: do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it :

The Easter Bunny and Religion

People do stupid things.

Last week a friend and I were discussing some people close to him and their recent decisions to relax their behavioral code because they no longer believed the origins of the religious tenants that required of them the behaviors. The odd thing is that the behaviors were those that science has also declared to be good.

So I’ll get specific. In my religion, there’s a law we live (or strive to live) called “The Word of Wisdom.” The Word of Wisdom was revealed to Joseph Smith, the restorer of our faith and first prophet in what we term “The Latter Days”. This law stipulates that members abstain from (among other things) alcohol, coffee, tea, and tobacco.

Whether or not you beleive Joseph Smith was a prophet or inspired of God, you have to agree that it’s probably better to abstain from those substances, for health purposes, than to use them.

Well, these folks my friend was telling me about have more or less decided that they don’t believe the origins of the church. The next step was to relax their stance on the laws laid down by the church, one of which is the Word of Wisdom. So, now they’ve decided to take less healthy substances into their bodies (replacing a good habit with a bad one) because they no longer recognize the source of the instruction to have been valid in the first place. That is, the authority was “make-believe”, so they’re throwing out the baby with the bath water.

How stupid is that?

Put it this way. Let’s say that when I was four years old I was at my friend’s house, participating in an Easter Egg Hunt through out the house. Let’s say that friend’s parents had hired a guy in an Easter Bunny suit to come and host the party. And let’s say that I thought the Easter Bunny was in reality a real being. Suppose that in the course of the Easter Egg Hunt I find a bobby pin and decide to stick it in an electrical socket. The guy in the Easter Bunny Suit sees me about to stick it in, stops me, teaches me about the stupidity of sticking metallic items into electrical sockets. I’m releived and go on with my life.

Then one day, when I’m 8, I discover the Easter Bunny is not a real being. I’m crushed. I’m hurt. I’m devastated. I feel deceived. I decide that I’m going to question everything I’ve ever learned from the Easter Bunny. I mean, after all, who knows what’s right or wrong, right? So, liberated from my false Easter-Bunny teachings, I go find a bobby pin and stick it into a light socket.

Good counsel is good counsel, whether it comes from the Easter Bunny or from a person you once recognized as an authority, but no longer do.

November 8, 2005 | Filed Under Misc 

comments

3 Responses to “The Easter Bunny and Religion”

  1. Rob on November 10th, 2005

    Except for the fact that breaking the word of wisdom may bring someone some sort of enjoyment, pleasure or social confidence; albeit temporary and shallow, while sticking a bobby pin would not.

  2. Drex Davis on November 10th, 2005

    Hey Rob,
    Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

  3. Porter on November 13th, 2005

    I stuck a paper clip into a light socket once–a flash here, a spark there, other than that…nothing special. And did I mention the pee stain in my fruit of the looms? Yeah, like I said, nothing too exciting about electricuting ones self.