On "Zombie Jesus" Reprise

[fireheart]

I got two very good comments on my last post, which made me decide to clarify what I meant because, indeed, I jotted the last post off too quickly without being clear.

singingdragon concluded her comment with "You can pry my right to make fun of things people hold sacred from my cold, dead fingers." That is a statement I entirely agree with. When I said no one

Comments

[littlemel4]

hey if someone wanted to say something mocking samhein I'd take it as is...some light hearted humor. I do know quite a bit about Christianity since I did study it once upon a time. But, keep in mind Easter is derived from the pagan holiday Ostara.

just my 2 cents ^_^

[empress544]

Well to be fair there is some debate about whether Eostre (Ostara) was really a goddess or just made up by Bede. But it does seem clear that "Easter" has a heathen/germanic word origin and at the very least was the word they used for April.

[jackals_sight]

Eostre/Easter was a Norse goddess.

[empress544]

what's your source? you won't find her mentioned in the Eddas.

Like i said the principle place she is mentioned is in Bede and there is debate as to the validity of that.

You could argue that she might have been an Anglo-saxon goddess but she is pretty assuredly not a Norse goddess, unless somehow Eostre is related to Austri, the east wind.

[vu13]

It's easy to feel offended, and tempting to feel indignant over mean spirited jabs, but I think it's a better route to feel empathy for the person. It also makes for a good teaching moment. For instance did you know the significance that the women felt his feet was to prove he wasn't a spirit?

[tehuti]

I think that the "Zombie Jesus Day" joke-thing that has become popular in recent years is a light-hearted jab at Easter. It's an important holiday to a lot of people, no doubt. It also has a lot of things associated with it that don't make sense in its own context; bunnies, colored eggs, when you celebrate it each year, etc. So it's a holiday that is inviting this kind of humorous comment.

I'd also be willing to bet you that the vast majority of people wishing each other a Happy Zombie Jesus Day know exactly what the holiday is, and why it's funny. After all, if they don't know what the holiday is about, the joke fails. Knowing that context is enough to make the joke work.

Lastly, I don't think that this is something worth getting upset about. A silly joke about one of Christianity's holidays isn't going to do any significant damage.

[carpe_embreem]

I've attended forums on free speech, especially with regard to hate speech, and what you're saying here is a great way to approach what shouldn't be so complicated an issue. Sweet.

Something i'll always remember from a statement on free speech was the assertion that where there is hate speech, there should be MORE speech -- that offended groups should speak out and not be silenced by ignorant speech. Of course, power complicates this quite a bit ("successful" hate speech IS silencing, and parties implicated in this non-dialogue aren't always on equal footing resource-wise or otherwise to stand up against it effectively without serious repurcussions). But anyway, before i continue to ramble...just wanted to throw some kudos at you.