most headmasters could not give a good answer to that question.

You need to get a copy of this e-book because it not only identifies the problem but offers specific solutions.

More and more Americans believe in pluralism and many believe in universalism. First, let me define the terms. Universalism would be the belief that everyone will be saved after death and go to heaven. Pluralism is the belief that all faith positions and belief systems are equally true or essentially true.

According to a Barna survey, Americans are still not embracing universalism. A majority of Americans still believe in exclusive views rather than inclusive views concerning heaven. Those surveyed were asked if they agreed or disagreed with this statement: “All people will experience the same outcome after death, regardless of their religious beliefs.” Americans disagreed with the statement by 55 percent.

This survey shows that Americans still reject the idea that everyone is saved, but the declining percentages suggest that universalism may become the dominant theological view in the next few years. Given the influence of tolerance and political correctness, it is reasonable to assume that universalism will become more prevalent over time.

What about pluralism? The survey asked if Americans agreed or disagreed with this statement: “It doesn’t matter what religious faith you follow because they all teach the same lesson.” A majority (54%) disagreed with that statement, though 43 percent agreed with the statement.

The study also discovered that 59 percent of adults believe that “Christians and Muslims worship the same God even though they have different names and beliefs regarding God.” The study also found that 43 percent believe that “the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths.”

Pluralism is already becoming the dominant theology of Americans. Pastors and Christian leaders should take note and address the influence of pluralism in our world today.

Often during these political campaigns, candidates talk about the cost of government regulations. It is hard to get a good estimate, but one report from the Heritage Foundation, provides an estimate of the costs. It seems that while politicians are reaching into your pocket to tax you, they are using the other hand to impose heavy costs through regulation.

You may think that you are exempt from federal regulations, unless you run a corporation or own a business. Do you heat your home? Do you use electricity to light your home? Do you buy and cook food? Do you watch television? If the answer is yes, then you have fallen under federal regulations.

The report says: “The cost of regulation are inevitably passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices and limited product choices. Basic items such as toilets, shower heads, light bulbs, mattresses, washing machines, dryers, cars, ovens, refrigerators, television sets, and bicycles all cost significantly more because of government decrees on energy use, product labeling, and performance standards that go well beyond safety—as well as hundreds of million of hours of testing and paperwork to document compliance.”

The annual cost of regulations is more than $1.75 trillion. To put that amount in perspective, you should realize that this is twice the amount of individual income taxes collected last year. It is also worth noting the regulatory costs have been imposed by Republican and Democratic administrations. Both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have collectively imposed more than $100 billion in additional regulatory costs.

Certainly we need some government regulations, but these recent estimates show that federal regulations are weighing down the American economy. Presidents and members of Congress might talk about reviewing and reducing the regulatory burden. But very few actually achieve that goal.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently unveiled an online tool that is supposed to help local officials see the dangers of climate change in their community. The Climate Change Adaptation Resource Center provides a map that warns of the danger of climate change to each of the eight regions of the United States.

These dire warnings were too much for Dr. William M. Briggs who has been questioning many of the claims of climate change activists. In his column, he reminds us what really is happening in these states that are supposed to be reeling from the negative effects of climate change.

Yes, the climate has changed since 1980. Corn production in Michigan back then was about 7.5 billion bushels. By 2015, it has increased to 14 billion bushels. He then humorously notes that the “EPA warns that climate change in corn-growing Michigan could exacerbate the risk of increased production. Farmers might run out of bushels if the correlation persists.”

The EPA also warns of the impact of climate change in Iowa. Once again, we find that there have been bumper crops of corn, soybean, and other foodstuffs. “This is causing prices for food to drop. Climate change is thus bad news for those wanting higher prices.”

He says he can probably do this for every state, but I think you get the idea. If we are headed for a weather-induced Armageddon, the current facts don’t seem to support these dire warnings.

He also reminds us that back in 1936 there was an anomalous heat wave that killed over 12,000 Americans. But that was when there was a lot less carbon dioxide than we have now. Or how about 1886 when the U.S. was hit by more hurricanes than in any year following it. Again, there was less carbon dioxide back then.

The EPA is warning us of potential disasters in the future, but a look at current history and past history suggests that perhaps their predictions are too extreme.

