SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:

Halloween came early this year.

It started with the primary election season. So far this season we have spent $1 billion dressing up candidates. Every candidate chose the best costume to present themselves while seeking to turn their opponent into something silly, or something slimy and nasty, or the scariest most terrifying incarnation of evil.

This year Halloween itself will disappear quickly. Halloween is dead; long live Christmas.

The leftover candy and costumes will be off the shelves before the kids return from trick-or-treating. The displays with monsters in creepy doorways will be replaced with Santas going down chimneys.

Christmas carols will supersede screams of terror. Ghouls will be gone, but the reindeer will arrive. I don’t even want to know where all the extra Halloween candy goes, but I know the candy canes will be on sale by today.

I do worry that the fears and trash talking of the Halloween election season may not disappear quite so quickly.

Has there been too much name calling? Have we lost touch with what unites us all? Have we allowed one too many half-truths, one too many vicious put-downs? Have we so readily used attack ads and cultivated anger against each other that we can no longer enjoy real differences?

The hard question left over after the elections is whether the political races to represent the American Dream actually weakened the dream by the tactics used. Can we really build a country worthy of honor and respect if we elect officials and pass propositions that rely on neither to get approval?

In the church Halloween ends with All Saints’ Day. The night of the ghouls and goblins was followed by a day of celebrating that God shall raise the dead.

The church reminded everyone of the power of Easter: that the saints are alive with God, that justice shall prevail, and the world and all its creatures shall be saved. Halloween ends with a vision that love is stronger than terror and that death itself cannot prevail against it.

The vision that unites Americans is Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday. We gather around a table with relatives and in-laws — many of whom we may not like and certainly don’t agree with — and we share a meal.

We reconnect. We tell stories. We even clean up together. We try to make sure everyone has a family to go home to, and even make sure the homeless have a great meal.

The masks come off. The costumes are put away. Barack and Michelle sit down with John and Cindy to have Thanksgiving dinner together. Joe and Jill, Sarah and Todd drop by with casseroles.

Even George and Laura, Hillary and Bill bring the pies. See you at the table.

MARK WILEY is the pastor of Mesa Verde United Methodist Church in Costa Mesa.