Are we getting out of the way of Easter too much?

Chocolate bunny for Easter (target image)

So our beloved Willie's Super Valu will be closed on Easter. There's a sign there. Willie's had better be beloved because it's the only truly full-service grocery store in the area. It really is beloved. 

I hope the store can put on the brakes some, with all the inflation that the media is breathlessly telling us about. I still do not see much similarity between current inflation and the 1970s version. Shall we assume the worst is coming along? Well, we must hope clearly that does not happen. You might have to do more than knock on wood. But you'd better get stocked up with groceries before Easter Sunday. 

How do you feel about the big slowdown of activity for a religious holiday? How do you feel about "blue laws?" What about Christmas knocking so many of us out of our routine? We pretty much act like we're willing to go along with it. We pretend there's primacy with the Christian faith, still. But these are not Norman Rockwell times. Increasingly we retreat from that. And it's not just because there are more non-Christians among us in terms of faith. We're also dealing with secularization. 

We're dealing with the "nones." The term "nones" developed just a few years ago - I learned it from a presentation on C-Span. I think most people instantly grasp what is meant by the term now. "Nones" are people who are not associated with a church or religious denomination. It's like they choose to live life without the element, which if you ponder a little, is a position that has merit. 

Religion is literally superstition. You have a right to your superstitious beliefs. But we all develop a sense that it causes needless conflict among us. 

The more "nones" that circulate among us, the less conflict. We defer to science more, the real world. 

My generation when young recoiled at the old model of small towns having this rigid distinction of Lutherans from Catholics. We'd hear stories about a family disowning a member - no longer on speaking terms - if that member married someone from the other side. And we thought "how ridiculous, how pathetic." Of course we recoiled about other issues in the world too, like the Vietnam war and racism. Music was not the main thrust of "Woodstock" - the event was a multi-cultural celebration. To hell with the long-established biases based on culture/skin color. 

 

A step back occasionally

We can question how far we have come as of today. Has there actually been some backtracking? Look at the outrageous abuse that a Supreme Court nominee had to take, the person of color. I'm not going to explain all that to you. 

We still have this "default" position for the Christian faith, even though it just has to be weakening. 

We retreat at times from the progress and enlightenment, and then those qualities will push forward again. We are simply not all Christians. We acknowledge the other faiths such as the Jewish people, who have had to learn to step aside for the default stuff. But it's not just the other religious faiths that must be respected and reckoned with, it is the "nones" and the whole secular sense. 

I mean, why the heck can't we consider going to the main grocery store in Stevens County on a day that happens to be called Easter? Don't people have to eat on that day?

I still choose to attend a Christian church. No talent is required to be a church member. Just park your rear end in the pews now and then and listen. You're supposed to give money, but no one seems to enforce this. It's called "tithing." 

 

Looming over Christianity

Just the other day, there was another article on Yahoo News about the continued fusing of Christianity with the political right wing. This might be the most concerning thing about Christianity in the present day. Maybe this problem supplants the old problem of the Lutheran-Catholic division in small Minnesota communities. 

The growth of the political right wing is one of the most puzzling things I've ever seen. These people gather like cheerleaders to watch the hearings/questioning of the Supreme Court nominee, this brilliant woman who happens to be black. The weirdos on the Republican side do their thing, they "throw fish" to their base. They have got to be smarter than that, deep down. 

Wasn't Lindsay Gramm a military lawyer once? Unless he has developed some sort of mental defect - who knows? - he has to know his histrionics are a disgrace. He's from South Carolina - is that helpful background? Wasn't that state at the heart of the old Confederacy? 

So now Christianity presents itself as a banner-carrier for the extreme political right wing of America. And young people do not seem to be streaming into the church pews. They are in fact populating the "nones" category. (The term came about because of survey forms, where they ask you what religion you have, and there is a "none" box to check.)

 

Are we ghouls?

So Easter is close at hand. I don't mind thinking about Easter bonnets and chocolate bunnies. What I find unacceptable is this increasing emphasis on the literal torture of this man named Jesus Christ. I never minded accepting the crucifixion in the abstract. The images were much milder when I was a kid. Maybe the Mel Gibson movie changed things. 

Gibson is nothing but an entertainment professional. He has hurt himself by being so terribly anti-Semitic. But we should not follow his lead in anything. Torture and death are not the thoughts or images I seek on any day of the year. 

If you shop at Willies, be advised you'll be paying $2 for the Morris newspaper after May 1. 

May 1, that's "May Day," right? The Communist holiday. Maybe we'll end up with communism someday, if the Republican Party is allowed to stay in charge over the near-term future.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com