Everyone ready for the "War on Easter??"

[jasmeel]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060323/ap_on_fe_st/easter_bunny

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Easter Bunny has been sent packing at St. Paul City Hall.


A toy rabbit, pastel-colored eggs and a sign with the words "Happy Easter" were removed from the lobby of the City Council offices, because of concerns they might offend non-Christians.

A council secretary had put up the decorations. They were not bought with city money.

St. Paul's human rights director, Tyrone Terrill, asked that the decorations be removed, saying they could be offensive to non-Christians.<snip>

:beer:

[katinmn]

I just read that in the paper. Oh dear. Here it comes.

Why can't we/they just compromise and say "Happy Spring?"

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Where's O'Lielly?

[C_U_L8R]

2. It's Wabbit Season

No it's Duck season

[Coexist]

3. ...sigh - until someone complained - why did they remove them?

was it to START this shit?

Eggs are pagan symbols, bunnies are pagan symbols. Unless there is a tiny cave with a rock rolled away and no dead body inside - it really doesn't represent what Christians celebrate.

[gulfbreeze]

5. My thoughts exactly...

The symbols have absolutely NOTHING to do with Christians.

[megatherium]

7. "Easter"=Astarte, the name of a Celtic goddess,

if memory serves. The celebration of Christ's resurrection falls on a favorite old pagan holiday, and apparently the Church never got folks to put aside egg-dyeing and candy. Something similar happens in Iran, where the Muslim clerics that run the country have given up trying to stop people from celebrating the New Day holiday that predates Islam.

[baby_mouse]

24. Babylonian, I think.

Of course, she's all over the place, she's also Ishtar, and one or two others besides.

[kineneb]

31. appropiation/resignation re: holidays

That is why I wished everyone on DU a Happy Norooz on Monday. And so, to everyone, Happy Spring, in whatever form you choose to observe it. Enjoy those chocolate eggs, remembering that chocolate is actually Good For You.

Anyone notice how hard it is to purge ancient seasonal holidays from more "modern" religions? Those observances are almost encoded in our genes, and so far, the major religions have unable to totally supress them. The early Church gave up and appropriated them as holy days. When Islam came to Persia, it was unable to stop the people from observing Norooz, a holiday they had been observing for centuries.

[JeffR]

6. You just have to read between the lines a little

"Then Jesus said to them: Fear not. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee. There they shall see me. And we shall have a great big Easter egg hunt, and shall have also bunnies, that we may celebrate a long weekend, and maybe get in a round or two of golf."

[Coexist]

9. oh, that was really funny

:rofl: :rofl:

[JeffR]

14. You're too kind

I just had to flip to the appropriate page of my Revised Standard Murcan Bible for Dummies, and there it was.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. I hereby declare war on the second wednesday in August. n/t

[Don Claybrook]

8. what's the alternative?

Should we pack our children's Easter baskets with Jesus Nailed to Cross in Solid Chocolate? Do we give them little cups of vinegar to drink in an approximation of what the Roman soldiers did to/for Jesus? Should we all do a Festivus-style gathering where we accuse one of our family members of betraying us?

I'm just wondering how to do Easter the right way, according to the fundagelicals.

[ContraBass Black]

10. I would have thought that the bunny would offend Christians

More than non-Christians.

[Mandate My Ass]

16. Yes, but they won't admit it

Only a xtian would have a problem with pagan symbols.

[knitter4democracy]

18. Bunnies, no, but the Easter Bunny kind of does.

I mean, it just makes things odd around our house at Easter, since we don't do Easter Bunny stuff and our kids are getting old enough to know that their friends do. It's more annoying than anything.

I like bunnies, though, and chicks, and the egg as a way to explain the theology of the Holy Trinity and all. I like our church's traditions, with the Easter basket full of symbolic things to get blessed at the end of the service and taking the first light of Easter into our homes and blessing the house with it.

I mostly ignore all the pseudo Easter stuff. I think a lot of Christians do.

[Mandate My Ass]

11. Freedom of religion does NOT mean you have the

right to demand that "offensive" symbols or holiday decorations of other religions be removed from your sight.

It also does not mean that you can demand other people return the greeting "merry christmas" no matter where you are or what their beliefs are.

The christofascists are really getting on my last nerve. There is no war on anything except for the one they are declaring. Christianity does not trump other expressions of religious belief. Freaks like O'Reilly love to pump up his idiot viewers with hate and false righteous indignation that anybody who does not worship exactly like they do is the enemy.

[xultar]

12. X-ster

:evilgrin:

[tanyev]

13. They removed an image of the Holy, Sacred Easter Bunny?

SACRILEGE!

[baby_mouse]

25. HAPPY BELTANE, FOLKS!

Well, not yet, but a precursor of things to come...

[DanCa]

15. Dont throw your peeps

Until you see the white of Bill O'reilly's eye.

[DainBramaged]

17. Who is arming the bunnies, or are the chicks the invasion force?

Don't forget how explosive Peeps are when cornered.

[zbdent]

19. Ah, yes, but

a memorial in Pennsylvania in the shape of a crescent was offensive to "christians" . . . and had to be changed . . .

(flight 93 memorial)

[Imagine My Surprise]

20. I hope it's broken down into:

The War on Maundy Thursday
The War on Good Friday
The War on Easter

[Norquist Nemesis]

21. I'd think a Glowing Cross would offend more than the Easter Bunny

for "non-Christians". Tyrone needs to get a clue.

[Imagine My Surprise]

22. By the way...Happy Ostara, everyone...

it's the original pagan holiday the ever-co-opting Christians base Easter on.

[Arugula Latte]

26. They don't come up with many original holidays, do they?

The solstices and the return of the lengthening day in December are far more powerful than their silly story. :hide:

[joefree1]

Happy Ostara to you too

I say bring it on. The so called "War on Christmas" has done more to reveal the true nature of our Pagan holidays then anything else.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PaganWarrior/

[baby_mouse]

23. Jolly Good!

Time for some naked mental patient republican wanderings in the street already, eh? Marvellous! I'm in the need of a good laugh.

I shall be drumming at the resurrected pagan spring celebration, BELTANE, in Edinburgh, incedentally.

[deminks]

27. Shhhhhh...be vewy, vewy quiyet...

we're hunting easter wabbits

[frustrated_lefty]

28. Send the little *&^%er to Guantanamo

[dweller]

29. Bring.It.On.

:beer:

dp

[catmandu57]

30. It's about damn time someone did something about that damn

easter bunny every damn year that little bastard hops through my yard shitting out little jelly eggs and foil covered chocolates. I'm getting sick up and fed with having to clean up after that sumbitch.

[BiggJawn]

32. Oh, bloody hell, they've stolen a Pagan Holy Day!

Bunnies and eggs and the Goddess Oestre have less to do with Christianity than they do with Spring and Growing, and things getting warm and sunny.

I'd bet that Jeebus, if he ever existed, was NOT killed on April 14th, no more than he was born on December 25th. Just another example of the early church hijacking existing feasts and festivals so they could say to the Heathen "Hey, look! WE got feasts on that day, too! We're COOL, see?"

[AlienGirl]

33. The Conspiracy is working on it!

http://www.internationaljewishconspiracy.com/forum/threads.php?id=109_0_3_0_C