Nor Easter
By Callimachus | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Dumb Things Said By Smart People, ReligionFrom the Associated Press:
A small Easter display was removed from the City Hall lobby on Wednesday out of concern that it would offend non-Christians.
The display - a cloth Easter bunny, pastel-colored eggs and a sign with the words “Happy Easter’’ - was put up by a City Council secretary. They were not purchased with city money.
It would all seem so mundane, if the City Hall in question wasn’t in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A number of people are relishing the hypocrisy.
[Hat tip: Different River]
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 and is filed under Bad Decisions, Dumb Things Said By Smart People, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 28th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Of course, none of the news articles stop to think that maybe, as a Christian, I too would have been offended by the display.
March 28th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Hmm. “Paul, Minnesota.” Has a kind of poetry to it.
Anyway, it’s too late, I’m already offended.
March 28th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
And let’s remember that Easter — bunny, eggs, name and all — is a lovely Northern European pagan holiday.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
OK - Weahs da wabbit?
March 28th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Yeah, us Christians never had a problem mixing a little paganism into our holy days. I imagine it made converting Europe much easier. Sure you can keep your spring fertility celebration with the bunnies and the eggs, as long as you also celebrate the resurection!
It’s never bothered me. I kinda like that mainstream Christianity didn’t just squelch the old pagan parties but instead incorporated them as a bit of harmless fun. We all know the Easter bunny has nothing to do with Christ, but there’s no harm in hunting for eggs anyway.
As for anyone who would get offended by a bright-colored bunny…I have no comment.
March 29th, 2006 at 12:02 am
That’s exactly why they did it. Each culture had a beloved institution or two that it just wouldn’t give up. So the saint who had drawn the job of converting them would find a way to fold it into the deal.
Later, when the last real pagans were long gone, the church often took it back and rewrote the deal.
The Gauls held out on the old Roman weekday names. The Anglo-Saxons, for some reason, held out on Easter. The Danes held out on polygamy, believe it or not. I think they made the better bargain.
March 29th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Wait, wait, wait!
So that whole story where the bunny comes and helps push the stone from in front of the tomb…is BUNK?!?!?
March 29th, 2006 at 10:26 am
JUSTIN - first it you got my armadillo smashed … now my wabbit … leave the pets alone.
March 29th, 2006 at 10:40 am
I’m not offended in the slightest. Just pointing something out.
March 29th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Let me get this straight, these police state hacks are removing a display of the secular EASTER BUNNY because Easter has connotations of Christ and according to these anti-religion ****tards, connotations to religion might be offensive to some people.
I’d be concerned if they put a HUGE CROSS as a display, but NEARLY EVERY 5 year old IN AMERICA celebrates Easter, Christian or otherwise.
God, where do these police-state morons come from, and why do they want to force their anti-bunny views down my throat?
I’ve got something sure to offend those types: myself shouting “Go the **** home losers!” And if they have a problem, I plead the First.
March 29th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Wow Brian, dont get so worked up man.
Bunnies are not at all offensive. Easter is one of the cutest holidays because of all the stuffed animals! Bunnies and painted eggs are loads better than having a display with a naked man who is nailed to a cross and wearing a crown of thorns.
March 29th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
First they came for the bunnies, and I said nothing, because I was not a bunny.
April 2nd, 2006 at 10:44 am
First of all, not all Christians celebrate Easter on the same Sunday. In most years the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate Pascha on a nearby but different Sunday, because they calculate it differently.
Secondly, it was not a bunny rabbit that rose from the dead. Stephen King might make a movie about that, some day, but he hasn’t, yet.
Thirdly, scrunching your eyes shut to the facts and insisting that “most children” celebrate Easter is childish. It is patently untrue.
Fourthly, the secular aspects of commercial “Easter” are even more tacky and annoying than the cornucopia of Xmas symbols. Say what you like against Xmas, it does not feature marshmallow peeps, possibly the most unclean and disgusting alleged foodstuff ever invented.
Fifthly, if Christian parents are trying to raise Christian children, the place to have the egg hunt or whatever isn’t in the public square or at the courthouse. Have these parents heard of churches? They might want to take the kids to church twice a year. If they did, they might hear a Gospel lesson about the Pharisees, beating their breasts in public to proclaim their faith, and insisting on public prayer. Someone who’s fairly prominent in the Gospels took a pretty dim view of such behavior.