For many, the decision to abstain from certain vices in observance of Lent is akin to making a New Year’s resolution. And we all know how those turn out.
In Louisiana, many Christians commonly spend the days of Mardi Gras intentionally engaged in sin and vice — only to assume on Ash Wednesday they are worthy of God’s good grace and mercy.
Some modern Christians continue the tradition of fasting and abstinence during the Lenten season. However, many now merely choose to give up a specific vice for which they are particularly fond.
But even this commitment is too much for some.
Choosing not to observe Lent is one thing. But to observe Lent half-heartedly, deciding that it’s too much trouble to follow through on your commitment, displays religious insincerity.
The modern Mardi Gras holidays, culminating in the popular holiday “Fat Tuesday,” are a perversion of the traditional Christian holiday Shrove Tuesday and the week of shriving which preceded it.
Shriving was a ritual of penitence which medieval Christians practiced. The week preceding the Lenten holidays, symbolic of the 40 days Jesus Christ spent fasting in the wilderness, was traditionally spent cleansing the soul from sin through confession and absolution.
“In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him,” wrote a monk more than 1,000 years ago in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes, according to bbc.co.uk.
How different things are today, in a modern world which readily distorts religious practice and culture.
Now, instead of seeking penitence prior to the observance of Lent, many so-called Christians seek out the sins of the flesh with which they eagerly defile their hearts and souls.
Why bother enduring those few days of unresolved discipline as they deprive themselves of a simple need or desire? Do they truly believe God will look favorably upon their insincere token of faith and reverence, when their entire life leading to those few days stands in complete opposition to the gesture?
Consider that the term Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, originated from an old tradition where families would celebrate the last day before Lent by eating all the food that could not be eaten during Lent and would spoil. This has now morphed into an excuse to discard all restraint on human dignity and decency, as well as consume copious amounts of food and alcohol.
For some, the traditions and customs of Christianity are an essential component of life. However, it is hypocritical to combine these significant traditions with a modernized perversion, promoting actions diametrically opposed to the underlying teachings of Jesus – which should be the basis for any Christian holiday.
I do attend some Mardi Gras events, and I don’t observe Lent. In my belief, there is not one religious holiday required by my Christian faith. A life of constant effort to live in accordance with the Bible’s teachings should be my primary focus.
Wouldn’t it be better to abstain from vices in everyday life rather than merely 40 days out of the year? Shouldn’t every day be a day of confession and absolution?
“Lent is about conversion … the goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives forever,” explains catholic.org.
To observe Lent and Shrove Tuesday can be a holy endeavor with much meaning for those who take it seriously. But to replace Shrove Tuesday with the modern Fat Tuesday and seek sin under the assumption of future absolution is truly shameful.
The line must be drawn here.
If you are one of the many who has enjoyed the new Mardi Gras and failed to endure in your abstinence of some trivial concern, realize that your profession of faith and disregard for honor provides for the rest of the world just one more pathetic and shameful example of Christian hypocrisy.
Nathan Shull is a 35-year-old finance junior from Seattle. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_nshull
Contact Nathan Shull at [email protected]
The Grumbling Hive: Lent just another example of Christian hypocrisy
March 4, 2010