Is Easter a Pagan Holiday?

I had someone challenge my posting of a picture with a group of little kids doing Easter Eggs during our outreach to our homeless friends in downtown Phoenix. This person is a good friend who has kids and I knew would be doing the same thing soon. I do respect her question about whether Easter is really a pagan holiday that Christians have adopted and morphed into their own holiday.

I had to guard myself to make sure I didn’t say something online that was over the wall. I have to be honest in that I tire at times of either some Christians or pagans being so quick to attack the practices of someone without asking the person about their personal convictions. I will be the first to admit that Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas day and didn’t rise from the dead in March or April. I will also concede that traditions are totally man made with the purpose, like in our family, as a reminder of what is special to us both in a spiritual context and personal context.

I have been reading a couple of different books written by very vocal atheists that would be quick to point out the error of my ways and I have to agree that I’m inconsistent when it comes to my convictions and my life expressions. Yes it is true that over the centuries Christians and other religious types have caused wars, fighting amongst their own groups and have attempted to make our nation appear to be totally Christian. I would also be quick to point out that all people, religious or not or just as guilty when it comes to pushing their own agenda and making claims which they aren’t willing to put into practice.

I have been involved with living in a diverse community over the last 7 years and am better equipped to see that everyone can say they believe in God, creationism, intelligent design or even evolution and still not express their views in the same way. Our choice is to determine how we are able to live in a pluralistic society where there isn’t one expression for the religious community or non-religious community. I know that there will always be fads that will sway these different groups. I have a cousin, by marriage, who has just written a book about the quest for Adam. This is a collection of 11 scientists talking about their personal conviction about creation, evolution or some combination of the two. I know that 30 years ago there wouldn’t be too many Christians that would say that God could use an evolutionary creationism to bring life into existence. Yet, after listening to my cousin I have to be more open to seeing how science and theology can come together.

So is it wrong for a Christian, who believes in the Bible, to celebrate any religious holiday that isn’t explicitly commanded in the Bible? This would be a question that has divided the church over the centuries. I know that some would say unless something is prohibited in the Bible then one is free to practice their own personal convictions. I also know others that would never do anything unless it is expressly commanded in the Bible.

Is it possible to celebrate the birth of Christ or the resurrection of Christ on different days than December 25 or for this year March 31? I believe that Scripture gives us the freedom to celebrate Christ’s birth, death and resurrection everyday of the year. Is it ok for me to boycott these celebrations on the pagan holidays that were selected outside of the church? Is it possible for the church to adopt a day or practice and make it ‘sanctified’ so it is permissible to celebrate?

As I expressed to my one friend on Facebook that I live in a pagan culture that is always a coalescence of many different religious and non-religious groups so it isn’t easy to understand how to live out my convictions. Regardless of what I chose to do I know that I will always be stepping on someone’s toes. I have a new friend who had been on the streets most of her life. She came to faith through a group of Seventh Day Adventists. Their take on worship is that it has to be on Saturday and not Sunday. It would be very easy for me to use Scripture to do a guilt trip on this friend and say that it is possible according to Romans 14 to celebrate the Lord’s Day on any day of the week. The fact that any group would impose a specific day would seem contrary to Scripture’s voice. Yes, I understand that the Apostle Paul talks about taking up a collection for the saints on the first day of the week, i.e. Sunday. I also know that the 10 commandments made worship on the Sabbath day a law.

I’m around some people who are very opinionated and believe it is their right to impose their view on me. I can be just as biased and opinionated about my personal views or in some cases play the ‘devil’s advocate’ to get a point across that would show the foolish of a certain position. Is there some great evil committed when I had a group of young kids paint eggs with color while we are doing a homeless outreach on a Saturday in March? Sure I have the freedom to do this because of our nation’s view of freedom of religious expression. Just as anyone else is free to have an expression of anti-religious thought.

The rub with all of this is how we do it and how it comes across to those who hold a different view of our personal convictions. Is it possible to boycott some event without coming across as if you are better than that other person because you would never allow pagan culture to influence you? Just as in the other context it would be easy as a religious type to truly believe that you are a better person because of your personal life expressions.

So I didn’t have any difficulty with having a group of little kids paint eggs to give out to a group of our homeless friends. I know that having a family dinner on Sunday could be viewed as a religious function because it just happens to be on the day that is called Easter on our Hallmark Calendars.