Firstly it’s ridiculously unimportant in the great scheme of things, but as far as I can see, the word “EASTER” is still pretty prominent (as in the largest point size) here, at least in Scotland. And I only went to ADSA Opticians!
Secondly, I’m not entirely sure that the national Trust should be obliged to do any work promoting Christain festivals. David Cameron insisted that “we are a Christain nation”, but we’re not really, and neither should we be. People, not nations, should hold religious beliefs because, above all, beliefs are very individual things. As I’ve said so many times on this blog, I respect everyone’s right to their religious beliefs but I don’t expect them to be rammed down my throat.
Thirdly, I never cease to be amazed at the inordinate fuss that the state church, and when it thinks it’s useful to them, politicians, make of any diminution or watering down of Christian influence in our daily lives.
We mustn’t, in any way, stop Christmas being called Christmas, for example (even although it’s been referred to as the “holidays” for a long time in our big brother and mentor country, the USA). Happy Holidays.
No one seems to mind that we attach to Christmas, the supposed birth of Christ (which probably took place in October), the singularly biggest-ever festival of greed and waste known to man…well, with the possible exception of the Saxe Coburgs. We spend the best part of three months extolling our populace to spend, spend, spend. Borrow if you have to, to buy rubbish that they don’t want for people you don’t like, so that they can dump it on the next bin day. It doesn’t matter, as long as you make large amounts of money for organisations that are probably on the tax fiddle. From my memories of Bible Study at school, that was never what it was about. Oh Bah, Humbug, I hear you say.
And as for Easter, well, should we attach Christianity to the fact that for the last month we’ve had aisles in supermarkets fair brimming with all manner of Easter Eggs? What are these Easter eggs again? Oh yeah, fairly small (and gettings smaller) thin, pieces of chocolate in a cardboard box, with a small bar of chocolate or little toy inside them, selling for about twice what that weight of confection would normally sell for. Like Christmas Crackers…a rip off.
No complaints from the Church about that? Christmas festival a rip off…scilence. But don’t, whatever you do, forget to put Easter in your Egg competition, or the wrath of the highest bornof the land will descend upon ye.
And so, the prime minister, a vicar’s daughter and a member of the National Trust… on a visit to a Middle Eastern dictatorship where you can be flogged or sentenced to death for converting to Christianity, or for being gay, or for criticising the king… and a list of other trivial “offenses… with the main purpose of selling arms, goes off on a rant about how ridiculous it is that Easter has been left out of the “egg hunt” (when it hasn’t).
To coin a word… JEEEEEEEZ!
Still, it takes people’s minds off the chaos that is Brexit.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Tris
As someone who considers themselves a Christian I am more in tune with yourself. It is a personal thing and has little place in the workplace or education other than the teaching of religious and moral education, the choice has to be the individuals. I have never agreed with state funded Catholic Schools and I don’t necessarily go along with the yearly Primary School visits to Church, even though pupils can opt out, it really is something that belongs in a different age now, the decision is purely a personal one. My two oldest kids went to Sunday school and both did not pursue a religion although my oldest son returned to Church attendance 6 months ago, an adult choice (he is 22now) made by himself with no pressure from anyone and that is how it should be. My daughter is an atheist and my youngest will make up his own mind as he grows and learns. The Government should stay well clear other than ensuring the right of religious freedoms in the UK, I hate it when they say the UK is a Christian country when it’s actions are anything but, but then politicians are politicians and the Tories are the worst of the lot.
Bruce
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I think they say that kind of thing Bruce, because it is the kind of thing they want people to blindly believe.
It’s a bit like suggesting that they care about servicemen, or ex-servicemen. It’s the right thing to say, and everyone gets bent out of shape if you dare to say something disparaging about a serving military person.
But in fact they don;t give a stuff, which is why so many are in prison or homeless becasue no one has bothered spending the money on the aftermath of war.
So Blair and Cameron, and indeed this latest eejit, can say they are Christians, and at the same time bomb hundreds of thousands of Iraqis out of their homes; run riot across Libya and leave the place in utter chaos, or do bombing deals with the hideous regime that is Saudi Arabia, but as long as they remind us that we have British Valuers and that these are Christian values, the hard of thinking believe that all is well and Great Britain is still up there with the good guys.
I’ve got mates who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist and Christian, some Catholic and some CofS.
None of that occurs to me. They are simply my mates.
Religion, or faith, must always be the choice of the individual. Otherwise it means nothing.
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I’m an atheist, but I’m a bit like you in the respect that I will accept other people’s religious beliefs, as long as it’s not forced on me. However, the one very irritating aspect of modern Christian extremists is the utterly nonsensical belief that followers of Islam are trying to conquer the world and force their religion onto the world, whilst at the same time, they conveniently ignore that early Christians did the exact same thing on a global scale. And modern Christians are not immune from hypocrisy, as they find it acceptable that many of their contemporary acolytes travel the world trying to force their religion on anyone that will listen.
Of course, David Cameron was lying (surprise, surprise!) when he stated that “we are a Christian nation”. This is just nonsense. The modern form of Christianity may well be the most practiced religion in the UK, but much of this religion is based on, or has been directly stolen from the very early religious practices of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and many, many others. One of these grand thefts just happens to be Easter, the very subject of this article!
