To Lutherans Good Friday is the most important day of the year. I always regretted that Mormons do not properly celebrate Easter.
Thank heavens for Johann Sebastian Bach whose Passions relate God’s suffering like no other.
Good Friday is the day that God died and if there is a redeeming feature in Christianity, it has got to be that God became a mortal and suffered like every human being.
It doesn’t undo the suffering but gives it meaning by acknowledging and sanctifying it.
Thanks to Ned Flanders for inspiring this thought!
PS: Since it’s Easter, some free advice to Joel Osteen: you have a lot to answer for, man. A little more emphasis on suffering would do your parishioners a lot of good.
Just as Easter arrives (Happy Easter to all Christians), I am making plans to see HH the Dalai Lama in either Seattle or Ann Arbor.
Hmmmmm.
The way that LDS ‘sort of’ celebrate Easter is (just my opinion here) either comical or disgusting. It does, however, give the women an excuse/reason to pretty up.
I believe that Good Friday is the most holy day of the year for all Protestants — that’s my understanding anyhow. There were actually more businesses closed here for Good Friday than there are on Sundays.
I agree about the lack of Easter celebrations in the LDS faith (at least in my experience back when) — actually, I have always wondered at our complete lack of observation of the liturgical calendar generally. This is one of the reasons that LDS are often branded as non-christians. I think the average mormon doesn’t even realise this is one of the main pieces of “evidence” against mormons as christians. Our ignorance of the liturgical year is pretty bad. Combine this with our refusal of traditional christian symbols (cross, crucifix) and the heretical speculation that jesus may have been married (with more than one wife??), and there’s some big nails in that coffin. After all that, it makes no difference how large a font you spell JESUS CHRIST with in your logo, it just seems like protesting overmuch.
It is neither here nor there to me personally, and I do think mormons are worshipers of christ, but they’re not “christians” in any accepted sense of the word. I’m not trying to derail this conversation at all, but it reminds me of the equality-vs-preside rhetoric — just because you try to redefine something so clear as “preside” into meaning “equality” doesn’t make it so. Likewise, redefining your own version of christianity and expecting others to recognise and accept it as being the same as the larger, more “normal” definition is not logical. So perhaps mormons should just be a “different kind” of christian, but should also acknowledge that fact.
“So perhaps mormons should just be a “different kind†of christian, but should also acknowledge that fact.”
Agreed. But some extra Easter traditions would still be nice…
Just wanted to add that I think a lot of mormons want MORE christianity, and the fact that a holy day such as easter can pass with barely any recognition of it at church is frustrating for a lot (likely not a majority, though) of members at all levels of orthodoxy. To wit, this thread at BCC.
Heh, Seth. I think we posted at the same time. Jinx.
Wry, your link doesn’t have a post attached, although it does got you to the site. Could you tell us the title of it?
get, not got. 🙂
When I click it, it goes to the post I’m referencing, so I don’t know what/how to fix it…
But the post’s title is embedded in the URL:
http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2008/03/your-monday-poll-16/
Wry — It’s because I snuck in and silently fixed it. 😉
It’s possible that Mormons don’t do enough to celebrate the crucifiction and resurrection, but why stop at the halfway measures favored by so many churches these days? These guys are really serious about it…
Hellmut
Thank you for reminding me what Easter is all about. It is so easy for me to forget.
Ahh… Killing gods. We mortals are a strange breed, aren’t we? We celebrate killing gods (I only find this inspirational when members of SG-1 kill the Goa’uld or Ori). We also celebrate eating them. Funny, that…
I celebrated Easter the best way I ever have – I went to Spamalot!
“Strange” compared to whom?
Good point – strange compared to… Well, I don’t know to whom, exactly. Maybe other animals? I don’t know of any other animals that kill and eat their gods, but then they don’t have gods, do they?
So maybe killing and eating your god is normative. That seems like it should be weird… 🙂