Len Hanley: Christians remember the true meaning of Easter

To The Daily Sun,

If you are Christian, let me ask you something: Are you influencing the world or is the world influencing you? Romans 12:2 tells us "Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking." Yet most of us have done this very thing. One example of this in my opinion is the celebration of the holiday Easter, which is coming soon. On Easter our focus is supposed to be solely on celebrating Jesus Christ's resurrection. The dictionary even defines Easter as such, despite it being a secular book. Test yourself by considering what follows.

When you buy holiday items on Easter, do you buy anything other than those which honor Jesus Christ? If you do, what message does that send to those who aren't Christians? Or to retailers who promote Easter as 95 percent in favor of the Easter Bunny associated traditions despite at least 75 percent of the U.S. self- identifying as Christian? Why is it that few if any Christians publicly object or boycott these pagan items that are abominations and discriminatory against us and our religious holiday? Why is it no other religious holiday receives such disrespect?

You need to realize that what you spend your money on is not only what you will be supporting, but it is also showing where your loyalties lie (Joshua 24:15, Matthew 6:24). In the Bible, Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times that night, but Peter angrily disagrees, even if it means death, and the rest of the disciples all say the same thing (Mark 14:30-31). We know what happened next, Jesus was right as usual. Even though Peter still followed Jesus, now that Jesus was unpopular he stayed far enough away so not to be identified with him as a disciple. Why? Because he was unprepared to face the challenge of ridicule and persecution for being a follower of Jesus. Yet Jesus still forgave him.

Might we also be guilty of what Peter did for the same reason? Do you buy, support, and put out Easter decorations of the Easter Bunny, getting a photo with him, and other worldly traditions either exclusively or in combination with those which honor Jesus because you are unprepared to face ridicule and/or persecution by others if you don't? Then you are helping the god of this world, who at the very least uses this pagan belief of the Goddess Ostara and the Easter Bunny (https://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-info/meet-the-goddesses/ostara/ostara-unabridged/) to steal our focus off of the resurrection.

Remember that Jesus has said in Mark 8:38 "Don’t be ashamed of me and my message among these unfaithful and sinful people! If you are, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." So, which will it be, Team Jesus Christ or Team Easter Bunny (Matthew 6:24)?

Len Hanley

Barnstead