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Well, I have no objection to them having their festivals, even if they did borrow them from elsewhere (Christmas seems to have been pinched from the Druids that celebrated mid-winter on what ahs become the 21/22nd December (shortest day).
But let’s be honest, I’m sure that the eggs and chocolate and gifts and stuff is nothing to do with the teachings of their holy book.
Least wise I don’y remember anyone saying you should go out and buy outrageously priced chocolate and eat it till you are sick.
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What has chocolate got to do with Easter or Christianity anyway?
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It’s a good time of the year to guilt people into buying loads of the stuff at outrageous prices, so that if they refuse you can say…bag humbug and call them miserable.
If you tried to do that on September 3 people would just tell you to get stuffed.
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Funny how a vicar’s daughter goes to one of the countries with probably one of the worst, if not the worst, human rights records in the history of mankind and instead of berating them on their record goes off on one about a bloody word allegedly being missing from adverts?
SERIOUSLY?
For someone who is intelligent, allegedly, she knows absolutely NOTHING about Easter does she! Easter like Christmas are PAGAN festivals effectively stolen by Christians for their own ends.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ancient-pagan-origins-easter-001571
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/ancient-roots-christmas-customs-001162
Never mind though she can carry on selling her bombs, missiles and aircraft to the Saudi’s so that they can keep on bombing the shit out of Yemen cause we “Brits” are like that aren’t we. We love a good war, even better when we are not directly involved!
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LOl. I see Munguin censored you again, Arbroath. He’s a seriously tetchy animal.
They are so funny when they get all bent out of shape about someone leaving out a word that supposedly belittles their religion, and at the same time they are happy to sell horrific weapons to a barbaric regime knowing that they are killing children in the Yemen with them.
Two faced, or what?
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No fears Tris … I wear the reality of being censored by Munguin with pride! LOL
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LOL. Yes. I can imagine that to be true.
Such an honour.
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I hope that when eventually Scotland gains independence the weird practice of religions will be given their proper status in Society as eccentric interest clubs. Charitable status removed, faith schools removed, state funding of any sort removed.
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I think that religion, proper religion, fares best where it is not forced down people’s throats.
In the USA it is anti-constitutional to teach religion in schools (Danny or Jon will correct me if that’s not quite right). It’s forbidden in French schools too.
I think I’d be right to say that people tend to be more observant of religion in these countries.
Forcing people to go to church must never have had any benefits at all. Well, it probably had benefits for the church as the collections would have been bigger.
No state funding and no special consessions in the law, but absolutely free to self-fund and carry on their services.
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I bought some chocolate mini-eggs last weekend at the supermarket but the word “Easter” isn’t anywhere on the package. The lack of religious observance completely spoiled their chocolatey deliciousness. Where do I complain?
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OK. Now, here’s the thing. Ya see. You live in Switzerland. In Zurich. They speak German there. Why would you expect them to have “Easter” on their chocolate eggs?
If, however, there was no sign of the word “Ostern”, then you should write immediately to Doris Leuthard, Bundespräsidentin der Eidgenossenschaft (if you can find a big enough envelope), in the strongest possible terms.
Heads will undoubtedly roll!
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She’s getting a piece of my mind, then. It’s an outrage, if you ask me.
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There must be a trace of British in me, ya see. I could cause trouble in an empty room.
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Yes, the “establishment clause” of the American constitution has been construed to forbid religious observances in the schools and such public places, and every Christmas brings federal court cases about manger scenes placed as decoration on public land. “Separation of church and state” was Jefferson’s phrase that has guided the strict interpretation of the “establishment” clause. Fundamentalist Christians are still angered over a 1950’s era Supreme Court ruling that even banned voluntary non-denominational prayers in classrooms that some states had previously specified by law. It IS surprising that some Americans will nevertheless yammer on about the United States being a “Christian” nation, even though we are in fact a secular republic in which the word “God” (or any similar term) does not appear even once in the Constitution, and the word “religion” is only used one time in order to explicitly forbid its establishment by the state. Not to put too fine a point on it, the American view would surely be that England’s state religion in bizarre beyond belief in the twenty first century. (Some right wing Bible-thumping Republicans in the states might think differently, but they are idiots IMHO.)
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LOL. Thanks for the confirmation, Danny.
I was reading that even the swearing in of the president had no mention of god, until someone spontaneously added “So help me God” at the end.
If god reads Munguin’s republic, we think that maybe Mr Trump could do with some help right now.
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You are right Tris. Since the presidential oath is specified word for word in the “Godless” American constitution, it certainly doesn’t include the concluding phrase “So Help Me God” that all modern presidents have used and which most Americans probably think is part of the constitutional oath.
Popular histories usually say that George Washington appended the phrase in his first oath of office at Federal Hall in New York City in 1789. But actually, no contemporary sources say anything about it. Only one questionable newspaper report says that Lincoln (not a religious man) used the phrase in 1861. It’s certainly been used regularly in modern times, but as late as the turn of the twentieth century, Teddy Roosevelt concluded the oath with “And thus I swear.”
The Wiki article “Oath of Office of the President of the United States” is an interesting read….particularly the “So Help me God” section.
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Aye Danny, where would we be without Wiki, you and me!? 🙂 🙂
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Och, see empty rooms and you…….
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My wife frequently celebrates the festival of “Creme” by scoffing these eggs.
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Probably something that her faith demands.
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