Hippity Hoppity (a politically incorrect article on Easter)

I was curious about the origin of the Easter Bunny, so I did some digging and here’s what I found. Remember, you’ve been forewarned by the title!

The Easter Bunny or Easter Hare got his start much like good old Kris Kringle – in Germany – or more specifically in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. And just like Santa Claus, the whole point was to take an extremely important and foundational event in the Christian faith, slap a fuzzy round face on it and turn it into a reason to stay home from church to “spend time with your family.” (Oh yeah, political suicide going on here)

Why a rabbit? What’s with the eggs?

You guessed it – it’s really all about sex. Or more specificall, fertility. The Easter Bunny hops along in spring randomly spreading eggs everywhere it goes.

Bunny. Spring. Eggs. You can’t get more fertile than this!

And what’s with all this celebration of fertility? You guessed it – when you trace it all back down – we’re actually celebrating the Greek goddess of “spring-like fertility” named Eostra.

The worship of this goddess was so ingrained in the Greek culture (along with the two days of feasting and celebration that occurred every spring) that the Roman Catholic church decided to adopt some of its customs, give it a little name change and associate it with the resurrection of Christ. Your “mind brakes” might be screeching about now, but think about it: the word “Easter” isn’t anywhere in the Bible. It had to come from somewhere!

And you’ll love this…remember the traditional Easter dress every one of us girls had to wear as children? Yep, that tradition was started by the cult who worshiped Eostra; during the festivals, they had the maidens dress all in white like the goddess as a symbol of untapped fertility. (Cold shiver)

And why a chocolate bunny?

Actually, that one I get – everything is better when it’s made of chocolate.

Just a little more about the crazy egg thing…

It seems that it is traditional for Catholics to dye their Easter Eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ. Part of the reason there was such an abundance of eggs for Easter was due to the fact that eggs were traditionally not eaten during Lent. However, early Protestants (who do not partake of Lent) didn’t stress over the quantity or redness of their eggs and decided that they liked the variety of colors used by the religiously indifferent to symbolize the many colors and varieties of flowers that begin to bloom in spring (Personally, I prefer the Paws kits that have stickers so you can make your eggs have the crazy eyes!).

Now, I could take this to a serious place and tie the fertility theme back to the blood of Christ because it was the shedding of His blood that birthed the New Testament church and the real whole point of Easter is to remember not only His broken body, shed blood and death on the cross, but that He died for the express purpose of being raised up and born again from death back into life. Why? So that we, who are already dead because of sin, can be born again into that same life with Christ!

For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish by have everlasting life. ~John 3:16

But, my faithful readers know me by now, and know I’m not gonna go to the serious place. Instead, I’ll leave you with this final reason why bunnies should NOT be associated with Easter:

~by Anessa Back

Keep Looking in that Mirror

So… what drives us towards “perfection”?

The biggest problem we have is not understanding the difference between “perfection” in the worldly sense and the Biblical meaning of “being perfect.” I did a little study and found that the concept of being perfect in the sense of being flawless or faultless came into existence around 1200 AD through the teachings of the Roman Catholic church as a counter argument to the ideas of the Renaissance. In a nutshell, Renaissance thinkers began to put forth the idea that the greatest perfection is imperfection. That flew in the face of the Catholic church which relied on the financial contributions collected from people who needed the prayers of priests to keep them perfect enough to get into heaven. If imperfection is okay, people don’t need to pay for absolution… no coins in the coffer to run the business of the church means less power wielded in Rome. So… the simple thing was to espouse the idea that one must be totally without flaw or fault in order to be “perfect.”

Puritans captured this idea of perfectionism and folded into their Protestant ideals of moralism and virtue…one can attain moral perfection through the keeping of rules, regulations, and religious customs. Upon the idea of this moral perfection the Puritans established the religious fiber of our own country. As time went on and capitalism reigned supreme in America, the idea that one should only be satisfied with the highest standard became the cry of the corporate marketplace… and of the American culture: “We are the best. We expect the best. We deserve the best.”

Is it any wonder so many Christians, like my friend, struggle with accepting themselves as they are in all of their imperfection? According to contemporary cultural and religious thinking, we’ll never be “perfect” enough. Good thing God’s word doesn’t mean what we think it means. In the Old Testament “perfect” meant “full of peace and integrity,” and in the New Testament it meant “full of integrity and virtue; mature; having a sense of completion.” The love we have for others, ourselves, and for God is made perfect ONLY because we have been made into the image of Christ… nothing to do with us.

“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world”  ~1 John 4:17

Don’t you love what Apostle Paul says to the Galatians…”Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3). In other words, “Boys, you weren’t good enough to get your spirit saved; why do you think you’re good enough to perfect yourself through your own works? It can’t be done by YOUR works!”

It’s our American culture, our religious tradition, and our pride that keeps us bound to the idea of “being perfect.” Tomorrow, we’ll look at some steps we can take to change our thinking about ourselves. In the meantime… take a look in the mirror. Tell that person looking back at you that they are PERFECT IN CHRIST!!

~Linda