(p.s. jeans are hot right now, you just have to know how to rock 'em right)

This Sunday, the majority of Christians (and non-Christians) in this nation will pack out churches everywhere to celebrate a pagan ritual called Easter. The thing that always gets me is that most Christians realize the holiday is not Biblical, but we "compromise" and celebrate it anyway. Many pastors and church leaders use this as a prime opportunity to "evangelize the lost". I can't knock that. However, I do have issues when we center our evangelism around "events". And yes, I too have friends who are "Easter Christians" or who got "Easter-saved". The way I see it, God is going to draw people to Him no matter how silly our tactics are. And for those of you who watched Condoleeza Rice's hearing a few days ago, we all know what tactics are right? Other pastors, unfortunately see it as a prime opportunity to "get a big offering". Either way, I continue to be disgusted by church advertisments for "Easter" as though it were something Biblical and deep. Yes, Christ's resurrection is deep, but us getting ourselves worked up over a holiday which historically opposes God cannot possible be pleasing in God's sight. Some churches have stopped calling it "Easter" and started calling it "Resurrection Sunday". We can rename it all we want. We were never commanded by the Bible to celebrate Jesus' resurrection in this manner. Yes, this week is significant in Biblical history, but according to the Hebrew calendar, not our own. Christianity in America is steeped with pagan traditions we need to be ridding ourselves of. We need to do the research to find out what's really behind the holidays we celebrate. I still ecounter Christians who celebrate Halloween. What the hell? (yea that's right I said hell. It only seems applicable here). If we seek to align ourselves more closely with the scriptures, we should actually have celebrated "Passover" this past Tuesday. Some research on the traditions of Passovers reveals a rich Biblical history of symbolism.

I've asked my parter in crime, resident theologian and scholar Andre to write a guest post coupled with his research around why Christians shouldn't be celebrating Easter. That will be up on Saturday morning. Until then, I won't be observing this pagan holiday. I won't be buying a new outfit (in fact, I'll probably wear jeans to church like I did last year), I won't be wearing pastels and I won't be doing anything different but congregating with the believers and praising, worshipping, and celebrating our God. Happy Sunday to you all!