A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life

A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
___
I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Silly Attempts to Cover the Naked Truth

A teacher at a public school in Seattle, for reasons of political correctness, has renamed Easter eggs "spring spheres." (The story is here.) That is what the teenager, a volunteer (who attends a private school), told the media as she brought the festively colored, oblong chicken ova to elementary school children. Apparently, the school administration did not want them referred to by their long-held, and apparently offensive name, "Easter eggs."

Now, it should be obvious to everybody how silly this is, but if you are not so sure, I will explain why I believe it is shortly. But first let me say that it should NOT be assumed from this post that I subscribe to the cultural warrior mentality promoted by the Bill O'Reillys of the world. While I certainly believe we have some serious cultural tensions in the good ole' U. S. of A., I think those who believe there is a war on Christmas, etc. doth protest way too much. I find it difficult to sympathize with those ready to declare war on those who would supposedly undo their holidays.

Having said that, however, I find it just as difficult to work up much understanding toward the politically correct camp who feel the need to rename anything and everything with even tangential religious connections. Seriously? Spring spheres?

Here's the problem with this kind of nonsense-- and it is nonsense: the whole reason that Jessica, the young woman who volunteered to bring those eggs to children (and may God bless her for taking the time to bring some goodness into their lives), is that EASTER IS COMING. The Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Christ is the singular reason the "spring spheres" were even brought to the school in the first place. (By the way, I am not interested in the pagan influences on Easter and Christmas in this post. They are part of the current celebration. Let's save that for another time.) The elephant in the room is Easter and the PC crowd acts as if they rename things, no one will notice.

Let me say that I greatly sympathize with teachers and school administrators who are pulled back and forth between the Christmas and Easter zealots who think their faith is constantly under attack by the "secularists," and the thin-skinned non-believers, who are offended by anything that does not remotely affirm their non-belief. These folks, charged with educating our young, are between a rock and a hard place... or should I say between an Easter egg and a spring sphere.

My point in this post is that whether we are talking "spring spheres" or "holiday trees," the whole reason why they exist in the first place is because of Christian holy days (for some reason the PC crowd hasn't figured out that holiday is just a corruption of holy day). Those who are renaming everything are watching the obvious celebrations of Christmas and Easter and yet are renaming all the accessorial accoutrements as if no one will notice that the significance of this time of the year is religious in orientation. They are watching the emperor walk around naked and attempting to cover up the truth by hiding his nudity in Saran Wrap.

I have said before on this blog and will say it again-- American society lacks a great adventure-- so we attempt to fill the void of our boredom by sitting on the couch and living vicariously through the players on reality TV. Moreover, we reveal our lack of such a life-changing adventure by focusing on the nonsensical. One group wants to pick a fight against those who they perceive are stealing their holidays and the other side sets its sights on renaming the tangentially religious as if that really makes a difference.

I chuckled when I read how the story ended: "When I took them out of the bag, the teacher said, 'Oh look, spring spheres' and all the kids were like 'Wow, Easter eggs.' So they knew, Jessica said."

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't it a child who exposed the emperor for walking around in the buff? We adults have an uncanny knack for trivializing the momentous and complicating the obvious.

May our children not grow up like so many adults, wasting their time with silly attempts to cover the naked truth.

4 comments:

OrigamiGirl said...

Well that's ridiculous. I thought shapes are a basic part of education? First years you learn about circles and then spheres soon after.

Spheres are a totally different shape. Those are ovoid, elliptical etc. Really.

Allan R. Bevere said...

Yes, I did notice that "sphere" was not the geometrically correct description, but then to refer to them as "spring ovoids" would have been just as silly.

J.Random said...

Methinks you have fallen for a hoax, sir... though the media did too, so no big. Christians with persecution complexes lap this stuff up.

http://thedailywh.at/2011/04/14/anatomy-of-an-outrage-of-the-day-the-spring-sphere-scare/

Found you via Jesus Creed (who neglected to link!)

Allan R. Bevere said...

J. Random,

It now appears to be quite suspicious, doesn't it?... which leads me to two observations:

First, the fact that so many found it believable reinforces the fact that silly decisions comparable to this have actually been made in the past.

Second, there is really no such thing as investigative journalism anymore.