We (Don’t) Talk of Christ
Phew. The Bloggernacle came through in the end. After a Holy Week full of posts about Schiavo, nudity, Cain, Dilbert, Yoga, Mother Earth, Polygamy, and John Widstoe, there were a few posts about Easter. Congratulations to:
- Clark, who countered disappointment in the ‘Nacle’s Easter silence by posting his own thoughts about Christendom’s holiest holiday (and its connection to Jesus’ birthday, Pentecost, April 6 1830, and the Kirtland Temple Dedication)
- Kaimi, who waxed lyrical on burnt fingers, fathers, and the atonement
- Clark again, who posted on “the dread of death” that Easter dispels
- Er, Clark again, who brought the Book of Mormon into Easter Week
- Christian, who mused on the “strangeness” of the Resurrection
- John Fowles, who celebrated the “Mormon” Easter, shorn of liturgy (but still a little envious of all that incense and Latin!)
- Yours truly, who described his Catholic Good Friday
- Greg, who posted John Updike’s wonderful poem, Seven Stanzas for Easter
- Blake, who explained Peter’s denial
- Kris, who brought (who else?) Mary Magdalene into the discussion
- Ben, who also enjoyed a Catholic Easter (shall we start a new Catholic-Mormon Appreciation Society?)
There were a few more posts, and the odd passing comment about Easter. But are a dozen or so posts among many more dozens in the ‘Nacle this week enough to suggest we have really celebrated Easter?
Possible conclusions would be:
1. Mormons don’t really talk as much about Christ as they claim.
2. Mormons don’t really get into Holy Week (other than Easter Sunday) because we’re liturgical virgins and haven’t got a clue.
3. Mormons do love and honour Christ, but don’t need Easter to tell them to do so.
4. What’s there to blog about? The Atonement is so central, so obvious, that there’s not much to discuss.
My money is on 4, with a bit of 2 and 3.
BTW, watch United Brethren for A Mormon Liturgy for Dummies. Coming soon …
5) Easter is about the bunny…now gimme some candy.
Comment by J. Stapley — March 29, 2005 @ 10:53 am
Or, as in my case, we were too busy celebrating Easter to be bothered with posting about it. ‘Course, in my case, I’m in the choir and that takes up a lot of time during Easter. Time is precious enough that Mrs. Woody and I have taken to celebrating Bunny Day on Saturday, so we can concentrate on the Passion on Sunday. Much nicer arrangement. Even Bishop was impressed!
Comment by Woody — March 29, 2005 @ 11:40 am
I just remembered that Amira had some great posts at her blog on the Holy Week. Here they are:
Palm Sunday
A Little More on Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Mournful Friday
A Worn Hymnbook in Jerusalem
Comment by Heather P. — March 30, 2005 @ 1:14 pm
The themes associated with Easter are great, marvellous, and central to our religion, but it doesn’t make a very good blog topic. The existence/non-existence of Mormon “easter-blogging” is certainly no way to draw assumptions about how mormons view Easter.
Personally, I hate Easter as a holiday, much the same as I hate Christmas and every other holiday. I revere the events associated with them, but think the holidays have nothing really to do with the events save a name association only. I prefer to revere the underlying events all year round.
I always wish I could just sleep through the actual holidays, because I *hate* the expectation, obviously furthered by Ronan here, that we actually *have* to talk about the underlying events on the silly, stupid holidays which we, for whatever dumb reason, have associated with said events. Actually talking about the events on the days set aside for them seems really empty and more like paying lip-service than anything else.
So, congrats to all of you out there who have learned how to pay homage and give lip-service in socially appropriate ways and at sociall appropriate times.
Comment by Jordan Fowles — March 31, 2005 @ 3:32 pm
Jordan,
the expectation, obviously furthered by Ronan here, that we actually *have* to talk about the underlying events.
Well, I’m a believer in Church PR, and for Mormons not to talk about Easter at Easter would seem unwise. Nonetheless, my conclusion as to why Mormons didn’t blog obsessively over Easter was that there isn’t much to say (#4). It was not a criticism.
Comment by Ronan — March 31, 2005 @ 4:07 pm
As for PR, the fact that the Church went so far as to change the name of the Book of Mormon to emphasize the role of Jesus Christ in LDS doctrine and belief shows it matters to more than just Ronan. We might celebrate Easter in our own rather non-liturgical way, but it still ought to be clear Mormons celebrate it. That said, I’m not sure blogging about it or not is necessarily a good proxy for Mormon celebration of Easter.
I do agree with John F. that holidays have become so secularized it’s hard to really buy into them anymore. Christmas is now a celebration of consumer spending, Halloween is a drinking holiday, New Year’s Day is a college football celebration, and Easter is overshadowed by March Madness. Thanksgiving has become my favorite holday: the simple pleasure of a really good meal. And NFL football hosted by Dallas and Detroit.
Comment by Dave — March 31, 2005 @ 6:23 pm
Don’t confuse me with John- I don’t think he would want to be caught saying that all holidays are a complete and utter crock of crap.
And don’t get me wrong, Ronan. Nothing wrong with speaking of and rejoicing in Christ. But do we have to do it just because it’s Easter? Give me a break. And give me about another month to recover from this last Easter before am less bitter about the idea of holidays. Not only are they secularized bs that mean nothing, they make you feel guilty for working around them, since the world expects holidays to be “family time.” That’s dang inconvenient, especially around Christmas when it is the end of the year and things are going crazy because of the year’s end. Right when there is a ton to do everything closes up because of what we call Christmas. Ridiculous.
And Easter is the same.
Comment by Jordan Fowles — March 31, 2005 @ 9:03 pm
Easter Vigil -
Hey, I wanna join the Catholic-Mormon Appreciation Society – I went to Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday.
Trackback by explorations — March 29, 2005 @ 5:01 pm
[...] Many of you found your way here because of the generosity of other bloggers. Some I noticed: Kaimi included me in a post on new blogs, and Nate drove traffic here with post responding to The Elusory Breath of Life. Dave put me on his blogroll—even though it’s now on a separate page in his “Sidenotes”—and so did David. Geoff and his friends added me to their real-time overview of the Bloggernacle [nowadays, see also the customizable LDSelect]. Links to specific posts were provided by Ronan—and by Lisa, who happens to be famous. Thanks, everyone. [...]
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