Halloween

What does a Texan do to celebrate Halloween in Maryland?

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I really don't "celebrate" Halloween though. Today was Reformation Sunday at church, however. In honor of Martin Luther, I'll include a quote from "Church History in Plain Language" by Bruce Shelley:

In his third pamphlet published in 1520, The Freedom of a Christian Man, Luther set forth in conciliatory but firm tones his views on Christian behavior and salvation. This is probably the best introduction available to his central ideas. He did not discourage good works but argued that the inner spiritual freedom that comes from the certainty found in faith leads to the performance of good works---by all true Christians. "Good works do not make a man good," he said, "but a good man does good works." Thus, on the threshold of his excommunication from the Roman Church, Luther removed the necessity of monasticism by stressing that the essence of Christian living lies in serving God in one's calling whether secular or ecclesiastical. All useful callings, he said, are equally sacred in God's eyes....

Luther's greatest contribution to history was not political. It was religious. He took four basic Catholic concerns and offered invigorating new answers. To the question how is a person saved, Luther repled: not by works but by faith alone. To the question where does religious authority lie, he answered: not in the visible institution called the Roman church but in the Word of God found in the Bible. To the question---what is the church?---he responded: the whole community of Christian believers, since all are priests before God. And to the question---what is the essence of Christian living?---he replied: serving God in any useful calling, whether ordained or lay. To this day any classical description of Protestantism must echo these central truths.