Any other Christians annoyed at what society has turned Easter into?

[Opol]

I’m resigned that the same has been done to Christmas. But for me that is “only” the birth of Christ.

As a Roman Catholic, Easter is of far more importance to me. For me, God’s love for humanity meant he sacrificed his only son. Jesus’ resurrection is literally the embodiment of the victory of light over darkness, good over evil etc.

I don’t wish to gate keep but seeing it reduced to Easter baskets and chocolate rabbits is unpleasant to witness. I’m more annoyed at society making everything hollow and superficial via consumerism and over consumption.

That’s old hat now. It’s do to others as they wish to be done to now.

@Yourethebeerthief Christianity is well known for appropriating elements of paganism as well as other religions, largely used to ease people who they were forcibly converting into practicing Christianity. Based on how Christianity absolutely eradicated anyone practicing paganism, in a brutal way, is why people view it this way. It's hypocrisy, especially posts like this where OP is annoyed with what is has become, it was never a Christian celebration to begin with so Christians have no right to be angry with what it has turned into.
With regards to your point about other religions, I will say I'm not super educated on whether other religions took from the pagan belief system of that area so I wouldn't want to comment either way on the specifics. With Christianity, it was created to control the masses with fear, bleed them dry, provide them with an empty comfort blanket, essentially a power mechanism for those in positions of authority. So my views on Christianity are not super positive I'm afraid.

But no decent person would stand outside a church and give their opinions on Christianity. If a Muslim/Hindu/Jewish etc person started a thread on MN about aspects of religion, that would be a different matter. Unfortunately the opposite doesn’t apply, as once again on Saturday whilst just walking around my local town, had yet another few evangelists with megaphones preaching about Jesus’s love and how we’re all going to hell if we don’t believe. Seems it’s fine for Christians to bother people who have no interest in your religion, but replying in an open discussion is offensive.

According to WIkipedia

Modern interpretations of Christian values include:

• Censorship of sexual content, especially in films and on television.[1]
• Sexual abstinence outside marriage and abstinence-only sex education.[2]
• The promotion of intelligent design to be taught in public schools and colleges as an alternative to evolution.[3]
• The desirability of laws against same-sex marriage.
• Support for laws against the acceptance of homosexuality into mainstream society.[4]
• The desirability of organized school prayer in public schools.[5]

Christian values - Wikipedia

I have absolutely no idea what you're getting at.

I am not a Christian yet I still know that Christianity is the foundation of British values: charity, compassion, the rule of law etc.

If you're looking for me to list some obviously Christian and British values so that you can then quote Bible verses to the contrary, well I can't engage with such lack of nuance. All religious texts contain outdated and ghastly passages. They are a product of another time.

I would like to see anyone who criticises the importance of these texts without actually making an effort to study them, picture themselves living at the time, with the knowledge of the time, and grappling with the monumental ideas and questions that these texts do.

People can be so dismissive of such epic philosophical tomes and their weight and influence on the world around us.

This 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I would say the values are there in spite of Christianity, not because of it.

Christianity has influenced a lot of bad things too. The abuse scandals have created a mass trauma and caused extragenerational trauma.

"I am not a Christian yet I still know that Christianity is the foundation of British values: charity, compassion, the rule of law etc"

Charity?
Compassion?

There were some Christians and Quakers who behaved like that.

But many so called Christians who had fuck all of this and didn't do anything like this.

Oh - and these are British values? I think that charity and compassion are sorely lacking amongst some people - and also these values are not just unique to Britain or Christianity.

I’m an atheist. I spent the day with family, who don’t get out much, we had a roast and exchanged some Easter eggs and talked about spring coming. Is that really offensive to you?

@cakeorwine

You can't name any Christian values it was based on?

Surely that's not too difficult a question

Why do you keep responding to me like this? We're not having a real-time conversation, I'm responding to your posts as I see them on a forum thread. You don't need to take such an interrogative tone.

You might want to have a look at the films and books banned here because the Muslim or Sikh community didn’t want them

You might want to look at the teaching of RS in schools and how they have had to back track on how Mohammed is depicted and the words that are used.

Are you aware most schools and hospitals only serve halal meat.

Do you remember the teacher killed in France and the Newspaper targeted.

It’s not just Christianity that is having a serious impact on our way of life and in the grand scale of things Christianity these days does not negatively affect our free speech the way other religions do.

So no Christian values then - charity, compassion and the rule of law are not unique to Christianity nor Britain.

I would also argue that those values have been sorely lacking from our history as a whole.

But apparently our country is based on Christian values. Which people struggle to name when asked .

To be honest I am bothered about the mocking way people talk about Christians on here and in general life. It is pretty nasty at times to read.

That's not part of the conversation though - nor do I suspect is it accurate. But that's another thread you might like to start

I'm guessing pagans get annoyed with the fact that Ostara is about a dude on a cross rather than honouring nature and fertility..
we can all be pissed off with peoples interpretations OP.

You can't gate keep something that was never yours to begin with.

👏🏻👏🏻

@Yourethebeerthief is talking about 2000 years of Christian culture.

recent abuse cases, whilst abhorrent obviously do not discount the beliefs of billions of people and 2000years of history.
Christianity is the foundation of many countries.
It just is, that’s history and we can’t erase that because people don’t like it.

however it came about, however it evolved and what it is now does not discount history.

"It just is, that’s history and we can’t erase that because people don’t like it."

What do you mean "erase"?

For all those talking about Christian values, Jesus did a lot of preaching…but to me, this sums it all up and is a guide (difficult to follow at times!) for how to live life, and guides my philosophy of life in general.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”

I'll say my last on this.

Yes, many people do many bad things. I don't know what else to say to that. You seem to be questioning the assertion that Britain is founded on Christian values. I have told you that I am not a Christian, I have no skin in the game or desire to defend the religion. Yes there are themes in Christianity that are not unique to the religion, yes charity and compassion are lacking in many people. This is true all over the world. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with that.

The fact is that Christianity underpins our culture. That seems to make you angry which is a shame. I recommend further reading. I studied the Old and New Testament for years (among other religious texts) and can read ancient Hebrew. It's interesting stuff and I'm sure you would enjoy it immensely and discover an appreciation for the religion and it's importance to our history.

As for the OP, I have family who bemoan their children moving away from traditional Hanukkah celebrations and just having an excuse to buy presents on top of Christmas. What can you do? There's still plenty of joy to be found in Easter separate from the Christian tradition. The roads here were rammed with people going to visit their families, coming together to share a meal and some fun for the kids. It's not all bad.

I do agree with this, capitalism does ruin everything. But it's good that you can appreciate pagans celebrating it in the original way, many Christians don't accept that

If you hold beliefs that are based completely on old stories and folklore then you have to accept these days that people are going to question and disregard those beliefs in vocal and very dismissive ways. The whole concept of any religion is so unbelievable it’s actually quite shocking that anyone actually believes any of it when we have such access to factual information. To then have it still influence a huge part of our society is even more astounding, why on earth are so many schools under church control for example? Christianity in this country is absolutely not a poor, hard done by religion. It has far too much power considering how outdated it is as a concept.

That’s ok - a lot of us find the blinding hypocrisy of Catholicism offensive but instead of focusing on it we eat chocolate bunnies.

I mean the last 2000 years of Christian culture has been pretty brutal to say the least. A great history our society has been based on..

It doesn't make me angry.

I just always find it amusing when people say this - but never actually name the values and teachings of Christ that underpin it.