This is from Garrison Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac”:
Today is the Christian holiday of Easter Sunday, the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead three days after his crucifixion. Easter is a moveable feast; in other words, it’s one of the few floating holidays in the calendar year, because it’s based on the cycles of the moon. Jesus was said to have risen from the dead on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. For that reason, Easter can fall as early as March 22nd and as late as April 25th. Easter also marks the end of the 40-day period of Lent and the beginning of Eastertide; the week before Easter is known as Holy Week and includes the religious holidays Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
The word “Easter” and most of the secular celebrations of the holiday come from pagan traditions. Anglo Saxons worshipped Eostre, the goddess of springtime and the return of the sun after the long winter. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny. Eggs were a symbol of fertility in part because they used to be so scarce during the winter. There are records of people giving each other decorated eggs at Easter as far back as the 11th century.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The virtual church service at my church has relied heavily on the music of the First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln, Nebraska although our music director has used music from all over. There is something about music that has the power to raise the spirits beyond the logical. I love how we have drawn on so many traditions to celebrate the renewal of life. In the midst of hardship, death, and disease, it is good to retain the ability to hope no matter who or what you revere.
The archdiocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, continues to defend its prohibition of women behind the alter. Their recommended argument is to spin away from equality talking points.
Framing as privilege, the permission to be in the space, is advised, instead.
Evidently, entitlement that is available only to men is an orbit of logic in religion.
What does the archdiocese of Lincoln, Nebraska have to do with the First Presbyterian Church?
The tie-in-
Church “traditions” which are conservative and which presumably accounted for more than 1/2 of white Christians voting for Trump.
Christ’s true followers should call out their churches for political activity that steers parishioners to vote Republican.
BTW- Trump, “I love my church”, self describes as Presbyterian. The all-white church of his youth was divided by “old money” and “new money”.
Ancillary- Trump attached religion to a Russian propaganda message about Isis in one of his talking points, “If and when Isis attacks the Vatican… and everyone knows the Vatican is Isis’ ultimate trophy…”
What I read from Christian congregants is a self-serving desire for comfort in churches whose leaders support the politicians that create economic misery for the poor and vulnerable.
Just once, it’d be great if a commenter at this blog who self-identifies as Christian would follow-up with a description about what he is doing to support American democracy through his church.
Jefferson said, “In every country, in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own.”
Trump’s campaign has $225,000,000 and the support of prosperity evangelicals and Catholics. Biden has $20,000,000. Too bad he doesn’t have any vocal support from Christ’s followers.
I understand the preceding requires connecting dots, a skill present only in those capable of abstraction.
Thank you for coming clean. All Christians and Christian churches are evil entities bent on only enriching themselves, others be damned. Don’t tell me that isn’t what you meant since you just managed to condemn all Presbyterians. (You’ve taken on conservative Catholics and Protestant evangelicals in the past.) Not all of us by a long shot think that being a person of faith makes us “holier than thou.” People are people no matter what they believe, capable of both noble and despicable acts. Wouldn’t it be nice if life was so black and white?! It would make it so much easier to identify the bad guys. You have provided useful information on the activities of some religious organization, or segments thereof in the past. Your credibility decreases as it bleeds into disdain for broad swaths of Christian believers.
Christian, Muslim, Jewish…believers who allow their leaders to push a political agenda that harms the vulnerable in the name of the faith – business as usual. With America facing 4 more years of the anti-Christ- Trump and McConnell, courtesy of religious tribalism’s vote- NO.
I will speak out until Diane forces my silence. Mischaracterizations of my words, personal insults, warnings of lost credibility and admonitions that I deserve pity for my ignorance of GOD’S WORD – standard fare for eons in the battle between liberty and religion.
Jefferson wasn’t lauded by the faithful for his attempt to build separation of church and state.
“Jefferson wasn’t lauded by the faithful for his attempt to build separation of church and state.”
He should have been. There were plenty of people who saw the danger of mixing politics and religion. Those who insist on mixing the two are playing a dangerous game. Keep on speaking out. Unfortunately, you lose audience for some very cogent remarks because you insist on mixing it with your personal aversions and acceptable tests of purity.
What has Keillor been smoking?
Every kid knows the Easter Bunny does not lay eggs but brings them in a basket.
The Beowulf story appears to be a telling by a Christian writer incorporating much older materials. It is highly likely that Grendel’s mother is a Christian recasting of the ancient British Earth goddess Nerthus, who was associated with bogs (places where sacrifices to her were made). There are, of course, many such examples of Christian appropriations of preexisting religious materials, the virgin birth, the death and rebirth at the Winter Solstice, of the Son/Sun. All plastered onto the teachings of the rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth. The annual rebirth of the god/consort was, of course, ubiquitous in pre-monotheistic religions worldwide. See, for example, Sir James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough. Shirley Jackson’s wonderful short story “The Lottery” is about a late survival of such a death/rebirth of the fertility god ritual, barely remembered by those practicing it.
