[knife_fight]

so, there is no way there hasn't been a thread about this already, but....

I got into a discussion over in another forum about why there is a decline in the practice of trick-or-treating. I said that I felt that it was b/c, over the past ten years or so, I seem to have noticed the religious right is attempting to ban Halloween. most of the churches around here preach against Halloween (as in, telling parents not to let their children participate). and if they don't do that, they at least offer a kind of "Halloween Alternative" like a Fall Festival or something, minus scary costumes or haunted houses or anything even remotely devilish. some, as I'm sure some of you know, offer "Christian Haunted Houses" (see the documentary "Hell House"), whose basic purpose is to try and scare folks into accepting Christianity as their main spiritual focus.
In fact, just yesterday I had a bus (a bus!) pull into my apartment complex and dropped off about 2 dozen "young adults" armed with pamphlets detailing the supposed inherent evil of my favorite holiday, Halloween.

Now, I'm not a complete idiot. I am familiar with the pagan origins of Halloween (not that I give a shit).... but I am also just as familiar with the pagan origins of Christmas and Easter.

so, what I'm asking is this: do you think the decline in trick-or-treating is to be blamed on the right-wingers? or have you not really noticed any sort of decline? or do you just want to comment on this silliness?