The "War" On Easter

It doesn't seem to matter that the vast majority of Americans profess a belief in christianity -- many fundamentalists have decided that their majority religion is being discriminated against. For several years now they have declared this discrimination has resulted in a "war on Christmas" (because some people say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and government organizations are constitutionally-prohibited from putting up religious displays).

Now some of the right-wing fundamentalists have decided there is also a "war on Easter". The hate-group, the American Family Association (AFA), has jumped on a rather innocuous community egg hunt as proof of this war on christianity. Munson Township in Ohio announced this year they would be having a community-wide "Spring Egg Hunt" for children.

Personally, I thought that was a great idea. It not only kept the city government from condoning a particular religion (which would be against the Constitution), but it opened the event to children of all religions (or no religion). It would serve as an event to bring the whole community together, instead of just part of the community. It was never meant to be an attack on any religion.

But that's how the nuts at the American Family Association took it. To them it was another volley in the war on their religion -- a war on Easter. They have asked their minions to flood the township with calls, letters and e-mails. They want the egg hunt to be called an "easter Egg Hunt", even though they admit that eggs and egg hunts aren't biblical.

This whole thing seems to be a tempest in a teapot and a rather silly thing to get upset over, but these fundies are bound and determined to be victims, and they will jump on any excuse to prove their victimhood. Here's the take of Americans United For Separation Of Church And State on this "controversy" and what the AFA will accomplish:

What exactly will the AFA have achieved? For starters, the Tupelo, Miss.-based Religious Right outfit will have succeeded in getting the name of a Pagan goddess back into the event. That’s right – Pagan. Easter takes its name from Eoestre (sometimes spelled Eastre), an Anglo-Saxon goddess worshipped by peoples in northern Europe during the pre-Christian era.

The AFA will also be supporting a Pagan fertility ritual. Easter is essentially a celebration of, well, unbridled procreation. It’s a spring holiday, arriving during a time when flowers, plants and trees begin blooming again and many animals emerge from semi-stupor and commence to producing offspring. The gray days of winter fade away as new life emerges. Eggs are prominent because they are obvious symbols of fertility. So is the Easter Bunny. Think of it, what are rabbits best known for? Speed and fecundity.

Even the AFA admits that egg hunts aren’t exactly biblical. That’s putting it mildly. Stories differ about the origin of events like eggs hunts and coloring eggs, but most accounts place them long before the rise of Christianity. It’s pretty obvious they have nothing to do with the New Testament account of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

In fact, some fundamentalists don’t celebrate Easter, and they rail against its Pagan overtones and assail its emphasis on the sensual.

Of course, none of this matters to the kids in Munson Township. They’re just looking to have a little fun, and they’ll have it no matter what the event is called. Good for them. And if some parents want to teach their kids about the resurrection, they have that right – at home and at church.

Meanwhile, the AFA has achieved a great victory for Paganism, fertility rituals and celebrations of nature’s promotion of unrestrained copulation.

Somehow, I don’t think this is what the group had in mind. But perhaps, from her perch in the pantheon surrounded by her fellow gods and goddesses, Eoestre smiles with approval.