Over the years, I have talked about how social media like Facebook and YouTube have sometimes censored conservative and Christian content. Facebook, for example, a few years ago pulled a page by former Governor Mike Huckabee that called for a “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.” Later it was added back to Facebook. Lila Rose had her investigative reports on Planned Parenthood pulled from YouTube. And I might mention that the Apple store sometimes has pulled iPhone apps for groups like the Manhattan Declaration from their store. The latest example of censorship involves Dennis Prager and his YouTube videos for PragerU.

According to his website, the videos present “the most important ideas in free, five-minute videos.” They usually feature a speaker with excellent video graphics in order to teach a point. They usually begin with a question like: Is Islam a Religion of Peace? or Were the Founders Religious?

YouTube has created a list of 21 videos they have restricted. They include: Are the Police Racist? and Why Don’t Feminists Fight for Muslim Women? and What ISIS Wants. These are restricted and this prevents children or anyone concerned about seeing videos that might have adult material. Videos on YouTube are restricted based on vulgar language, violence and disturbing imagery, nudity, and sexually suggestive content.

The people working at PragerU cannot find anything in their videos that violate YouTube policies or user guidelines, so they filed a complaint with YouTube. Since a complaint seemed to go nowhere, they decided to put a petition on their website asking YouTube to stop restricting these videos. It already has over 60,000 signatures.

It would be tempting to brush this off since the videos are only restricted. But what is restricted today might be removed tomorrow. After all, we have seen this happen before.

Twenty years ago, no nation on earth endorsed legal same-sex marriage. Now same-sex marriage is everywhere. How did this happen? That is what Dr. Albert Mohler attempts to answer in his new book, We Cannot Be Silent. He was on my radio program to talk about his book.

He explains that this didn’t start with same-sex marriage. First, we had a sexual revolution. Initially some of the legal and cultural battles were over issues like birth control and contraception. America began to redefine marriage first by changing laws concerning divorce and later with the acceptance of cohabitation and sex outside of marriage.

There was also a homosexual rights strategy. Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen proposed a way in their book, After the Ball, to normalize homosexuality and marginalize Christians. They took advantage of the AIDS crisis to establish homosexuals as a victimized minority deserving of special protection and care. Albert Mohler explains how their strategy changed homosexuality from a vice to a virtue.

He also talks about the impossible possibility of same-sex marriage. Homosexual activists were able to shift public opinion in their attempt to redefine marriage in a relatively short period of time. The emerging generation sees this redefinition as necessary because homosexuality is portrayed as the next civil rights battle. Albert Mohler also talks about the transgender revolution. Most Americans are not even certain how to talk about it, especially in this postmodern world.

He concludes with chapters setting forth the biblical perspectives on sex, marriage, and family. And he raises important questions of what the homosexual movement will mean for religious liberty and the right to be a Christian. Our religious freedoms are in the balance in large part because of the sexual revolution and the redefinition of marriage. That is why we cannot be silent.

The editorial drumbeat against guns continues while the evidence mounts that gun deaths are decreasing. Two articles from last week illustrated these contradictory claims. The editorial board of the New York Times attacked what is called the “fantasy” that carrying a concealed weapon makes you safer.” Meanwhile, Pew Research reported that the “nation’s overall gun death rate has decline 30% since 1993.”

The New York Times editorial cited statistics from the Violence Policy Center that “since 2007, at least 763 people have been killed in 579 shootings that did not involve self-defense.” There are some real problems with these statistics and the analysis.

First, these numbers lump suicides with other deaths. Suicides should be considered separately, because they have nothing to do with carrying a concealed weapon outside the home. John Lott has shown in his research that the suicide rate among concealed carry holders is lower than the general population.

Second, the study had to cover a period of seven years just to get the numbers high enough to sound scary. Remember that there are 12 million Americans that currently have concealed handgun permits. Given that large number of concealed carry holders, it is likely that a few of them over a seven-year period might have accidentally killed an innocent person while trying to bring down a perpetrator.

The Pew Research report noted that: “the increased spotlight on guns does not reflect the overall gun violence trend in the country. Although most Americans think the number of gun crimes has risen, the U.S. gun homicide rate has actually stabilized somewhat in recent years.” Actually the nation’s overall death rate has declined by 30 percent, and that percentage include homicides, suicides, police shootings, and accidental shooting deaths.

Sadly, many gun statistics used in editorials are being abused and misused.