Mormon Heretic

Today begins is an interesting week of Holy Days:  Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter.  Today is Palm Sunday.  Passover begins Monday night at sunset, and of course Easter is next Sunday.  I thought I’d do a post which ties all of these related holidays (or stated better–Holy Days) together.

Palm Sunday

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I don’t know why, but I love to learn about archaeology, especially religious archaeology.  A few years ago, Simcha Jacobovici came out with a documentary and book called The Jesus Tomb.  In it, he makes a claim that the bones of Jesus may have been located in a tomb unearthed in Jerusalem.  Of course, the Da Vinci Code, while fiction, makes a claim that Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene were actually buried in France.  A few months ago, I watched a documentary called Bloodline, which actually goes further, and makes the case that yes, indeed, the bones of Christ and Mary are found in France.  (You can learn more at the official website.)  I just came across a third source, which claims that Christ’s bones are actually located in India.  See this website.

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So, I’ve been checking my blog stats, and with Easter upon us, it seems my post from last year about why Mormon’s don’t celebrate Easter is getting the most hits.  While last year’s post was a little negative-that I think Mormon celebrations of Easter are lacking compared to other Christians’ Easter celebrations, I hope to talk more about some scholarly insights into Jesus this year as we discuss Easter.

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With St Patrick’s day being here, I wanted to tell the story of St Patrick. Mormons love good missionary stories, and I think the story of St Patrick is a wonderful missionary story. The information below comes from a DVD titled, Christianity-The First Two Thousand Years.  (It was originally aired on A&E.) If you want to learn more, there is an interesting article in the Deseret News about St Patrick.

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I came across an article in the NY Times about a tablet dating from before the time of Christ, that “may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.”  This would be a major shift in understanding of Jewish thought at the time of Jesus.  The discovery is being called “a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.”

Here are some of the more interesting quotes from the article:

“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.

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I have left messages on this and other blogs about how boring church can be. This has prompted the question, “Well, if it’s so boring, why do you even bother to go?”

First of all, let me state that I am a believing mormon. I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, I believe in the Book of Mormon, I believe in the Bible, I believe going to church is a good, worthy endeavor, and I am very supportive of the good service that is performed in every ward in the church. (I guess you could call these my personal Articles of Faith.) Read more…

Ok, I thought that would get your attention. Let’s talk semantics for a minute. I will agree that mormons “observe” Easter, but we don’t “celebrate” Easter.

Certainly we believe in the resurrection. However, in comparison to other Christian denominations, mormon celebration is a yawner. There is no Easter fireside by the first presidency. Congregation celebrations depend solely on the bishop. Some wards have nice Easter services, while others barely mention it.

Shouldn’t there be more celebration of Easter?