I have another comment about this, which is in moderation. The story Keillor tells of the hare and the rabbit is one that was recorded among Pennsylvanians of German descent. It might be a late development, a back-formation to explain the connection of hares or rabbits with Easter. Ostara was a Germanic goddess of the dawn, and many European peoples, in ancient times, celebrated a Spring Equinox festival. The name Easter/Eostre/Ostara goes all the way back to Proto-Indo-European. In Proto-Germanic, it was*Austrō, “dawn.”
Historical progression of religion:
–Tribal Animism/small bands–>
–Matriarchal religion based on a fertility goddess and her consort, with parts of their lives mapped to the cycle of the seasons, emergence of the first multi-tribal ritual centers at places like Stonehenge and Çatalhöyük (in its earliest phase, located near wild Emmer wheat and running water, before it was a settled agricultural city)–>
–Neolithic revolution, grain-based agriculture, the city state, centralization, Patriarchal religion based on a god-king–command, coercion, and control from an administrative center (the temple complex and seat of government); Polytheism (as in Greek, and Norse religion), with a primary male god; followed by Hentotheism (one male god who takes many forms–a stage of some varieties of late Hinduism), followed by Monotheism, with a single male god
–Neo-liberal self-worship with lip service to third-stage Monotheism to keep the rabble in line
“Blessed”- self congratulations
“We’re all sinners” – self-debasement that keeps people attached (Stockholm syndrome). Tightens control by doubling as a source for a feeling of superiority to those who have the sin of prideful hearts.
Jesus Reinterpreted
Screw unto others
Who screw unto you
Do to your brothers
Before they do, too
That was supposed to be a reply to the “whatever you continue least of my brethren ” comment below.
The programmers at WordPress are clueless twits.
The shared agenda of American theocracy and corporate news media was evident on Face the Nation this morning. (The CBS news division is headed by a former Fox exec.) The archbishop of NYC, Timothy Nolan (a Manhattan Declaration signer), got promotional time to spin, IMO, a false narrative about Pope Francis’ message. Nolan was asked about Pope Francis’ call for the faithful to have integrity. No doubt, Nolan knows Pope Francis’ feelings about income inequality are loathed by American prosperity Catholics. The gobbly gook in Nolan’s stated interpretation of “integrity” seemed disingenuous to me.
His eminence’s holiness must have been the cause for the failure of Margaret Brennan’s Face the Nation (a political show) to ask questions about Catholic Vote praising Orban, about the alleged involvement of the Knights of Columbus in Trump’s re-election, etc.
Corporate media programs avoid social justice advocates from religion like the plague. On Easter, it’s especially offensive to true followers of Christ’s teachings.
There is, indeed, enormous pushback against the views of Pope Francis from right-wing U.S. Catholics in the William Barr mold.
I have an acquaintance, the elderly father of an ex student, who is one of these right-wing Catholics. He routinely sends me anti-Francis screeds from various right-wing U.S. Catholic publications/pundits, as well as pieces from not-so-Breitbart, Faux News, The Wall Street Journal of Corporate Apologetics, and other more obscure alt-right publications. I love it. Helps me to keep in touch with what the crazies are imagining.
Trump participated virtually in the church service of a rightwing fanatic minister who adores Trump and hates Muslims and gays. Trump has no religion. He uses those who do.
It’s so sad. I have a good friend who is an evangelical, though, who sees through him entirely, and thinks him the antithesis of everything Christ taught. She’s right. He is so transparent. Mr. Two Corinthians. Mr. Happy Good Friday. Aie yie yie.
Whatever you have done to the least of these, my brethren, you have done unto Me.
Bob writes, “Helps me to keep in touch with what the crazies are imagining.”
Same here. That’s why I keep up with Fox News. A few weeks ago I heard Fox bad mouthing the UN’s World Health Organization while talking up Doctors Without Borders.
Wikipedia says that Doctors Without Borders’ funding is mostly from private sources and that they limit funding from governments or international organizations.
I’m starting to wonder. Is Doctors Without Borders being groomed to replace the World Health Organization after its demise, like private Charters are aiming to take the place of public schools? Is it yet another facite of Reagan’s continuous attempt to privatize everything, or another part of the theocrates war against government that they see as paganism statism?
https://www.salon.com/2015/04/25/pagan_statism_the_frightening_corporatechristian_alliance_that_invented_in_god_we_trust_and_one_nation_under_god/
“paganism statism” – more opportunistic than that- preserving rule by the rich, the white, and men.
In failing to defend Pope Francis, U.S. Catholics in the pews show the nation that their religious allegiance lies with American, prosperity-Catholic leaders. (Observers may posit that the silence of the church factions who claim support for Pope Francis, render their beliefs moot.) Evidence is provided by the political muscle of Knights of Columbus, Leonard Leo and William Barr etc. The flagrant disrespect Pope Francis receives when his message is distorted in interpretation by American religious leaders, his office is defunded and awards are created in the name of his predecessor adds proof.
I’d call it an American break with the Roman Catholic church in favor of social Darwinists like Charles Koch.