{"id":1269,"date":"2008-10-31T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/?p=1269"},"modified":"2008-10-31T08:00:10","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T12:00:10","slug":"have-a-splenda-ed-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2008\/10\/31\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"Have a Splenda-ed Halloween!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It always seemed like we lived across the street from dentists. In South Bend, it was Dr. Rosenbaum<\/a>. In Tulsa, it was Dr. Hudson (who has since retired). They always had the scariest decorations for Halloween. Ghosts that moved across the porch on wires and loud music blaring. Both had the top houses in the neighborhood! My Dad would always instruct me in my cookie monster costume, “Now, a nice and loud ‘Trick or Treat.’ REMEMBER TO PROJECT<\/em>!” I did fine with every other house but Dr. Hudson’s because at his house there was so much cool stuff to dodge.<\/p>\n

But their treats were lame: toothbrushes and mini-tubes of Crest and stickers of smiling teeth. Who wants a sticker of a tooth? It wasn’t even scratch-n-sniff!<\/p>\n

As we’d survey our booty late on Halloween night — with our parents dutifully checking for razor blades and unwrapped candy inevitably injected with cyanide. It was the 1970s after all. — I’d see those forlorn toothbrushes and dumb stickers and think, “Oh. Figures. It’s the dentist.” And I’d toss them aside in favor of Poprocks or Bottlecaps. Like every other kid, I’m sure.<\/p>\n

It’s kind of funny in hindsight because I’m sure their business went up after all the Sugar-Daddy-inflicted broken fillings. Do they want more work or do they really want us to use these brushes and paste and send them to the Poor House?<\/p>\n

So I’ve got to ask — what are Kim Weir and Pam McCune thinking in Redeeming Halloween: Celebrating without Selling Out<\/em><\/a>? Granted, they do a genuinely good job of retelling the history of the early Church leading up to and including All Hallow’s Eve. And as a list of party ideas go, it’s okay, I guess. No different than a recent issue of Family Circle<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But between those two poles, it’s strange. Instead of holing up in a backroom of the house with the lights off to avoid the inevitable trick-er-treaters, they encourage Christians to have the “best treats” in the neighborhood to be a “good witness” (sounds sooo<\/em> familiar), When you carve the pumpkin with your kids, quote Bible verses for each step such as “Let this mind be in you<\/a>” when you lift off the stem (I tried this the other night when we were carving. Besides the fact that Grant glared daggers at me, it was clearly sacrilegious). For costume ideas, they suggest you brainstorm as a family about which people group they want to witness to. Like Astronauts.<\/p>\n

Seriously? Is that any different than Dr. Hudson’s tooth stickers?<\/p>\n

When I was done with the book, I thought about the artificial sweeteners I use in most of my cooking. I’ve got diabetes in my family history, and so I try to steer away from sugar and white flour. So if I can get away with it, I replace sugar with Splenda and flour with oatmeal.<\/p>\n

But it’s obvious. It’s fake. And you can taste the fake.<\/p>\n

Do we have to fake it at Halloween too? Does being a good Christian mean we have to give a saccharine nod to the holiday always holding back a full-fledged spooky scream?<\/p>\n

It all boils down to what my friend Mollie<\/a> said when I told her the title of the book I was reading, “What’s to redeem?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It always seemed like we lived across the street from dentists. In South Bend, it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,16],"tags":[328,599],"class_list":["post-1269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-read","tag-halloween","tag-redeeming-halloween"],"yoast_head":"\nHave a Splenda-ed Halloween! - A Time To Laugh<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2008\/10\/31\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Camille Lewis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/31\\\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/31\\\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Camille Lewis\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e93a8c9ec8fb8b926471114158437f82\"},\"headline\":\"Have a Splenda-ed Halloween!\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-10-31T12:00:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/31\\\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":571,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e93a8c9ec8fb8b926471114158437f82\"},\"keywords\":[\"Halloween\",\"Redeeming Halloween\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Love\",\"Read\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/31\\\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/31\\\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2008\\\/10\\\/31\\\/have-a-splenda-ed-halloween\\\/\",\"name\":\"Have a Splenda-ed Halloween! 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